Mattress Forum

Yugnat-

The protector is thick and canvasy, but I don't feel it on the mattress. It seems like it is very heavy duty, and it seems to be made to really protect the mattress. That being said, I'm sure it will get softer after washing it (I just got it in the mail a couple days ago..) I also have soft sheets to go over it, so I don't find it to be problematic. I'd much rather not have to worry about dust mites, personally. Can it be the only cover on your latex mattress? I would say DEFINITELY. It's much more of a "protector" than the one that came on my latex mattress.

I also came across the one on clean bedroom, and by the looks of it, I think it's the same as the allersoft cover (but with much higher markup). The second one that you posted seems more like a "comfort" layer. Unfortunately, it's difficult to protect against dust mites while adding a comfort layer in ONE solution... (they make the dust mite protector to have a very small pore size to prevent dust mites from burrowing into the mattress) If I were you, I would get the organic dust mite protector, and a nice organic wool "topper" to put underneath the protector if you feel you really needed it to be softer.

Plus, I don't know how important it is to you, but the second one is made of a 55% polyester blend (manmade from petro chemicals) and bamboo (sounds natural, but very unnatural processing to make bamboo cloth i.e. adding tons of unnecessary chemicals). The healthiest options are organic cotton and organic wool.

PS I did probably the same ammount of stressing as you recently about the same thing so I figured I had to put my 2 cents in!

To be honest though, if you do one of those covers it should go over something like a quilted woolen cover, although they protect against dust mites penetrating into the mattress core; they do not protect the mattress from perspiration damage over time.  The salt content in your perspiration literally pulverizes rubber down over time, this is why in europe for decades (even before they had strict fire codes as well) sheeps wool or other animal hair was always used in the high quality latex mattresses to prevent this from happening, as well as to regulate your temperature and humidity.

I'd then cover everything in one of these: http://www.dreamsoftbedware.com/allcomapad.html which is also machine washable.

The wool topper can be set outside in the sun a couple of times a year to kill dust mites, and can also be drycleaned or preferrably professionally wet cleaned when necessary. These were the options I had it narrowed down to when I was contemplating a DIY bed.

One thing I forgot to mention in my above post is that I was definitely leaning towards the flobeds encasement due to it making the whole bed much more fire resistant, since the wool is sewn into all 6 sides. This may not seem like a big deal, but I have several firefighter friends who are constantly warning me about stuff like this. Unfortunately though, it does come at a price. Just another thing to consider.

As far as wool being flammable, so is steel. That doesn't mean wool can't pass the burn test on its own. See: http://www.popsci.com/node/9344

Many online retailers claim their wool filled encasements have passed the fire requirements without the use of chemicals like flobeds: here: http://www.flobeds.com/burntest.htm and here: http://www.flobeds.com/PleinAirWool.htm

"FloBeds was the first mattress company to use wool (and no chemicals) to pass the new Federal Fire Resistance standards. We have wool on all six sides of the mattress."

They do this by compressing a thick wad of wool inside their encasement. Now some say they're lying to us, but I do believe they'd be open to some pretty hefty lawsuits if proven, which can be easily done via some simple lab tests. I'm guessing that they're telling the truth.

Here, to answer some of your questions, (especially since you are making people believe steel is as flammable as wool....)

http://www.strobel.com/wool_burns.htm

"As you can see in all the proof above everything organic burns, there are no natural, chemical free, or nontoxic mattresses that comply with the federal regulation. They all contain toxic chemicals. Your only choice for a chemical free mattress is by prescription."

"Cotton burns at 255 degrees and untreated Wool burns at 600 degrees. The open flame test is 2,000 degrees for over a minute. It is scientifically impossible for a blend of untreated cotton and wool to pass the test."

Silica is not considered a chemical- therefore someone can say there are no chemicals.

“They do use a sand based material mixed in with their wool to help meet the flame retardant standards.”

Sand is Silicon (Si) which you can see on the CPSC table of chemicals used in beds When you melt sand it makes glass. This is the Silica Glass or simple glass that is in the fibers of “inherently fire resistant fibers” that they call viscose, Visil, or FR Rayon. It is an extreme respiratory hazard and known to cause illness and cancer. "