Our latex Ikea mattress is too firm, adviced appreciated

Mattress Talk General Mattresses Questions
1

We bought an Ikea Engenes mattress a few years ago (7" of 80% synthetic dunlop latex) and have it on a wood slat base. The mattress would definitely be considered firmer when compared to your average hotel bed.

My wife has started complaining of back pain so we got a 3" memory foam topper, which really helped, but quickly returned it because of severe heat retention and odor issues.

I very much want to keep using a wood slat base, and love the benefits of latex. Is it possible that a latex topper exists that is soft enough to “fix” our current mattress? What type of latex would I be looking for to meet the purpose of softening up a bed?

The other option is to toss out the current mattress and start from the beginning with a new latex mattress. I live in Calgary, so I have a few reputable mattress makers in my area. In terms of value though, would the addition cost of buying an entirely new latex mattress ($2000-$3000) be worth it over the other alternative of just buying a talalay latex topper (<$1000)?

From my research, most good latex mattresses are made up of a firmer, dunlop latex layered with comfort layer of softer latex. So I would be in a sense duplicating this setup if I just got a topper.

Exactly how “bad” is my 80% synthetic dunlop latex mattress, in comparison to a dunlop mattress that is 80% natural latex?

2

Hi happycat,

I don’t think that synthetic latex is a “bad” material at all and I would consider it to be a superior material to most polyfoam. In comparison to other types of latex with a higher natural content it doesn’t have the same degree of desirable qualities so in the “latex” category it is the lowest quality and cost but it would still be good quality compared to most polyfoam. You can read more about some of the technical differences between SBR (synthetic latex) and NR (natural rubber latex) in post #2 here.

I think your mattress would make a good firm base for a topper and I personally wouldn’t start all over again and “throw away” a perfectly good mattress that just needs some extra thickness/softness on top.

There are some topper guidelines and sources in post #2 here (and the posts it links to) so you can use your own personal experience to decide on the thickness and softness you would do best with. If you add a blended or natural Dunlop or Talalay topper then most of what you feel would be the topper and you would still have the firmer support of the synthetic latex below it and I think it would be a good choice. It will also be significantly less than the $1000 you are mentioning.

Phoenix