I looked at 2 Latex mattresses at Jordan's, a New England furniture store.  I was somewhat impressed that they listed at least some detailed information about the Latex on the tags.  Also, the sales person was very helpful.

The first was a mattress made by Nature's Rest, a company supposedly located in Massachusetts.
The specs were:  about $2200
Quilted layer
     Organic cotton; 1 ounce Jona wool; antimicrobial fiber
     3/4" Talalay layer 19 ILD
     3/4" Talalay layer 19 ILD
Comfort Layer
     3" Dunlop  24 ILD
Support Layer
     6" I-core 32 ILD (said to be Dunlop)
     shoulder channels
     7/8" 1.45 Density Foam (said to just to cushion the platform)
Box Spring has 1/2" 1.45 density foam on top of wood foundation

The second was by Natura's mattress (but not organic) about $2400
Quilted layer
     Cotton blend cover; 18 ounce smartwool
     1" quilt flex (some kind foam)
Comfort layer
     2" Talalay latex 32 ILD 60/40 blend
     2" top has it's own zipper and is removable
Support
     6" all natural Dunlop
Foundation
     slatted whit pine


Any thoughts on these two mattresses would be great. 

JohnS
    

John,

I looked at Jordans for a latex mattress when I was searching a couple of years ago.While the Natures Rest is a very nice mattress they are rather pricey.

If you do not want to do the mail-order route for your latex mattress and you are close to the Massachusetts/New Hamshire area I woud suggest Gardner Mattress

http://www.gardnermattress.com

They have traditional spring as well as Latex mattresses and are great to deal with both online as well as in person.

Jeff

John: It is good to see that at least some folks are willing to list there mattresses contents. Was this a queen size?

The first mattresses seems to be a rather soft mattresses. The second is more firm but they do not say what support the 6" Dunlop core is.  What size person are you?

I'm 5'9" and 165.  At Jordan's they have a body sensor that you lay on and it maps out pressure points.  It showed that my wife and I tended fall into the softer side of the spectrum of mattresses.  I don't mind ordering online, but just wondering if it is possible to compare these mattresses to the ones offered by Sleep EZ and Flobeds. 

JohnS

JohnS wrote:
John: with your size you would definitely fall into the softer mattress configuration. And since I'm assuming your wife is smaller than you are you both would probably enjoy a soft to medium mattress.

All of the major niche market latex mattress sellers that I'm aware of, IE FloBeds, SleepEZ, Savvy Rest, and Habitat, do not use the type of multilayer top zone that a lot of other manufacturers utilize. In other words you normally have a two or 3 inch top piece, followed by two or three additional 3 inch pieces of various firmness latex, covered in a mattress cover with a minimal amount of wool batting on the top and bottom of the cover. They dispense with all of the various 1" and 3/4" supersoft pieces of top layer foam. Other than that there seems to be quite a bit of similarity. I would suggest that you go to FloBeds, SleepEZ, Savvy Rest, and Habitats websites and read what they have to offer. It's going to take some time but it should assure you of getting a mattress that will make you happy.

There is plenty of referral material on this site regarding these major companies. Particularly FloBeds, SleepEZ and Savvy Rest. Habitat has a very different approach to making a mattress. It will appeal to some, and be unappealing to others. But they are unique and have a very interesting website with some very instructional videos. Just do not believe everything that anyone tells you about a mattress. Everybody has their opinions. FloBeds seems to be the most neutral of any of them. One reason being that they sell their principal line which is latex, but they also sell waterbeds, and air beds.

Good luck!