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After lurking here and other places and doing lots of research - I finally recieved my latex mattress today. I'd like to add to the discussion by sharing my experiences with a company I haven't read about on this forum and about Dunlop latex. We went with a three layer 100% DUNLOP (yes, Dunlop, not Talalay) mattress from Savvy Rest via The Natural Sleep Store. We got a queen size with split firm (ILD 40), medium (ILD 35) and soft (ILD 30) layers. The cover is made of organic cotton quilted to organic wool. The total was $1849 including shipping - more than SleepEZ or some of the other online retailers but less than other organic latex mattresses.We got free UPS shipping through The Natural Sleep Store (which would have been $219 from Savvy Rest directly) plus a gift certificate for $160.00 that could be used toward bedding at their store. So far, I really like the mattress. It is just the right firmness. I don't think we would want anything softer than this configuration. We went with Dunlop even though there is so much more information about Talalay because we were more concerned about getting something too soft rather than too firm. I'll report on how we like the mattress in a few weeks. We went from years of futons that needed to be replaced every few years so this seems extremely comfy. Our latest futon had gotten really hard so we started researching other options and finally settled on the Savvy Rest. I can't really write a full review until sleeping on the mattress for a while - but I can review the customer service. There is a huge amount of information on the Savvy Rest web site and on the Natural Sleep Store web site as well as organicmattressreviews.com. I considered SleepEZ, FloBeds, Foam Sweet Foam, Foam Source and a couple of other places and finally settled on Savvy Rest. I would have considered FloBeds if they carried Dunlop latex. My concern with SleepEZ and some of the other places was that while they described their latex in great detail, they were a little sketchy about the covers and what they used for flame retardants. I decided to narrow my search to stores that described their covers and/or had options for different covers. FloBeds had several cover choices and reasonable prices, but I really wanted natural Dunlop rather than Talalay. Both FloBeds and Savvy Rest made it clear that they didn't use chemicals in addition to the wool for fire retardant material. First, I looked at the web sites, read reviews and got samples from Savvy Rest. They seemed professional and informative. I spoke directly to a woman at Savvy Rest (can't remember her name right now) and she was very knowledgeable and told me some things that made me buy a softer mattress than I had intended to. I'm glad I took her advice. She said most of their exchanges were for softer layers and that she couldn't recommend anything firmer than medium, medium, firm - and that would be quite firm in Dunlop. She also said that the Dunlop is a bit firmer on one side than the other so you could further customize by turning one or more layer over. The side with the larger holes is firmer than the side with the smaller holes. I haven't experimented with it yet so I can't confirm if the difference is noticeable but I thought it was interesting. The mattress came in three 2x2x3 boxes which the UPS guy hauled into the house for me. They were immaculate and clearly labled on the outside with computer printed stickers and magic marker. The first box as the heaviest at 60 pounds and contained the cotton and wool cover along with the soft layer and the assembly instructions which were in a zip lock bag taped to the top of the box. The other two layers were around 53 pounds each and clearly labled in the other two boxes. Each of the half layers were in separate plastic bags and were NOT vacuum packed. They were just kind of loosely rolled and very easy to remove from the boxes. Every half layer was labled with an F, M or S.I was really impressed with the attention to detail. I called my husband to come home early to hoist the boxes up into the bedroom and help me put the bed together. It probably took us less than half an hour to put it together. I really think the split layers were easier to handle than the full layers would have been. The top of the case is thick enough that we don't feel the split - even without a mattress pad. That's enough to bore you for now. I am really happy with this purchase. It is one of the best experiences I've had buying something online. We just didn't find anything comparable locally. Cheers, Marie |
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cloud9 wrote: Since your mom prefers Talalay she should really enjoy her Flobeds mattress. And it's reassuring that she can get those comfort exchanges if she needs them--or even return the bed for a full refund if it does come to that. I visited the Savvy Rest site and it seems like they give you one comfort exchange and do not accept returns at all! I would never buy something as expensive and personal as a mattress without having test driven it first if I knew I couldn't return it if it wasn't right for me. I think that's a terrible policy for any online mattress merchant to have. Mattressmom was really lucky it worked out for her.
