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I've read here how good latex can be a fantastic comfort material in mattresses. I've even sampled organic mattresses with natural talalay latex and they're great, but the price and terms not so much. But, I'm appalled at how few choices there are for mattresses in major stores than have any amount of latex in comfort upholstery. Serta sells a $1,600 twin 8" mattress (Vera Wang where you're paying for the fancy cover) set which felt inconsistent between 2 stores. There are no Sealy latex mattresses around. Simmons makes a Natural Care that was decent, but the stupid thing is a 13" height mattress when it doesn't need to be. The choices are very limited. Anyone venture why? Is it that latex is hard to produce? Expensive? Too heavy? Most don't like the feel? Memory foam is all over the place and often found stacked with regular foam in mattresses. Latex, not so much. This message was modified Jul 25, 2011 by slpngoc
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Latex, particularly 100% NR (natural rubber) is a lot more expensive than PU foam....if these companies can deceive a large number of people to believe they are getting the full benefits of the material by only putting a little bit in a mattress and still charge the premium that latex commands than its no surprise that they don't make proper latex mattresses. The cover on the Vera Wang is sadly enough probably still 100% polyester and although it looks fancy it probably does not cost much more than the fabric on lower cost Serta mattresses. The covers on the high end organic beds are expensive, pure organic cotton and organic sheeps wool are pretty expensive materials and add greatly to the cost (and performance) of the bed on a whole. Most people do like the feel of latex mattresses, they don't feel much different from a normal spring mattress as both steel springs and rubber cores are very elastic materials. That being said some people prefer memory foam....there are also people that prefer no foam at all. |
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That 13" mattress was hilarious looking! If you live in or near a metropolitan area, you can probably find a specialty store that sells all latex mattresses to try to get some idea of the feel. Also the online vendors seem to be willing to take the time to help you decide on a bed that will work for you. Of course more often then not, the mattress you receive won't feel exactly like the one in the store. My Dunlop is beginning to soften up a bit after three weeks. The S companies want to maximize their profits. They have learned enough to know that latex/memory foam are high cost products, so they put a little bit in their mattresses and then advertise them like they were 100% latex/memory foam. After trying five different stores with latex mattresses, the mattress to die for (by far) was an all natural, organic McRoskey that was springs, wool, latex and double sided. The price tag, however was $3900. I was tempted. |
| Stearns and Foster (owned by Sealy) does sell some "all latex" mattresses that are made with synthetic latex that Sealy makes. One of them is 98% latex (the 2" I think is fire retardant). You might try calling around and see if anyone has one of these to test out. Englander also makes some "mostly latex" mattresses that actually use natural latex, probably Dunlop. |
| I've tried a couple Serta Vera Wang latex (well, about 2" or so at the surface, the rest is soy based regular foam). Not too impressed. Both entry models are too firm for my liking and each asking price is $1600 and $2100 .... for twin XL's. Eeek. |
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slpngoc wrote: I've tried a couple Serta Vera Wang latex (well, about 2" or so at the surface, the rest is soy based regular foam). Not too impressed. Both entry models are too firm for my liking and each asking price is $1600 and $2100 .... for twin XL's. Eeek. |
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The problem I have with most of the major mattress companies are the shill games they play. Oh this bed is $5000 but we'll let you have it today for $3500 and this is a great deal. Also , the ability to get some low cost material put into a mattress and pan it off as some exotic high costing material because it sounds so exotic. I'm sure that most of these mattresses cost in the same neighborhood but by adding these little tweaks it makes it difficult to compare apples to apples. |
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budgy wrote:
but at least you get the pretty designer cover. |