How to Buy the Best Mattress

The ultimate guide to the best mattress types and brands.

latex mattresses

Latex Mattress vs. TempurPedic: Our Opinion

by

When you are shopping for a new mattress and looking at all of your options, one of the comparisons that will surely make at some point is a latex mattress vs. TempurPedic memory foam. You’ve probably already seen one of the top ranking articles on Google that makes it sound like TempurPedic mattresses are hot, wear out after a few years, and are somehow toxic. But notice that the article is written by someone selling organic latex mattresses. I would think that in general, there is probably an incentive to promote what a company sells in comparison to a brand that it doesn’t carry. Here are some facts about TempurPedic mattresses:

  • They have a 25 year limited warranty. That doesn’t jive with “loses memory in 3 to 5 years,” if you ask me.
  • They were ranked as the top mattress by Consumer Reports in 2012.
  • TempurPedic uses a type of memory foam that was originally invented by NASA scientists as a pressure absorbing material for astronauts during liftoff. A Swedish company licensed and developed the foam for use as a mattress in the 1990s, which eventually became the TempurPedic company you know today. They have continued developing the material ever since.

There’s no question that TempurPedic mattresses are expensive. But I have personally owned one for almost 10 years, and it is still exactly as good as it was when I originally purchased it. It was the best mattress purchase I have ever made, and well worth the money I spent buying it at full retail. TempurPedic says that a 2010 Blackstone Group Tempur-Pedic Owners Study showed that 9 out of 10 people who bought one of their mattresses would buy one again. (Although they don’t specify how long after the purchase they said that.) And they also claim that 94 percent of owners are satisfied with their purchase.

With all that said, I am not saying that latex mattresses aren’t any good. In fact, latex mattresses have quite a few advantages of their own. One issue you have to consider, however, is that TempurPedic is one brand, using its own memory foam. Latex mattresses come in many forms, from many different manufacturers.

You might buy a high quality latex mattress that you like better than a TempurPedic, or a crappy cheap one that you think is worse than any mattress you’ve ever slept on. There are many other types of memory foam, and many brands of memory foam mattresses. So don’t say “TempurPedic” unless you are referring to that specific brand. There are plenty of cheap and terrible memory foam mattresses out there that are other brands.

There’s a lot of work you’ll have to do as a consumer to figure out if you are getting your money’s worth with a latex mattress. That’s because there are a ton of different variables with a latex mattress, and any of them can affect the price, the longevity, the comfort level, the quality of materials and more.

Natural latex is a product that comes from a rubber tree. A mattress can be made of natural latex, or synthetic latex, or a blend of the two. If you are looking for a high end, “natural” option for your bed, then latex is going to be a good way to go. You can buy a completely organic, natural latex mattress. Natural latex will last for many years, and many of the top organic natural latex mattress brands have up to a 20 year warranty.

That being said, there are plenty of blended latex mattresses that are still very high quality mattresses, that are very comfortable. Buying 100 percent “natural latex” guarantees that your price is going to be higher, but it doesn’t guarantee the highest level of comfort. Why? Because you still have to consider the other materials in the mattress, how much latex is being used, where the latex layers are in the mattress, which process was used to make the latex, etc.

What you have to be careful with is that many mattresses are called latex, but it’s rare to find a mattress that is just one big slab of 100 percent latex rubber. Latex mattresses are actually made of lots of different materials. So you don’t know how much latex rubber is actually part of the mattress without checking. It might just be a thin layer at the top of the mattress, instead of being part of the core. Many latex mattresses are part latex, and part memory foam.

Here is an example of a competitively priced latex mattress that comes well reviewed on Amazon, and on many of the mattress forums.

Do you already own a Tempur-Pedic or a latex mattress? Tell us about it, below!

Amazon has some good options to consider at surprising low prices.

Talalay Latex Mattress: What Does It Mean?

by

If you are still considering the type of mattress you want to buy and are looking at latex, you’ve probably heard the term “Talalay Latex” by now. What does that mean? Is it a brand? Is it a variety of latex? Actually, it’s neither. It’s a process used to make the latex into solid pieces of foam rubber. The process was developed in the 1940s by three guys with the last name Talalay, so it is named after them.

But first, let’s start with latex rubber itself. Latex rubber is a natural product that comes from the sap of rubber trees. Rubber trees are grown on plantations in places like South America and Malaysia, and they typically make rubber for up to 30 years. To tap the latex, someone will remove strips of bark, which causes the tree to drip the liquid latex that has to then be processed for whatever its end use will be.

For mattresses, which consist of very large pieces of latex foam rubber, there are two main processes. There is the Dunlop process, and the Talalay process.

The Dunlop process is a pretty simple process, where the rubber can settle in the mold and where the resulting material that comes out might be firmer on one side than the other. The material in general will also have an overall higher firmness. Dunlop material is also usually heavier.

With the Talalay process, the manufacturer will take liquid latex, put it into a mold where all air is vacuumed out. Then the mold is frozen to stabilize the molded material, and injected with carbon dioxide, and then heated up so that the rubber becomes vulcanized and will hold its shape permanently.

With either method, the mold where you pour the latex rubber will have pins in it, which leaves air holes. You can vary the number of pins and the size of the pins to make the mattress perform differently.

There is a lot of additional room for changing the properties of the mattress using the Talalay process, so you can make it softer or firmer.

When you are using latex as the core of the mattress, either method is pretty suitable. But for the layer at the top of the mattress that you feel, you might want to look for Talalay.

Keep in mind that latex can either mean completely natural latex rubber that comes from rubber trees, or it can be a blend of natural and synthetic latex rubber (made from styrene butadiene), or it can be completely synthetic rubber. Completely natural rubber latex is the most expensive. Blends are common. Purely synthetic latex is typically on the low end on the cost scale.

Here is an example of a competitively priced Talalay latex mattress that comes well reviewed on Amazon, and on many of the mattress forums.

Did I leave anything out? Do you still have questions about Talalay latex mattresses? Leave a comment, and if I don’t know the answer, I’ll try to figure it out.