Hi Mike949,
You are wise not to fall for this and the outlets that do this (on an ongoing basis) usually don’t have the best value mattresses anyway … even at their steepest discounts. While there are some legitimate sales … they are for lesser discounts, legitimate reasons and not based on artificially inflated prices designed to “entice” the unwary.
In terms of the differences between Talalay and dunlop … it can sometimes be confusing because people will often use the same words with different meanings. For example … Dunlop to some people may feel more “bouncy” (which is what they call it here) while Talalay can feel more “springy”. This can also vary between different people with different weights, amount of movement, and perceptions. Both are highly resilient (resilience is a measure of how much energy a material stores and returns rather than it’s feel).
In general though … Talalay would be considered by most people as more “springy” and responsive. As an analogy … if you imagine a thicker spring (Dunlop) and a thinner spring (Talalay) … the thicker spring may not “travel” as far when a ball bounces on it but it can feel very “bouncy”. The thinner spring may “travel” or compress further with the same ball and then return the same (or similar) amount of energy to the ball which will rebound to approximately the same height (similar resilience). The thinner spring may feel more responsive and “springy” to many people because there is more vertical movement but it would also be fair to say that the thicker spring may feel more “bouncy” to others. Most people can feel a difference though between the two materials although what they also say on their site about the differences becoming narrower over the years is also true.
The organic Dunlop and 100% natural Talalay they sell are both in the “upper tier” of latex in terms of cost with blended Talalay and 100% natural Dunlop in the next cost tier down and blended Dunlop in the lowest tier. While there is no doubt that all of these are high quality materials … the upper tier may also not be the best “value” for some in terms of performance, feel, or durability for those where either 100% natural or the “certified organic” label are not as important. There’s more about the differences between blended, natural, 100% natural, organic, and certified organic Talalay and Dunlop (and most people will encounter all of these “confusing” terms) in post #6 here.
Foam Sweet Foam recently changed their address and their site (and the current one is much better than the old) and I didn’t change the listing to reflect this. Thanks for the heads up (it’s changed now :))
There are quite a few very good choices on the list that may be worth a call … although some of them may not have the same range of choices … but you have certainly picked two of the better ones IMO.
You are very fortunate to live in an area that has such good choices within a reasonable distance and I’m looking forward to hearing about your experiences … along with any questions you may have along the way.
Phoenix