I recently purchased a 9" Queen SleepOnLatex mattress, in the Medium configuration, which consists of a 6" 34 ILD core with a 2" 20 ILD comfort layer on top, both Dunlop, and adhered together.
After sleeping on it for about four weeks, I woke up one day to discover a rather significant depression right in the middle of the mattress, about the size of a tennis ball, and roughly half an inch to an inch deep. Thinking I just slept particularly hard that night, or in some weird position, I figured the foam would return to its original shape after a few hours. It did not, and several days later, the depression remained.
Yesterday, I unzipped the cover, and noticed a patch in the center of the mattress that did not have any pincores. This patch is significantly softer than the surrounding area and rest of the comfort layer, and is much more easily compressed. This has effectively created an impression right in the center of the mattress that I can feel when sleeping in any position, even through the 1" cover plus a fitted sheet.
I am going to email SleepOnLatex to discuss this, but I thought I’d drop by here and see if anyone has experienced this before/knows what this could be. Thank you.
Phoenix let me know about this and I just wanted to jump on and answer your question. I think you emailed us earlier today and we also responded to that.
The spot in the foam with no holes is the fill point of the latex foam mould, where the latex is injected into the mould. This is something that will be found on most natural latex foam from around the world. It is usually found in the center of the foam but there are some companies that fill in different ways. While filling using a different filling method may eliminate the fill point, it usually creates other cosmetic and performance issues.
As far as an indentation in that spot, I’m honestly not sure how to explain that. While it’s always hard to tell from a picture, I don’t see any indentation in the foam. It looks level with the rest of the foam. There really should not be any difference in firmness in that spot, but if anything, I would expect it to be a tiny bit firmer because there are no holes (I would not expect it to be noticeable at all).
While it does not appear to me that anything is wrong with the foam from the picture, we definitely want you to be happy with the order. If you do want to exchange it for another mattress, we will be happy to arrange. I do want you to know, however, that all of our foam has a filling point (whether or not it is visible), so I don’t want you to have an expectation that we will send out a new mattress with foam that has no filling point. We have not in the past had issues with this point feeling softer, and I have never felt this, so I would not expect that to be the case, but I also can not explain why it might be the case with your current mattress.
Please feel free to email me direct at kshevick sleeponlatex com if I can help any further.
Thanks!
Karl Shevick, Founder & CEO, Sleep On Latex
What you’ve described is normal and it is a “fill point” of a Dunlop core. Some Dunlop cores will be filled from the center (what your photo seems to show), others from the side. The center tends to provide the most consistent feel across the entire piece of formed latex, but in the center there can be a small area (approximately 3" x 3" or so) where you won’t see the pin cores, depending upon where the piece of latex was sliced from the core that was poured (the pin cores generally don’t go through the entire core piece from top to bottom).
This area would actually contain more latex and would generally be a bit more dense, so what you describe to me regarding what you’re feeling is quite curious. First, because there are normal inconsistencies in a piece of latex and such a small area, whether firmer or softer, would generally go unnoticed. Secondly, because there is more foamed material in this one small area, it would tend to be slightly firmer feeling. The ability to feel such a small discrepancy in such a small area would be quite unusual. It’s difficult to tell from your photos, but there doesn’t appear to be anything that looks to be a “significant depression”.
You don’t mention what type of foundation you’re using under your mattress, but I’d also double check that to make sure that your mattress is on a flat and firm surface and that there is not anything going on beneath the mattress that may be helping to cause this issue. Additionally, there can be some settling in the wool quilted to your covering, and perhaps this is also contributing to what you’re feeling.
I would email your photos to Sleep on Latex and then follow up with a phone conversation with them should you have further concerns. But what you’ve pictured is normal for a center-filled piece of Dunlop latex.
