New Bed Needed - Thinking Latex

[phoenix]

Hi wacomme,

I briefly looked at Prana latex beds at Urban Mattress - seemed nice by pricey.

You can read more about the Pranasleep mattresses in post #3 here and in post #2 here and in post #3 here and in posts #1 and #2 here and a forum search on Prana (you can just click this) will also bring up more information and feedback about them as well. As you can see I would be very cautious here because of the thicker layers of lower quality/density materials they tend to use in the top layers of their mattress which could be a weak link in the mattress.

He said the Wazee is made by LatexCo, and is a two layer (6", and 5" on top) progressive natural Talalay. He said the process is new, that the ILD progressively moves from more dense to less dense as one moves up through the layer (same process for both layers). He said that this process makes the bed less bouncy. The 1" polyfoam on the bottom of the mattress also aids in less bounce (though one can buy this mattress without the poly foam layer).

The latex in the Wazee is 100% natural Talalay latex and I think your salesman may be a little confused (or perhaps you misunderstood). The Wazee uses multiple layers that that are different firmness levels so the mattress has a “progressive construction” which means that the softest layer is on the top and the deeper layers are progressively firmer

The Talalay that they use is made by Radium which is one of two manufacturers that make Talalay latex in the world (the other is Latex International) and is supplied by Latexco but they don’t make it. Neither one makes Talalay latex that uses a “new process” that becomes less dense as you go from the bottom to the top (although many Dunlop latex cores are denser on the bottom than on the top).

Does the PPP with the Wazee fit me? I’m not sure. Will it fit my wife? I don’t know that either. Is it a good mattress? Will it not sag prematurely? Is is really 100% natural Talalay?

The only reliable way to know whether any mattress is a good “match” for you in terms of PPP is based on your own testing and personal experience. There is more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress that can help you identify and minimize the risks involved in each of them in post #2 here.

In terms of durability and the useful life of the mattress … latex is among the most durable materials in the industry and 100% natural Talalay made by Radium is a very high quality and durable material and there would be no weak links in the mattress. If it’s a good match for you in terms of PPP and it also compares well to your other “finalists” based on all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you then it would certainly be well worth considering.

I should also mention that one of the previous comments on the forum about the Wazee indicated that it used 100% natural Dunlop latex but this was incorrect and it uses 100% natural Talalay.

I’ll skip the Prana mattress (though comfortable). So where do I go next? I this Boulder, CO is my best option for the greatest number of stores with latex mattresses. I may need to play hooky from work one day and head to Boulder. I’m thinking about visiting the Foam Source in Boulder. There’s also Verlo, but I think their all latex mattress selection is limited. There’s also Haiku Designs and of course other Sleep Nation and Urban Mattress branch stores. And though expensive, The Natural Sleep Store in Denver may be worth a look.

Most likely, with all this looking and trying mattresses I’ll probably just get confused. But hopefully I’ll spot trends and narrow my selection. I don’t want to become too obsessed with this mattress search, and at some point I just need to choose and hope my wife likes at least one of my suggestions.

I would tend to choose a few of the retailers/manufacturers that are most interesting to you or that have mattresses you are most interested in testing. I would then make a few phone calls just to get a few more details about what they have available, to get a sense of their knowledge and transparency, and to make sure that they have mattresses on their floor that fit your criteria. If your conversation confirms that they would be worth a visit then I would choose two or three of them to visit and choose a “finalist” at each of the stores you visit (the mattress you would purchase there if you had no other options available). Once you have your list of “finalists” then I would make a final choice between them.

Phoenix