Question about industry standars

Mike77 · April 6, 2016, 12:28am

Sure. I live in Barre, Vermont. Zip code is 05641.

The information you are getting is misleading and is actually the other way around. In very basic terms there are two different types of specifications that apply to polyfoam and memory foam materials. One type is what I call “comfort” specs such as firmness, resilience, and others that contribute to how a mattress “feels”. Density has little to do with this because lower density and less durable foam materials can be formulated to have a very similar “feel” and firmness to higher density foam materials of the same type … they just won’t maintain their properties and firmness for as long as higher density materials.

On the other hand … there are also what I call “quality/durability” specs which determine the durability and useful life of the foam material and the single biggest factor in the durability of a foam material that will determine how long it maintains it’s original properties is the density of the foam material although this is not directly related to the actual firmness, feel, and properties that are formulated into the foam.

No doubt that wouldn’t have been the ONLY specification id of asked him for (he just kind of went on a rant after i mentioned it). Density is only one of many. I was only interested in Density because it helps to determine the general durability of those types of foams. I also asked him for as much information as he could give me (said he’d get back to me–not holding my breathe), but he wasn’t sure he could get me much information, if any. I would have also been interested in the ILD, fatigue %, and possibly the sag factor to help aid in determining the quality.

Is it possible that their foams (say sealy) are formulated in such a way that density doesn’t matter? So in other word do i have to compare apples to apples (IE sealy to sealy) to get performance specs or are most foams not that different?

While there is no way to quantify how long any mattress will last for a specific person or predict exactly when you will decide to replace it because it is no longer suitable or comfortable for you (because this is the only real measure of durability or the useful life of a mattress that really matters) because there are too many unknowns and variables involved that are unique to each person … if a mattress is well inside a suitable comfort/support range and isn’t close to the edge of being too soft when it is new (see post #2 here) and you have confirmed that it meets the minimum quality/durability specs that are suggested in the guidelines here then it would be reasonable to expect a useful lifetime in the range of 7 - 10 years and with higher quality and more durable materials like latex or higher density memory foam or polyfoam (in the comfort layers especially) it would likely be in the higher end of the range or even longer and the chances that you would have additional “bonus time” would be higher as well.

There is also more detailed information about the variables that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress (and the materials inside it) in post #4 here as well.

But in general if i used the mattress within reason shouldn’t we be able to tell, to a certain degree at least, that its likely the mattress will be more durable considering the material in it? How different are polyfoams anyways? Are densities useless unless we know more about the construction of the material? Or at least who manufactured it? Can polyfoams really differ that much? Again i guess im interested in comparing apples to apples here. So a foam made for a sealy might not be able to be compared to a foam made for a serta mattress because the foams differ in “chemical construction” even at the same “density”? Is that right?

So if thats right how would i rate a sealy foam “layer”?