The reason I was leaning towards Dunlop was because of all the comfort exchanges of Talalay I've seen being discussed here, and because Dunlop has been described as being less pushy, less bouncy, and more like polyurethane foam. And I was interested in a Savvy Rest Dunlop mattress because Mattressmom was so happy with hers. But their no return policy along with the premium price were a concern. SleepEZ has the best price by far and offers Dunlop. Novahelp's dissatisfaction with his SleepEZ 10000 worried me, although what he got was Talalay (another reason I wanted Dunlop) and at 6'5" he's built nothing like my 105lb mother. Novahelp's troubles repacking and returning layers also was a concern. Lastly, when I called SleepEZ, I got a salesman who seemed disinterested (he sounded sleepy). Flobeds' salesman was wide awake and spent a lot of time on the phone with me. Lynn2006 is a good advocate for Flobeds, and very importantly she's close in size and weight to my mother. On the other hand, the multiple multiple exchanges she's discussed was a double-edged sword: it convinced me of Flobeds' excellent customer service and layer exchange policy, but it made me worry all the more about Talalay ... and that's all Flobeds offers. And I know my Mom will not be keen on the idea of doing an exchange or return, no matter what, so it's important to get it right on the first throw of the dice. But Lynn2006's situation is different in that she had an accident that put her in a lot of pain and made her particularly sensitive. My Mom is 80, has a sore knee, and recently had sciatica but still is relatively happy sleeping on her 30-year-old polyurethane Sears mattress. So it was a difficult decision on what to get for my mother. As I've written elsewhere, learning that Flobeds offers split cores on a Full/Std, something others offer only on Queen and King size, was a big deal. And the clincher was the sale on the Flobeds "zone-on-point" that's recommended for side sleepers. Split cores, zone-on-point, free layer exchanges, no restocking fee for a total return (just shipping) ... these factors give me a lot of options for configuring my Mom's bed and made me give up the desire for Dunlop. Besides, maybe Talalay is the best for my Mom after all. Neither she nor I have tested them, so what do we know? Talalay has seemingly been dissed in this forum lately, but Lynn2006 isn't the only person here who's happy with it. Talalay is favored by many mattress makers, and not because it's any cheaper to make (I believe the opposite is true). If Dunlop was better, and cheaper to make than Talalay, Flobeds and SleepEZ and many others would be pushing Dunlop. And they're not. Philly888 This message was modified Mar 31, 2008 by Philly888
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I laid on two of the most comfortable 100% talalay mattresses by Serta the other day. They are a new line and if I didn't already have my zippered mattress I would highly consider one. There was an 8" talalay latex core and it felt very supportive without being pushy or bouncy. It had a nice quilted cover, too. Anyway, I liked the feel of it. Philly888 wrote: It's Lynn2006 who prefers Talalay - she has a Flobeds Talalay mattress, and she bought a Dunlop topper and returned it and got a Talalay topper. I don't know what my mother prefers. I know it's not inner spring, because it's been 50 years or more since she had an inner spring mattress and she's said she doesn't want inner spring. She's been sleeping on a Sears-o-pedic polyurethane mattress for the past 30 years, so I suspect she can sleep on anything.</p><p>The reason I was leaning towards Dunlop was because of all the comfort exchanges of Talalay I've seen being discussed here, and because Dunlop has been described as being less pushy, less bouncy, and more like polyurethane foam. And I was interested in a Savvy Rest Dunlop mattress because Mattressmom was so happy with hers. But the no return policy along with the premium price were a concern.</p><p>SleepEZ has the best price by far and offers Dunlop. Novahelp's dissatisfaction with his SleepEZ 10000 worried me, although what he got was Talalay (another reason I wanted Dunlop) and at 6'5" he's built nothing like my 105lb mother. Novahelp's troubles repacking and returning layers also was a concern. Lastly, when I called SleepEZ, I got a salesman who seemed disinterested (he sounded sleepy). Flobeds' salesman was wide awake and spent a lot of time on the phone with me.