After spending several evenings over the past month pouring over the extremely valuable and helpful information on the site (thank you for all of your extremely thorough posts!), I’m still unable to decide on a mattress. Prior to discovering this site, we were leaning towards a standard memory foam mattress. Now, after learning of the health benefits of natural latex (my husband has severe allergies), we were looking into an all-natural latex mattress. We’ve tried the Savvy rest mattresses, and thought we liked a 9" firm dunlop, medium dunlop, soft talalay (bottom to top) configuration, however cannot understand the price, as it seems to come with about a $1K premium over similar mattresses with comparable materials. We very recently discovered The Natural Mattress Co. (a small company in Minnesota), and were delighted to find an outlet where we could get an all-natural latex mattress for under $1,500 (service was also great and not pushy, as I experienced elsewhere), however they only carry dunlop latex, and I think we like at least the top layer in the talalay. Here’s what I’m wondering… my husband has an aversion to a bouncy feeling in a mattress, and while a 9" all-natural dunlop mattress at the Natural Mattress Co. felt soft enough (firm, medium, soft configuration), it felt more resilient (the bouncy feeling) than did the Savvy rest with the top layer in the soft talalay that we tried. So, I’m thinking of ordering a 3" talalay layer and having Natural Mattress Co. combine that into a 9" mattresses with two 3" base layers of dunlop for us, however it seems a bit of a gamble. Would talalay, in general, have less resiliency than dunlop? Might the added air in talalay be a factor in reduced resiliency? OR, is it more likely that differences in the base layers are contributing to the bouncy feeling of the all-dunlop mattress that we tried at the Natural Mattress Co.? Their prices are so reasonable, and we would love to buy from them if we could solve the bouncy problem.
All-natural latex mattresses aside, my other thought is to take a chance on ordering a European Sleep Works / Berkeley Ergonomics mattress encased coil/latex hybrid. I’ve read the various reviews on this site, and it’s a very enticing option. Again, however, a gamble to not try it first. Unlike Savvy Rest and many other manufacturers, they do at least accept returns in the first 60 days, however, should we not like the mattress at all (shipping of course not included). Are you familiar with the various models they sell, and if so, is there a mattress from their line which you would recommend that would be less buoyant than an all-latex mattress, but still rather soft (we like a 3" top layer of soft talalay for softness when looking at the latex mattresses)?
Interestingly, Dunlop is less bouncy than talalay. Savvy Rest has a pretty good video demonstrating this.
In fact, their video points out Dunlop is not bouncy. Talalay is sometimes described (probably on this website for that matter) as more lively. Of course, what you perceive is the real test…
I can’t entirely reconcile what you’re after - the feel of talalay or less bounce. Perhaps you were feeling the dunlop felt firmer? It’s also possible the mattress cover and any layers of wool or other material in the top are changing the feel between the two mattresses. there is a chance the savvy rest you tried had a Dunlop top layer or different firmness (unless you checked the tags) - you wouldn’t be the first person on the forum who tested a bed in a showroom with different layers than were advertised.
If it’s the feel of talalay you like, it’s probably easiest to buy a full bed from tht Natural Mattress Co, and add a separate talalay topper.
Interesting, thank you for the response and sharing the video. Regarding whether I’m seeking the feel of talalay or less bounce is a good question - I think both to some extent. Definitely looking for less of the bouncing feeling in a natural latex mattress (interesting to see the side by side comparison of talalay and dunlop latex with the apple bounce test in the video you shared) and thought (perhaps incorrectly) that the mattress we tried with a 3" top layer of soft talalay was less buoyant than the 3" top layer of soft dunlop (with an otherwise similar base of firm and medium dunlop layers). I do also seem to generally prefer the feel of talalay for the additional softness of it.
Do you own a natural latex mattress, and if so, are you happy with it?
I’m very happy with it yes, and also making adjustments. When I first got it, I got (top to bottom), soft, med, firm. That was too firm for me (pressure pain in shoulders and hips). So changed to soft, soft, firm. It’s close at that… But I’m a male princess and pea type with compulsive enjoyment of comparison- so trying a wool topper (arriving on Monday apparently).
You certainly may prefer talalay, and of various softness. In my prior post, I meant to say: if you like the feel of talalay, but really want to buy from Natural Mattress Co, then it’s probably easy to get a full bed from them and then add a separate topper rather than try to source materials, but they’d be best to answer that.
Resilience is defined as the height that a ball dropped on a mattress will return as a percentage of the original height. By this definition Dunlop would be more resilient than Talalay.
Talalay has a higher resilience and is more “springy” or lively than Dunlop because it tends to spring back more strongly and compresses more deeply than Dunlop in the same ILD more so the “up and down” motion may be more. Post #49 here talks a little more about resilience, bounciness, and springiness and post #7 here talks more about the difference in “feel” between the two materials (and also includes the video link that dn provided) but as dn also mentioned the best way to know is through your own personal testing because things like bouncy and springy can be so subjective and will depend on the design of the mattress as well. It really is a preference issue and different designs of latex with different softness/firmness levels in the layers will have a different “bounce” or “springy” feeling. All the layers will contribute to this to some degree.
I think highly of the quality and value of the BE mattresses (NOTE: they are now selling their own similar design … see post #4 here) but they would be a much better source of information about the “feel” of their mattresses than I am. Shipping a mattress through common carrier vs courier can add to the cost of a mattress and it would also be very costly to return it and some of the benefits of them being able to make custom changes after a purchase at a reasonable cost would also be lost so buying one of their mattresses without trying it and having it shipped would be a risky proposition IMO.
There are other latex options in the Minneapolis area listed in post #2 here and i would suggest that your best odds would be to test various types of latex combinations so you can narrow down which type of latex you tend to prefer and if it turns out that your idea would be the most suitable choice based on your testing and preferences then it would certainly seem to be a viable option.
I recently bought an all Dunlop latex mattress. Mine is very soft Dunlop, and I just love it.
I don’t notice any kind of bouncy feel to my mattress at all. Often, Dunlop is said to be similar to pound cake while Talalay resembles angel food cake. The analogy makes sense to me in so far as it can, since I’ve never laid on a Talalay mattress. My dad had one of the old Dunlop mattresses that Sears sold back in the 1960s, and I always loved his mattress so I was predisposed to like the feel of Dunlop, I think.
I’ve had my mattress about a month now, and am completely comfortable sleeping on it - no pressure issues, no alignment problems, and I’m certainly sleeping better than I have for years.
My first post , I just bought a talalay medium 3" with a medium and firm glued into 6" the bed was giving some push back pressure. So I got a 1" natural dunlop in medium no more push . I like the firm feeling of sinking in with less of the pressure. I like dunlop better. Also not liking the fact of my bottom layers are glued together.
Thanks for sharing your experience … and congratulations on your mattress and your choice of topper as well
If your mattress has a zip cover so you can access the layers inside then it would certainly be an advantage to have loose layers so you can replace individual layers if that ever becomes necessary.
