There are more than a dozen manufacturers of latex mattress cores that I am aware on planet Earth. There are two making Talalay Latex, at least 10 manufacturing Dunlop Latex. A couple of these make Dunlop in a continuous process with the rest using old fashioned molds. Is one better than the rest? Or are all pretty much the same. Sure, admittedly I am biased and have my favorites. However, recently I had my eyes opened to my own biases. I visited a major internet seller of latex mattresses and subjected myself to a “blind feel test”. Here is the test and my observations. They placed 4 mattresses in front of me, all with the same cover on them. Each latex core build was identical as far as the density and ILD of the latex used. The difference was that each latex core build came from a different manufacturer of latex. Just so you know, I have been working with latex for over 30 years and thought for sure I could identify each individual manufacturer. I thought one manufacturer’s latex was more bouncy or another manufacturer’s latex was more boardy and dead feeling. I was allowed to lay down on each mattress, inspect the mattress in any way or simply pick up the mattress to compare differences in weight. I had as much time as I needed to try to determine which mattress was matched with a particular manufacturer. After performing every test that I could think of, guess what? I could not tell the difference. Furthermore, when I was challenged to identify the manufacturer of the latex for each mattress I was only right on one of the mattresses.
So my point in all of this is that it really doesn’t matter a whole lot who is the manufacturer of the latex. All four of the companies involved in the “blind feel test” are credible companies and have manufacturing latex for many years. A further point is that many of these same manufacturers are approved vendors to major bedding manufacturers here in the US. In other words, these manufacturers can buy from any of these companies and maintain good quality control. Major bedding companies put these vendors through stringent testing before approving them for their mattresses. The major determining factor is consistency of quality and feel.
In conclusion, don’t get hung up on websites, blogs or companies themselves touting one company’s latex over the other. They main thing is to make your own determination using your own “blind feel test.” If the mattress is well made, feels good and is the right price, make your decision based on that.