</p><p>Lynn2006 is a good advocate for Flobeds, and very importantly she's close in size and weight to my mother. On the other hand, the multiple multiple exchanges she's discussed was a double-edged sword: it convinced me of Flobeds' excellent customer service and layer exchange policy, but it made me worry all the more about Talalay ... and that's all Flobeds offers. And I know my Mom will not be keen on the idea of doing an exchange or return, no matter what, so it's important to get it right on the first throw of the dice. But Lynn2006's situation is different in that she had an accident that put her in a lot of pain and made her particularly sensitive. My Mom is 80, has a sore knee, and recently had sciatica but still is relatively happy sleeping on her 30-year-old polyurethane Sears mattress.</p><p>So it was a difficult decision on what to get for my mother. As I've written elsewhere, learning that Flobeds offers split cores on a Full/Std, something others offer only on Queen and King size, was a big deal. And the clincher was the sale on the Flobeds "zone-on-point" that's recommended for side sleepers. Split cores, zone-on-point, free layer exchanges, no restocking fee for a total return (just shipping) ... these factors give me a lot of options for configuring my Mom's bed and made me give up the desire for Dunlop. Besides, maybe Talalay is the best for my Mom after all. Neither she nor I have tested them, so what do we know? Talalay has seemingly been dissed in this forum lately, but Lynn2006 isn't the only person here who's happy with it. Talalay is favored by many mattress makers, and not because it's any cheaper to make (I believe the opposite is true). If Dunlop was better, and cheaper to make than Talalay, Flobeds and SleepEZ and many others would be pushing Dunlop. And they're not.</p><p>Philly888 |
| Hi Mattressmom--are you still out there? If so, I'd love to hear how you are doing with your mattress. I'm figuring you're probably still happy, because if you weren't, I'm sure you'd be posting! Either way, if you're still out there, please post an update. I'm considering a Savvyrest, but am also quite concerned about their return policy and warranty. |
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For what it's worth.. I called Sleep EZ (spoke to a Shawn, dunno if it's the same Shawn everybody here talks about... I will assume so), regarding how they handle flame retardants. The answer was "we use (indiscernable thru my phone) wool." Shawn said there was not a need to add flame retardant because the wool material they used was naturally flame retardant. Thoughts? By the way... thank you so much MattressMom for all your posts! It finally put all these things I've heard and read about in an understandable format. Be great to hear from you on how things are going with your Savvy Rest now that it's been a bit longer :) Oh yeah.. just heading out the door to do an in-store test drive of a Savvy Rest myself :) Richiro P.S. Oh.. to Philly. I don't necessarily think we can conclude which is better based on what most vendors are "pushing" (in the talaly vs dunlop debate). They could be pushing one over the other for a number of reasons (manufacturer incentives to retailers, markup ability, supply/deman (aka what customers seem more willing to pay more for), etc.). After all, there in business for a reason. :) This message was modified Feb 12, 2009 by richiro
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| It's true. Wool is a natural flame retardant barrier material. Most of the major manufacturers use barrier materials rather than dusting the mattresses with chemicals like boric acid. |
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OH... just one other thing I found out when I called Sleep EZ. On their webiste, and per Shawn on the phone, Sleep EZ is now offering a 90-day return policy along with its 90-day exchange policy. Per Shawn, the return policy was a shipping cost return policy (no re-stocking fees). The competition heats up I guess huh? After spending an hour at a Savvy Rest store the other night, I wanted to just offer my .02 on some of the things being debated on this thread, and some things I learned along the way: 1. Definitely find a store to try a mattress out first-hand (even if it's a competitor's store). Not only will you have a real-life reference to use in your decisions, but for me I realized that I'm not as worried about return policies or exchanges as much as I was prior to the store visit. I basically have it narrowed down to what I want, and am pretty sure I won't have to return anything (although I don't like the idea of "no return policy"). And just in my case, I just saved myself a huge headache and tons of additional hours of research because I now know I'm only interested in dunlop. 2. Phones calls phone calls phone calls! I hate being on/using the phone myself and prefer to read/research online. However a 15 min phone call (if at that) allowed me to find out that Sleep EZ in fact now has a 90-day return policy, and allowed me to find out the elusive information regarding flame retardants on their covers. A total of 3 quick calls also landed me "organic certifications" and mattress material listings and even "chemical analyses" for the products of 2 of the 3 vendors I'm considering (the 3rd vendor, turns out, doesn't have such documentation ~ interesting indeed). 