Trying to understand the difference between the two. Here are a few questions; please add any other pertinent details. I have an opportunity to buy an ~ 2" topper, but cannot decide if it is worth the large price difference. Thank you!
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Does the SR Latex respond to heat the same way memory foam does (cool and firm, warm and soft)?
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Does it trap significantly less heat than memory foam?
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Is it more supportive than memory foam?
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Are there logical reasons to prefer it over memory foam (assuming a preference for memory-foam-type characteristics)?
Hi Bazinga,
The most important part of the “value” of any topper is how well it meets all the individual criteria that are most important to you and how well you sleep on it compared to other toppers that are available and the only way to know for certain whether any topper would be “worth” the price you are paying would be based on your own personal experience and on whether the mattress/topper combination was a good “match” for you in terms of “comfort”, firmness, and PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and your personal preferences).
It would depend on the formulation of memory foam you were comparing it to because there are hundreds of different versions of memory foam that can be more or less temperature sensitive, have a faster or slower recovery, and have a different firmness level (see post #9 here and post #8 here). In general terms though it would be less temperature sensitive than most memory foams.
When you can’t test a topper in person then the best source of guidance will be a more detailed conversation with the retailer or manufacturer that sells it because they will be more familiar with the specifics of how their toppers compare to other types of toppers that are available on the market than anyone else.
Again it would depend on the specifics of the memory foam you are comparing it to but in very general terms once again it would tend to be more breathable and more temperature neutral than “most” memory foam.
That would depend on what you mean by “supportive” and how you are defining it. “Support” is often misunderstood because the goal of a “supportive” mattress is to keep the spine and joints in good alignment and this requires the type of contouring support that allows some parts of the body to sink in more (softer) and some parts of the body to sink in less (firmer) and this will vary on an individual basis. There is more about primary or “deep” support and secondary or “surface” support and their relationship to firmness and pressure relief and the “roles” of different layers in a mattress in post #2 here and in post #4 here that may also be helpful in clarifying the difference between “support/alignment” and “comfort/pressure relief” and “feel” and how they interact together.
If you are referring to the Puralux slow response latex topper here then it has an ILD of 24 which would feel firmer for most people than most memory foam toppers but a firmer material can be more or less “supportive” depending on whether you are talking about primary or secondary support.
It would be primarily a preference choice and some people may just prefer how it feels vs memory foam (although this would be very subjective), some people may prefer a material that is more temperature neutral, some people may prefer a slow response material that is firmer, and some people may just prefer the idea of sleeping on latex vs memory foam for personal reasons (they may be sensitive to some types of memory foam for example).
Phoenix