Mattress Forum

Hey sandman, yes it's been a long LONG time!

A) I've been so busy since starting to work at home plus 3 days of a regular j.o.b! Working at home is actually MORE work than working at a job but more satisfying and has more potential. And

B) I kind of "gave up" on finding "the best" mattress. I have slept on a bowed-wood IKEA foundation (very cheap and not of good quality really) with 1/2" of super firm PU foam on the bottom, and then about 4" of latex above that. Believe it or not that was better than anything else I tried during all my various mattress surgeries etc, and has been mostly good for several years. But now I'm having some back pain and not sure what the cause is. (My wife still sleeps on a spring mattress I operated on, with latex and pu HR foam.)

So anyway finally I think the bowed wood foundation of my mattress is giving out - that's my guess; or else my back is just giving out again. ;-D

In any case I want to buy both some new latex layers to experiment with (my wife's diy spring/latex bed also needs some updating), and maybe a new foundation as well.

I bought some latex from SleepEZ several years ago - a very good 3" piece of  natural Dunlop.

By the way, I wrote to the company with the zoned Dunlop mattress on ebay for a super low price, and as I expected there is something wrong with that deal: it's synthetic latex. Now that may be fine for some but I would not want to sleep on synthetic latex.

I may try the mattress247 seller. Or the one selling the synthetic latex also told me they have natural latex but I don't know the prices yet. In fact as I leave here, I'm going to the net and ebay to find a piece of latex or two to buy and see if I can find a slatted wood foundation that can be adjusted for firmness without spending an arm and a leg.

Update:
Just to add info to this thread, I did some research and it seems that all the mattresses247 (ebay) Talalay latex is a blend of natural and synthetic. The page says

"My talalay is blended with synthetic latex. While some who sell only all natural dunlop may cast negative associations against the use of "synthetic" to make the talalay blended latex, in reality the talalay blend has a stronger cell structure and an even structure top to bottom and side to side and will last longer than dunlop due to this fact."

I am looking for strictly natural Talalay and Dunlop so this one is not for me.

I am now looking at ebay's "latextoppers" sellers which has 3" of 100% natural Dunlop latex 28-33ILD for $274 (free shipping) (twin) , and then maybe 2" of Talalay from latextoppers which is $177 (price includes $25 shipping on that one). Weird that, per thickness, the Talalay is actually a little cheaper than the Dunlop. Anyway, for $451 I could probably fix up my mattress, then if it still doesn't work for me I can try buying a new foundation, preferably one that has adjustable firmness, as mentioned earlier.

However I just realized they are in CA so I would have to pay taxes on it which adds a hefty 8%  to the price. So now I go back to look for out of state sellers. (See how CA's ridiculously high taxes hurt the economy? I'd rather buy outside the state and not pay these ridiculously high taxes!)

Anyone bought from hahtauctions on ebay? Their natural Dunlop latex is about the same price as latextoppers but is shipped from Illinois so I'd have no tax to pay, a savings of about 8%. At this point though it might be a question of which could get it to me fastest.

Update 2:

WOW! Foambymail (foam factory) has the above prices on ebay beat by a mile. Now I seem to recall some people not being happy with foambymail years ago, then some were very happy. For the price, as long as it is what it says it is (ILD is correct, size is correct) I don't think I'd complain about some minor irregularities. Here's the prices I am looking at now at foambymail:

Talalay Latex Foam Toppers
2" 20 ILD for $119 including shipping! (Twin)
(I'm going to verify that it's 100% natural latex. Says it is but I'm skeptical.

Then:
6" Talalay core - this is an incredible deal - 36ILD $390 or 29ILD $380 (Twin)

The description says "• 5.6LB density
• 6 inch thick High Quality 100% Natural Talalay Latex Foam
• Aerated interior dissipates heat and body moisture
• Hypoallergenic and anti-microbial
• Identical density and firmness throughout the product
• Only food-grade ingredients are used during the manufacturing process
• Conforms to your body contours for superb comfort
• Topped with equal perforations of 1/4 inch over the whole surface
• Mattress does not need to be turned or flipped
• Made in Europe
• 30-Day 100% Guarantee*
• 10-Year Warranty*

Since I don't want to invest a lot of money I think I'm going to go with this deal - this is much cheaper than the ebay sellers and free shipping and no sales tax. The 6" core is a really amazing deal - so much so that I will have to call them and talk to them in person to verify that it is 100% natural Talalay because even on Ebay 6" of Dunlop would cost $550! I've never ever seen 6" of Talalay that cheap before, nor 2" of Talalay 20ILD that cheap. If this is for real I will definitely buy there.

Arizona mattress has had some good prices for natural talalay toppers.   These are 3", and I saw somewhere a 2" (21 ILD) as well, but I don't think that came in twin.   I believe their 100% natural talalay is by latex international, so probably very good quality.  I think they also have some thicker core pieces in talalay and dunlop.

Rockymountain mattress use to have good prices on the natural talalay and dunlop, but now they only have dunlop.   Prices are not quite as good, but okay when you get thicker than 1".

Finding good selection in the latex international 100% natural talalay toppers has always been difficult.

Do you know more specificially what you are looking for?

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