3. Talalay and Dunlop are extremely different. Definitely research and make an informed decision on this (obviously I recommend going to a store to help decide this). It makes complete sense now to me why talalay customers are constantly swapping and experimenting to get the right feel. It also sold me on the idea of layers and going for split-layered mattress. 4. I don't know about depending so much on stats (e.g. ILD's) and other attempts to "standardize" what should work for this or that body frame and weight. I think sleeping comfort is far too personal and subjective for it to be that simple. For instance, I took Savvy Rest's "comfort questionare" at which point they kicked out recommendations on mattress configurations. Turns out my favorite confiruation in-store wasn't any of those recommendations. The questionnare results didn't even suggest the standard firm-med-soft configuration which i found to be pretty spot on for me. To take it a step further, I experimented out of curiosity and tried firm-soft-med which nobody recommends and is very unconventional ~ but it seemed to feel even MORE comfy that way to me. Point is, nothing beats going in person (even if it's to try similar products just to get an idea). Now if only I can convince 1 vendor to incorporate all the "good parts" about the 3 vendors total I'm considering ~ I'd be in heaven! Good luck to everybody... Hope something I said was helpful. Richiro |
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Ricchiro, I found out what I find comfortable in a store for the first hour may not be that comfortable after sleeping on it for a night. This was my experience buying a conventional mattress that were perfect in the store but caused me allergies in my closed bedroom and hurt my back so much. Also the softer latex combinations with my FloBed felt the best for the 1st hour and then in the morning my back hurt so I kept going firmer and firmer with a thinner topper over the very firm latex cores that seemed to work for me and have me sleep well and wake up hating to get out of bed. Hence, make sure where ever you buy a mattress, you have a return or exchange policy. Good luck and please keep us updated. |
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Lynn.. Great point. I'm just excited that I feel much more confident that it's all going to be fine. I am definitely still going back n forth about the 90-day return/exchange vendor vs the 90-day exchange-only vendor for that very reason you mentioned. Especially when the "exchange-only" vendor is the more expensive vendor. But I know the customer support is excellent with that more expensive vendor and just seeing the product myself vs some of the things i've heard with the other vendor, I can see myself going with the "exchange-only" more expensive vendor because I'm pretty convinced at this point they have the higher quality product. But dang.. $500 more and no returns (just exchanges?) That's tough to justify also. *sigh* Richey |
| Richiro, Who only has a 90 day exchange policy only? I know FloBeds lets you exchange cores up to 90 days but also return everything if it is within the 90 days or at least that is how it was when I bought my mattress. Is it the store you like that is local? Maybe you can ask them if they will let you have a special deal in returning everything in 90 days in writing? I would have never tried a mattress online if I would have been stuck with it if it was not comfortable for me no matter how I tried. I am glad I tried and exchanged cores and kept my FloBed. I learned my lessen with my awful Sealy Posteurpedic bed that was always way too firm for even me with no padding at all but I dealt with it for years until the bed's springs broke down and my platform bed broke. |
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I will have to echo Lynn's post - a mattress in the store might feel very good but might also be too soft for the long run. It happened to me... That's what got me here to this forum. You can always soften up a too firm mattress, but it's very difficult to go the other way. Beware of thinking that one retailer has some magical higher quality product. This is just not the case. They all get the stuff from one or two manufacturuers. There is a tremendous amount of hype in this business. What you are mostly getting from the retailers is service and the fact that they are 'there" if something happens. The two that are mentioned mostly on this forum have shown that they are reliable and honest from what I've been able to tell. Paying way more money than what they are asking for their beds doesn't seem prudent to me. On the other end of the spectrum, if you do your homework and are a risktaker, you can DIY and save about 1/2 the cost of retail. Bill |