Question on foam core in a latex hybrid

[phoenix]

Hi beanbag,

1. I like the very top layer of the mattress to feel a tiny bit damped and not springy or bouncy. It seems that a cover that is stuffed with wool (only) helps with this. (I liked the surface feel of all the wool beds.) Would I notice a difference between Talalay and Dunlop latex in this regard also?

Most people would notice a difference yes because Dunlop is less resilient or “springy” than Talalay (see post #7 here).

[quote]2. Even though I don’t think I will blow thru a 3" latex layer while sleeping, I did notice on all the 3" latex beds I tried that if I sit up or move around or bounce around that I can feel the transition to the next layer below, and it bothers me a bit. Part of it I am sure is psychological, like “you paid this much and only got 3” of latex?!?!"

I asked regarding the firmness of the support core in a Bamboo Bliss, and was told it was approx equivalent to 38 ILD Dunlop. Wouldn’t that be a big jump in stiffness if I got the 24 ILD layer above it? Again, I was told that for somebody of my weight I wouldn’t notice while sleeping, but would notice if I sat or bounced around on purpose.[/quote]

What you feel when you are sitting is much different from what you feel when you are lying down because the weight distribution is different and much more concentrated when sitting but slight bouncing when you are lying down is one of the parts of mattress testing that I would suggest because it can help you identify the “feel” of the transition between layers. It would depend on the relative firmness of the polyfoam and the latex. Latex gets firmer as you compress it (like all foam materials) and all the layers compress together to different degrees not sequentially so when the top layer is compressed more than 25% it is firmer than it’s ILD would indicate (ILD is usually tested at 25% compression) and when the layer below is compressed less than 25% then it’s softer than the ILD would indicate so the two layers interact in “real time” with different degrees of compression rather than one after the other. You could have the same feeling of transition if the differential between a latex core and a comfort layer were more than someone was comfortable with. In iother words this is relative to the body type and sleeping positions and weight distribution of each person.

[quote]The next bed up from Brooklyn is the Aloe bed, except I think there are two main faults:
a) not much wool and foam instead in the cover layer
b) the bed is too dang tall at 14"

For reference, the best mattress I have tried so far is an Organicpedic Lago Nouveau, which has a top layer approx 3" latex on top of a 6" core of latex. And wool in the cover. But it costs too much.[/quote]

This is not so much a fault or even a benefit but a personal preference. Some people like the surface “feel” of more wool while others would like the feel of polyfoam in the quilting layers and others yet may like a quilting layer of memory foam. Polyfoam also has a lower resilience than latex but more than wool. These are all preference issues.

Height is also a preference issue and in most cases it’s a side effect of the design goals, materials, and “feel” that was designed into the mattress.

Do you have any other suggestions (like I am theorizing too much?) or other beds to look at? The closest / cheapest I found was something like SleepEz, where to a certain extent you can customize a bed. They have a default bed with wool cover, 3+3" of latex, and then I suppose I can ask them to add a layer of PU foam under on purpose. Or maybe to save a few bucks, get a bed with 3+2" worth of latex? I have no idea as to the quality of their PU foam, but I imagine that the more latex I have, the less the PU foam matters.

If you have a specific preference for a certain material then I would call that a real preference rather than theory but if you are speculating about something that you don’t have personal experience with then theory can often somewhat misleading without a reference point based on actual experience. SleepEz doesn’t offer polyfoam in their mattresses to my knowledge, only latex layers (or memory foam for those that prefer it in the top layer) but they do have a mattress that has a 3" + 3" + 2" construction (the SleepEz 9000). They also have mattresses that uses only two 3" layers but this would be firmer and less adaptive than the same two layers on top of a third layer of latex. They only mattresses they currently offer with polyfoam are only available locally. You can read more about the differences between an all latex mattress and a latex/polyfoam hybid in post #2 here. The tutorial post also has a link to the members here that sell mattresses (including latex) online and there is a wide range of options in terms of design and options for customizing a mattress. In many cases local manufacturers can also customize the design of their mattresses (within certain limits).

Speaking of PU foam, do you know anything about foamorder.com’s Everflex foam? They have one that is 2.8lbs /ft3, ILD 40. I figure I could use a few inches of that as the bottom layer.

2.8 lb polyfoam is a very high quality polyfoam regardless of which foam manufacturer pours the foam. it’s a very good quality material although it’s still not the “equivalent” of latex in terms of feel or performance … or durability … but in a bottom support layer neither one would be a weak link in a mattress.

Phoenix