Room & Board mattress questions

[phoenix]

Hi Allison,

I am considering purchasing either of the following two mattresses:
https://www.roomandboard.com/catalog/kids/randb-kids-mattresses/encased-coil-mattress-with-natural-latex-foam-medium
https://www.roomandboard.com/catalog/bedroom/randb-mattresses/natural-latex-foam-mattress-medium
For both, I was wondering what your thoughts are on the wool component of the comfort layer? I have not seen comments by you relating to wool, and I am trying to follow your advice of having no more than an inch of lower quality materials in the comfort layer.

You can see some comments about the pros and cons of a wool quilting layer in post #6 here. Wool is a high quality material and in a quilting layer wouldn’t be a weak link in the mattress and it can significantly improve the temperature regulation of a mattress.

I also cannot tell from the descriptions in the links whether the “encased coils” are pocket or continuous? Do you know?

They are pocket coils.

Also, I am trying to get the vendor to answer what is the ILD of the latex in the comfort layer?

I personally wouldn’t take the time to find out the ILD’s because with a local purchase ILD information for the various layers is mostly meaningless and will generally only add to confusion. With a local purchase choosing a mattress in terms of PPP based on what your body tells you with careful testing is much more reliable that choosing a mattress based on complex combinations of specs that can take many years of experience to understand how they all interact together.

While for some people that have a great deal of experience in the industry or who design mattresses knowing the ILD information of the layers in a mattress can be helpful or even essential, the ILD of a material is only one of many variables that determines how soft or firm the materials or a mattress that uses it will feel (see here) and ILD numbers are not comparable between different materials or in many cases between different versions of the same material anyway.

For most people specs are overwhelming and for those that do know a little bit about foam specs they can often tend to make choices based on specs alone or believe that they know more than they really do (for example making choices based on foam density or ILD alone when these are just two of many variables that can affect the feel and performance of a mattress). Too much information and too little information can both result in poor choices. In many cases mattress manufacturers don’t provide the ILD of their various foam layers because they are well aware of the risk of providing too much information to a customer and understand that for most people it would be more misleading than helpful. While knowing the quality specs of a mattress that can affect the durability and useful life of a mattress is an important part of making an informed choice … knowing the “comfort specs” of a local mattress isn’t nearly as important as listening to what your body tells you with careful and objective testing.

Phoenix