Mattress Forum

Based on the rubber samples we have had in our showroom I would say that natural rubber is more resistant to UV radiation than synthetic as well, but this is less than scientific because its not like this is controlled testing...just more an empirical observation.  But its not good for either one, in a mattress this typically shouldn't be an issue.  I just have a really hard time believing that blended rubber or synthetic rubber would be more durable given that it crumbles so easily compared to natural dunlop.  Perfection Mattress has a good group of informational videos on youtube, he had a customer that bought a 5" Natural Dunlop mattress from Sears made by GoodYear.  This particular mattress had lasted basically 50 years before they replaced it...the only thing wrong with it was the completely destroyed cover.  This is most likely an exception and certainly not the rule on how long any natural latex bed should last.  But basically what I am getting at is that natural rubber beds have been made for a long time, and we know because of how many of them have sold and that most last like 20+ years that they are an incredibly durable mattress type. We have also sold about 500 latex mattresses in the last few years, about half of them are blended talalay latex (lots of childrens mattresses though), and the other half are 100% natural, some with talalay, but most with all dunlop construction. Out of all those mattresses, we have had 3 issues with blended latex mattresses...believe me this is actually exceptionally good compared to all the S brand stuff we used to sell where warranty issues (just the ones that qualified...probably some that we dont know about as well) was in the range of 4~8% failure rate inside of 4 years.  More than half of those failures coming within 18 months of date of purchase.  To date we have no documented issues with 100% natural rubber breaking down prematurely, Talalay or Dunlop.  I am sure inevitably this data is going to change, but so far its in the lead for us based on customer complaints and documented warranty issues.  Note, this does not mean they are 100% successful in terms of comfort...just no defective products that we know of...yet.

When synthetic foam producers tell me their products will last longer...are they basing it on this kind of data?  Have they even been selling the product long enough to know how long it will last?  Phoenix had some very good information regarding why Natural Talalay latex is not currently made in the super low ILD's because of shear type force loads that could cause issues and how if natural rubber is made too low of a density it's elasticity will work against itself because of shear force (literally being stretched apart because the rubber is so flexible).  Anything above high teens in the ILD's the elasticity of natural rubber just helps it bounce back without losing firmness and the elasticity generally helps the durability.

Also knowing that UV radiation and the chemicals in our sweat are what causes rubber to break down faster than physical forces like those replicated in manufacturer testing (giant rollers beating on the foam), these kinds of claims also seem highly irrelevant to me.  What is relevant to me is real world data and experience. 

If synthetic latex was superior then why on earth would the same company blend any natural rubber into the mix at all when the cost of doing so is significantly higher?  it would be much cheaper to make the product 100% synthetically. 

Why does this company promote the blended or synthetic product to be better than the all natural when they charge basically the same for both? because they want you to buy the cheaper more profitable product. 

The last point being the main reason I still say that blended rubber is an awesome material to use in a mattress...but if the price difference is really small I would pay the premium to sleep on natural rubber. In our store the blended latex products are signifcantly less expensive than the all natural ones....so we carry both. Above and beyond all of this, is the whole chemical aspect, the resistance that natural rubber has to allergens like dust mites, moulds, bacteria....SBR is lacking these properties and at the end of the day it is a petroleum product.

Budgy, I called sleepez 2 times and the same guy told me that blended talalay latex lasts longer then natural talalay latex. And laso that it contours better to your body then natural talalay latex.

Do you think SleepEz does not know what they are talking about?

I think that a lot of retailers have been sold the story by Latex International to believe that their talatech latex foam is somehow special.  I am not going to say its inferior by any means, just that at the end of the day these are businesses, and businesses are driven by profit more than integrity.  I have yet to see any proper scientific comparison done between blended talalay and natural talalay, 'pressure map' tests done without numbers being listed, and claims by industry representatives is all we have.  Wikipedia has more relevant information regarding the differences between SBR and NR.