After a TON of reading, I think I have decided on latex when we upgrade (which will be soon). I’ve been researching some of the manufacturers I’ve seen mentioned here. One that kind of stands out is SleepEz. Looks like I can get a queen 9" natural latex with foundation delivered for about $2k. Had a good, organic top, and comes with free pillows. That was about the best I could find. I also wanted to see if there was any place local, and that’s when I stumbled onto Natural Bed Co. The website doesn’t have any pricing, but the latex product page makes their product look very competitive. I’ll have to stop in and check them out very soon.
My only real question about latex is… what is the difference between “natural” latex and “organic” latex. Both are listed on the SleepEz website, and “organic” has about a $50 premium on a queen size mattress.
I REALLY like how SleepEz lets you customize both sides of the bed, and allows you to return the top later if it is too soft/firm, and only pay shipping.
Now that I look deeper into it, what is the difference between Dunlop and Talalay latex? They’re both natural latex. They both can be purchased with varying levels of firmness. I searched… couldn’t find anything…
Just in case you haven’t read it yet … post #1 here which has all the basic information, steps, and guidelines that can help you make the best possible choices.
They’re not a member of the site but they certainly make some good quality/value mattresses. They have recently gone through some changes since the owner died and his nephew Chris is now running the business. You can read more in post #5 - #7 here. A forum search on natural bed akron (you can just click this) will also bring up more information about them as well.
You can read more about the different types of latex in this article and in post #6 here. You can also read a little more about the difference in “feel” between Dunlop and Talalay in post #7 here but the best way to know which one you prefer (and it’s a preference not a “better / worse” choice) is to test both of them in person because “feel” is very subjective.
As you may know … SleepEz is one of the members here which means that I think very highly about them and they are among the best quality and value in the industry. Component layers mattresses with zip covers are certainly a very flexible design and allows you to customize the firmness and support of the mattress both before and after a purchase as well as replace individual layers instead of a whole mattress if that is ever necessary.
Thanks so much, Phoenix. This place is so great. I admit, I was a little intimidated at first because so much of the reading just leads to so much more reading, and more reading after that. But after spending some time, and grasping the basics, I feel a lot more comfortable with the situation.
Very sad to hear about the owner of Natural Bed Co. passing away. We will be visiting the store soon, and I’ll update with the results.
I think your experience is fairly common when you first start reading some of the information on the site and the forum because there is so much of it that it can be somewhat intimidating and overwhelming. That’s one of the easons I put the “read first” post together so that it was easier to focus on the most important information and take a step by step approach.
If you read the basic information “like a book” instead of studying it … the basic themes start to repeat so it becomes much easier to know when you are taking with knowledgeable people and when people are just giving you the marketing stories that they are trained to repeat.
Once you know the importance of PPP (that you can feel and test for) and the importance of checking on the quality of the materials in a mattress (which you can’t “feel” and is about durability and making meaningful comparisons) then everything else becomes secondary and a matter of preference.
People are so used to thinking in terms of “better and worse” than they often don’t realize how much of a mattress choice is unique to each person and based on their own personal preferences.
I’m looking forward to your feedback from Natural Bed Co.