need assist in 'choosing' or narrowing down my choices.

Wife and I are searching for new king sized mattress. On information overload. Found this forum. Want latex mattress. after deciding against traditional and hybrids -

What is the tangible difference between ‘natural’ and organic latex?
What is the tangible difference between dunlop and talay latex?
What is the best depth mattress for average build adults? 9 or 10inch?

Our stats: him 69 inches 180lbs. wife 60inches 160ish – side and back sleepers mostly -

editing: forgot to add –

looking at ARIZONA MATTRESS COMPANY and SLEEP EZ… Are there any others I should consider? Is the price premium for organic latex ‘worth it’? Is the price premium at sleep ez worth the extra few hundred dollars – are we comparing apples to apples with each company?

Is there a real difference in durability or feel with the approach of 3 separate layers with SLEEP EZ vs the AMP approach of one thinner layer and one larger bottom and middle layer??

which company has best experience post sale?
which company has higher quality latex or mattress cover?

Hoping someone can provide some insight. Need to order bed this week.

Hi Gooning@Night

Welcome to our Mattress Forum! :slight_smile: Quite a mouthful of questions. :wink:

100% Natural Latex has is made with sap harvested from the rubber tree and has no Synthetic (SBR) latex content in it. Many companies are marketing latex as natural even though it may have some percentage of SBR in it. In today’s market, unless you deal with a trusted retailer/manufacturer that describes its products accurately “natural” can mean almost anything to the point where by itself it has little meaning at all. When looking at natural rubber, you’d want to know both the type of latex they are using and the specific blend percentage of NR (natural rubber) and SBR (synthetic rubber) in the latex.
In addition to being made with 100% Natural latex, the Organic Latex is organically certified by a recognized entity such as Control Union which has the GOLS standards and certification. Such a certification ensures that not only the raw materials are organic but the methods of growing the rubber trees are organic, the raw materials/ingredients are of organic origin, the latex is processed in an organic production facility.

Here is an excerpt from the product requirement standards they provide on their site:
“The product shall contain a minimum of 95% certified natural rubber latex of its total weight of polymer content. A maximum of 5% of processing chemicals and/or filler content can be found in the final product, not including approved additional materials/accessories. The product shall not contain synthetic latex and/or non-organic natural rubber latex. The status of the polymer and filler percentage must be verified via content analysis test(s)”

2022 from documents Control Union site

Generally, many people that are looking for “organic” materials are often just looking for materials that they can have confidence are “safe”. An organic certification has little to nothing to do with the quality or performance of a product (it’s virtually identical to the same material that doesn’t have an organic certification) even though it adds to the cost of a product.

The choice between different types and blends of latex is more of a preference and budget choice rather than a “better/worse” choice. Any type or blend of latex is a durable material relative to other types of foam materials.
• Talalay in the same ILD as Dunlop will be less dense (will weigh less than Dunlop per cubic foot of material) because it has more air in it. This is the basis for the angel food cake vs the pound cake analogy.
• Talalay is also more open-celled than Dunlop and would be more breathable.
• Both Talalay and Dunlop are highly resilient but Talalay has greater resilience (a ball will bounce higher) and springs back more powerfully while Dunlop has less hysteresis (it absorbs less energy overall but it doesn’t decompress as strongly).
• The biggest difference between them is what is called compression modulus. This is a measure of how quickly a foam gets firmer as it is compressed more. ILD is generally (but not always) a measure of how much weight it takes to compress a foam by 25% of its thickness. At compression depths less than this Dunlop will be softer (compress more with the same weight) while at compression depths more than this Dunlop will be firmer (compress less with the same weight). They have a different response curve in other words and since Dunlop gets firmer faster than Talalay … even though the different response curves may cross at the 25% compression level … beyond this Dunlop will not compress as much as Talalay which is why it is generally considered more supportive or “firmer”. Another way to say this is that Dunlop starts off softer and then ends up (at compression levels more than 25%) firmer than Talalay.
• This is also part of the reason that Talalay is considered to be more “springy” or “lively” than Dunlop because you will generally sink in deeper which means there is more up and down “movement” or “ride” with Talalay and it springs back more strongly and quickly. This creates a different “feel” between the two materials and is also why Talalay is often considered to be more pressure relieving than Dunlop because it allows for a deeper cradle in the same ILD … while Dunlop is considered to be more supportive because it doesn’t compress as deeply with greater weight … all else (including ILD) being equal of course. Some people will prefer the feel of one over another and because each has different firmness levels available … one is not “necessarily” better than another in either pressure relief or support layers if the right layering or ILD is chosen for each … but you may need to choose a softer ILD with Dunlop than with Talalay to get similar pressure relief in the comfort layers or a firmer Talalay vs Dunlop to get similar levels of support in the support layers. A “one-step” difference in ILD which would be about 4 - 5 ILD would be “in the range” for most people where they felt similar.

There is more about the different types and blends of latex in post #6 here and more about how Dunlop compares to Talalay in general in post #7 here but the best way to know which type or blend of latex you tend to prefer will be based on your own testing and/or your own personal experience.

The thickness of a mattress or the number of layers or the thickness of any individual layers inside it is really just a side effect of the design and the design goals of a mattress and is also only one of many variables that can affect the feel and performance of a mattress relative to any particular person and by itself isn’t particularly meaningful. Both a 9" and a 10" can be suitable for a couple with the stats you provided.

Yes, there is always a premium to be paid on all the organically certified products as the companies providing them have to go through a costly and rigorous process of certification. Most people that are looking for a “heavily-certified” or an “organic” mattress or materials are usually concerned more with “safety” than whether the materials have an actual organic certification but they have come to believe that “organic” latex is somehow “safer” than latex that doesn’t have an organic certification. Much of this can be based on some aggressive marketing about “organic” latex which implies that it’s somehow “better” than non-organic latex. There is more information about the three different levels of organic certifications in post #2 here and some of the benefits of organic certification in post #3 here and there is more about the different types of organic and safety certifications such as Oeko-tex, Eco-Institut, Greenguard Gold, C2C, and CertiPUR-US in post #2 here and more about some of the differences between organic and safety certifications in post #2 here and there are also some comments in post #42 here that can help you decide whether organic certifications are important to you for environmental, social, or personal reasons or whether a “safety” certification is enough.

To give a more detailed answer I’d need to know the construction of each of the mattresses you are considering, but generally, in terms of durability for an all latex mattress I would focus on the uppermost layer that undergoes the most mechanical stress that can become an issue of concern for higher BMI individuals. Other than this Latex is certainly a very durable material but I would also keep in mind that there are also other factors involved in the durability or useful life of a mattress outside of just the material itself (see post #4 here ) so while it’s not realistic to expect every latex mattress to last 40 years for any specific person and it will depend on the specifics of the mattress, as a group they will certainly be more durable than any other foam materials.

Both companies you are considering are Trusted members of our site and also TMU mattress experts with their own dedicated forums[/url] where you can reach out directly to them. Both Arizona Premium Mattress and Sleep EZ provide an invaluable service to the TMU followers and hold their standards both in terms of quality/value products and service to consumers (before and after purchase). You’d need to run your finalist by criteria in your personal value equation to help you with your finalist.

Either way, you are in good hands with either of them.

Phoenix