Swimming in info - please help. ECO-mattress hunting...or not?

[phoenix]

Hi lnr103,

I went to a place called Dwelling Furniture on Main Street in the Manyunk section of Philadelphia today to test out a Pure Latex Bliss. The poor girl trying to sell them didn’t know much about mattresses or what she was selling. My questions flustered her and I ended up feeling bad for asking. It’s a furniture store that just happens to have a few mattresses. She didn’t know Dunlop vs talalay. Didnt know anything about FR. Never heard of Nutrition and wasn’t sure which bed was which. Kinda stinks but based on my own comparisons from reading on the PLB website I liked the feel of their 100% natural talalay option over the Nature or Beautiful model. I’m not sure which 100% natural pure latex bliss mattress I laid on. I only know it was one of the 100% natural ones based on the wool cover. :-/ That being said, I still preferred the savvy rest. The all talalay mattresses I’ve experienced thus far are too floppy and smooshy for me. I think I require a Dunlop base, preferably with a medium core and soft talalay on top.

The PLB all natural mattresses are certainly high quality mattresses but they may be in a more premium price range compared to other manufacturers that use the same type of latex in their mattresses and unfortunately your experience with the salesperson is far too common in the industry. It’s good to see that you are doing the kind of testing that can give you a good sense of which type of latex you prefer.

Does anyone know the specs for savvy rests latex layers to try and create something similar? It that even possible?

You can read the approximate ILD range in post #2 here although they may have changed slightly since they started using Radium Talalay. An “exact” match may not be possible without duplicating the exact ILD which they don’t provide (and which may vary in the case of Dunlop anyway which isn’t made to exact ILD’s) but a close approximation would be possible yes with a mattress that also had the same type and blend of latex in the same thickness layers and the same firmness range and a similar wool quilted cover.

I was also reading how quilting is less often preferred over knit covers for latex. I really loved the feel of savvy rests quilted wool/cotton cover. It felt like it held the mattress together in a more durable way that the PLB and it didn’t seem so thick that I’d have to worry about it compressing. I could be very wrong on that though. Thoughts?

This is really a matter of personal preference and you will find that like you many people prefer a wool quilted cover and some who prefer sleeping on a stretch knit cover where they are closer to the latex. You can read a little more about wool quilting in post #6 here.

Ps: The girl at the PLB shop kept saying that talalay is the “purest” form of latex. I thought Dunlop was more natural and talalay was more processed and viewed by many and more luxurious but is it really more pure??

Both Dunlop and Talalay have 100% natural versions and blended versions. There is more about the different types and blends of latex in post #6 here. You won’t be able to find out the exact formulation of either 100% natural Talalay or Dunlop in terms of what percentage of each is actual latex and what percentage is other substances used to make the latex because the formulation is proprietary to the manufacturer but both of them use only natural rubber and no SBR so I don’t think you could really call one more “pure” than the other and both of them would be Oeko-Tex certified for harmful substances and VOC’s so I also wouldn’t consider one to be “safer” than the other.

Phoenix