Hi PLH123,
Your questions may have more complex answers than you may realize and knowing the ILD’s of the different materials to the degree of specificity that you are looking for may be much less meaningful or effective in helping you to make comparisons than you believe they are.
Yes this is correct.
As you mentioned ILD numbers are never exact and don’t mean very much to the vast majority of people who buy mattresses so when these types of approximations are listed on a manufacturers site it’s usually to try and provide more meaningful and relatively simple reference points for customers that don’t have a frame of reference for what ILD numbers translate into in terms of real life feel and performance anyway.
I have talked with Radium in Holland for example and they have told me of cases where a mattress manufacturer wanted to switch from using LI to Radium and didn’t want the “feel” of their mattresses to change and when they tested and compared the results of their own ILD numbers with the listed ILD numbers from LI for the same type of Talalay that they weren’t the same and they had to provide a different ILD to “match” the feel of the previous latex layers they were using.
In addition to this ILD by itself is only one of many factors that can affect the softness/firmness of a material and if manufacturers don’t keep this type of information simple and meaningful then it tend to encourage their customers to go into “analysis mode” and they will tend to become overinvolved and overwhelmed in trying to “analyze” specs or make comparisons based on numbers that by themselves have little meaning or aren’t nearly as important as they believe they are. There are several specs besides just ILD for example that can affect how soft or firm a material or a mattress feels so using ILD by itself as the main point of reference can be very misleading (see post #4 here and post #2 here).
Too much information can lead to just as many poor choices as too little information and the type of more specific information you are looking for in most cases can do more harm than good or encourage customers to order what they “think” they need instead of what they really need … which of course would increase the rate of returns.
I think that this is true. When I (or most experienced manufacturers) see this type of detailed focus on ILD numbers in combination with the belief that they are more important than they really are it’s usually an indication of someone that is in over their head and trying to make choices or comparisons based on technical information that they don’t completely understand or don’t have the experience or frame of reference to know what all the specs mean in “real life”.
Information about the type and quality of a material (what I call “quality specs” … see here) are important to know and are an important part of transparency but “comfort specs” are a completely different matter. If a manufacturers that offers latex from several different suppliers were to provide all the “exact” numbers for every option they have then most consumers would tend to believe that the numbers are more important than they really are or worse yet that they know what they they need to know to make good choices or meaningful comparisons between two mattress which is certainly not the case. Many manufacturers that have multiple sources for latex will tend to use the KISS principle and provide information that is easier for their customers to make meaningful comparisons and many will even use just “soft”, “medium”, and “firm” to describe different materials or types of latex that are relatively comparable because they realize that if they were to provide all the information that was available to them that far too many of their customers would be focusing on the type of technical information that would overwhelm them and that wasn’t nearly as meaningful or even accurate in making real life comparisons than they think it is and they would end up doing more harm than good by contributing to “information overwhelm” and “paralysis by analysis”. This is as much an art as a science and in these cases experience means much more than knowing all the exact “comfort specs”. Most people wouldn’t feel any difference with ILD differences of less than about 4 ILD in the same type and blend of latex anyway.
Not only can it be confusing … for most people focusing on this type of technical information would make it impossible because they would believe that the “exact” numbers were a more accurate way to make comparisons than they really are.
There are really too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved to be able to predict with any certainty which combination of layers or components will be the best match for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) based on specs (either yours or a mattress) or “theory at a distance” … especially if you are only using one of many specs that can affect whether a mattress is suitable for you or whether it matches another mattress you have tested.
When you can’t test a mattress in person then the most reliable source of guidance is always a more detailed conversation with a knowledgeable and experienced retailer or manufacturer that has your best interests at heart and who can help “talk you through” the specific options they have available based on the information you provide them, any local testing you have done, and the “averages” of other customers that are similar to you (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here). They will know more about “matching” their specific mattress designs to different body types, sleeping positions, and preferences (or even to other mattresses that they are familiar with) than anyone else.
Most of them could probably find it out if they don’t know it off the top of their head but it would probably be a “red flag” for them as well that would indicate a customer that is overinvolved in specs that would be much more likely to make a choice based on what they think they need than what they really need and that would be much more likely to “make a mistake” and return the mattress.
Phoenix