I finally got around to taking some photos of my latex.  I own a king sized latex bed.  Half of it is Latex International [LI] latex and half of it is Foam by Mail [FBM] latex.

The LI side consists of:

3" blended talalay 44 ILD
3" blended talalay 36 ILD
2" natural talalay 32 ILD

The FBM side consists of:

6" talalay Firm
2" talalay Soft

Here are some photos:


FBM on the left and LI on the right.  You can see the obvious difference in quality.


FBM core in the cover.


FBM cover cut open.


FBM core brown spots and other inconsistencies.


FBM core random pincore holes, cut side view.


FBM soft topper random hole patterns.


FBM topper short, should be 80" long


FBM core short.


FBM invoice with my personal information covered up.


LI 32 ILD natural talalay topper tag.


LI 36 ILD blended talalay tag.


LI 44 ILD blended talalay tag.


In general, my thoughts are:  Latex International has very high quality latex.  If/when I purchase future latex, I will pony up the extra cash for all LI latex.  Unfortunately it was impractical to return my FBM latex.  The problems with returning were 1) extremely difficult to package, 2) expensive to ship, 3) after paying return shipping, 25% of the cost is deducted and then the initial FBM shipping cost is deducted, which leaves little value left for the struggle.

I don't work for LI, I am a consumer of bedding.  I thought sharing my experiences would be helpful to others deciding where to buy their latex.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Sabra wrote:

Hey Sabra, I replied to your private message. ;)   In my opinion, it seems like the FBM layers I got 2 weeks ago were Talalay and not dunlop but I could be wrong.  Jim may have more experience with Dunlop to properly identify it.  I think most people have confirmed in earlier posts that it was a synthetic blend of Talalay.

I can't be certain what it is.  It is very different than the LI latex in feel.  One side of the 6" core is firmer than the other.  However it doesn't feel denser than the other side, which I thought it would if it was dunlop process latex.

MequonJim wrote:
Jim your description of your 6 inch core definitely sounds like Dunlop to me. One of the characteristics of Dunlop is that one side will feel different than the other, as opposed to Talalay. Both sides of Talalay will feel basically the same. Now I'm talking about 100% botanically grown Talalay process latex. I have never seen, felt, or smelled blended Talalay.

One side should not feel denser than the other side I wouldn't think. But one side is a bit stiffer than the other side I have been told. It is also, supposedly, one of the advantages of Dunlop in that you can turn it over and have a different feel.

MequonJim,

You mention that the 6" feels different on each side. I have noticed that my FoamByMail latex (6" firm, 2" med, 2" soft, and 1" soft) has a smooth side and a rough side, but I have been unable to decide if one is firmer than the other. Which side do you think is the firmer side?

I called FoamByMail to clarify which side should be up and they seemed oblivious to the fact that each side had a different degree of smoothness and told to try both ways and pick a preference.

I have had the setup for about a month now using the 6" firm, 2" med, 1" soft and I feel it lacks support while at the same time feeling too hard on the surface.

I cannot at all tell the difference between my 2" med and 2" soft, and even the 6" firm does not feel any firmer (though it is so much thicker that is difficult to compare). I have come to suspect these guys have one type of latex and are just letting people order the different densities figuring that nobody will notice the difference, and even if they did it is too inconvenient to return.

Thoughts?

gggunhold wrote:
To test your theory, try moving the 2" parts to the bottom of your mattress.  Does it feel the same?

In my opinion, you are correct.  The latex manufacturer may be tricking FBM or FBM is tricking the public.  I think the few who like their FBM latex beds got lucky.

Not only is it inconvenient to return, it is very costly, which makes it not worthwhile.  Did you read their return policy?

Good luck to you.

I did know about the return policy and I was willing to take the gamble. What I hadn't banked on was them blatently false advertising their product as having different degrees of firmness when they would appear to all be the same. I mistakenly assumed their ILD ratings were truthful and used them as a reference against what I had experienced in local matress stores. In reality the FBM firm 6" base is much much softer than any latex mattress I was able to try in various local stores, while their soft topper is much firmer.

MequonJim, you mentioned observing different degrees of firmness on either side of your 6" base. In your opinion which was the firmer side between the smooth and rough sides?

I haven't tried the 6 inch "firm" base but there is definitely a difference between the medium (32 ILD) and soft (18-21) tal latex toppers so your claim of false advertising is probably untrue. I went with the LUX 6inch base, you may want to try that as well with at least 3 inches of medium on top (soft hurt my back), I use 4 with a soft layer in the middle and it sleeps perfect.

Well i didn't think i'd care about superficial flaws that don't affect performance, but i'd pay more for the one on the right.  Now wrong lengths are another story.  O.T.O.h. i've heard at least two instances of L.I. doing the same (not poor quality, just wrong sizes or cut short). 

Wish i could find a LOCAL place where i can see what i'm buying before i hand over my money.  In houston you'd think it'd be possible.

Jason, you may have read my story about Flobeds sending the wrong size convoluted topper with my bed.  There was actually another guy on these forums who bought a Flobed about the same time and also got the wrong size topper with his shipment. 

What happened is apparently they had a batch of king sized convoluted toppers that accidentally were labeled as queen.  The first they knew of it was when I called them to say my queen topper was way too big, and they had me measure it while I was on the phone with them.  After my conversation with them, they went through the whole warehouse and individually checked each topper to be sure they were correctly labeled.  They sent me a new topper immediately, with a return label so I could send the king sized one back at their expense.

I think the issue was a shade different - the topper was cut to the correct dimensions but the wrong labels were accidentally affixed.  The FBM layers were just not cut accurately to size.

When I got my second, correctly sized topper from Flobeds, at first I thought it was a little short both length and width wise.  However, after a little fussing and adjusting all the layers to fit accurately together, it is exactly the right size.

Jason, where in Texas are you?  There's this place in Texas you might go to their showroom and try one.  From the description, it *sounds* like they are selling Dunlop processed latex, but you'd have to check:

http://www.texasmattress.com/

KimberlyH wrote:

Thanks! I'm in houston, & apparently they have a showroom right here, but it's an antique store?  I don't see anything in the way of latex there.  Thanks for the tip though, I'll defintely investigate further to make sure. 

And yeah, if the reputable brands are making multiple mistakes with with one customer, not much hope for the lower budget operations in that regard.  At least their c.s. took care of you, that's the main thing.  That alone is worht paying for.  Now that JimS.C. has me thinking along the lines of his surgery projects- which is as far from "NO D.I.Y." as possible- i'm thinking about seeing what my current sealy looks like on the inside.  since it will be disposed of anyway, eventually.  thanks again.