Hello,
i would appreciate any and all help on simply comparing 100% Natural Talalay Latex made by Radium Foam vs. Latex International.
there is pretty much zero information on Radium Foam other than they are #1 manufacturer of Latex in the World.
the only comparison i can find from their websites is that Latex International tests the firmness of their latex layers in 9 spots while Radium Foam tests on 15 spots.
thank you
Hi Davos,
I have talked with many manufacturers who use either one or the other or both brands of talalay latex. Some will have a preference for one over the other for different reasons but they all tend to agree that both brands are superior foams.
In practical terms ā¦ while there are slight differences between them ā¦ I would treat them as equals and the fact that both are talalay (either blended or natural) would outweigh for me the source of the latex.
Radium tends to dominate the talalay latex market in Europe and Latex International tend to dominate the North American market and both of them also do business in each otherās primary markets. They are both well respected and quality products and I would focus more on issues such as which type of talalay I wanted, the ILDās of the layers I wanted, and the overall value of the mattress rather than on one brand over another.
Phoenix
Hi Phoenix,
Thank you for taking your time to reply to my question.
i will give you little background on why i wanted to know more about radium foam vs. latex international.
i am trying to buy a customizable latex mattress and one of the companies i consider is Sleep EZ, but one of the competitors had this to say about their talalay latex:
āThey use āRadiumā foam as there talalay latex supplier. While they state on there website, and lead many folks into believing it is from Latex International, it is not. If you ask them, they will tell youā¦ and well Radium is just not as high a quality as latex internationalās talalayā
so i called Shawn at Sleep EZ and i asked him about who supplies their 100% natural talalay latex and his reply was that they use both Latex International and Radium Foam. not sure why would anybody use two different suppliers for the same product, but the fact is now i need to choose whose talalay latex i want in my mattress. it is good to have choices if you have some knowledge about stuff that you choosing from, but if not then more choices can make everything pretty confusing.
at this point i am still between Sleep EZ and Flobeds. i really like the look of flobeds cover, but after that it pretty much ends there and for me from there on it is Sleep EZ all the way. any kind of comment on this comparison would be appreciated as well.
if you Phoenix or anybody else have anything to say about the competitorās remark on talalay latex that sleep ez uses i would appreciate it.
thank you
Davos
Hi davos,
I have talked with many manufacturers about both companies and the truth is there are many different opinions about each based on the different experiences each manufacturer has had with each company.
I tend to not go into a black and white āthis one is better than that oneā simply because I would in effect be saying that either most of Europe is using lower quality talalay or most of North America is using lower quality talalay and I donāt believe either is the case.
I think that some of the issue arises because Latex International at some points have had some quality control and supply issues and there are several manufacturers that have told me they switched to Radium because of this. On the other hand when Latex International is at itās best ā¦ they are very good. These donāt seem to be ongoing issues but they do seem to happen sometimes when a company overextends itself which some people believe Latex International has done from time to time (for example with the building of their new plant in Malaysia which has now to the best of my knowledge been stopped).
So overall ā¦ they are very comparable and if there are quality control issues then they are usually caught at the manufacturer level so they donāt affect the consumer ā¦ but they do affect the opinions of the mattress manufacturers. In addition to this ā¦ supply issues and pricing variables means that many manufacturers may use one company for one type of foam and another for a different type of foam. They may also just want a backup for times when prices or supply is better with one than another.
Hope this helps ā¦ and I personally wouldnāt hesitate to use either of them.
Phoenix