Mattress Forum

mattressmom wrote: "The Dunlop definitely thuds rather than boings. I found there so much latex information tilted toward Talalay that I sought out places that specialized in Dunlop."

Glad to hear you say that. That is exactly how I would describe it as well, so that really verifies for me that although we did not like the Talalay mattress we tried from flo-beds a few years ago, we might still like latex in the Dunlop variety. Actually the first latex I ever layed on was Dunlop and it felt good, but then everyone said how greaet Talalay was so I bought into the hype. I'm not saying it isn't good, I'm just saying maybe Dunlop is better for ME.

Thanks for the report and for the link. I'm going to check this company out.

Mattressmom, I'm intrigued by your report on Savvy Rest. It's now been a couple months, are you just as happy now with your new mattress?

I see you got soft | medium | firm. I'm looking to buy a ("Full/Std" size) Dunlop mattress for my Mom. She's 80, a side sleeper, and weighs only about 105 lbs. Based on the Savvy Rest mattress questionaire  (http://www.savvyrest.com/helpful-info/mattress-questionnaire/index.php) and what the women at http://www.tinybirdsorganics.com/northstarbeds/organic-mattress-latexrubber.html write ("My sister and I both like the soft-soft-medium layering best for ourselves (we are in the 100-150 lb range and suffered from back-aches in the past when we used innerspring mattresses")  I was thinking maybe soft | soft | medium might be right for my Mom, considering that soft Dunlop is firmer than soft Talalay.

My other choice would be a SleepEz mattress, which is less expensive. Like you, though, I'm a bit concerned at the lack of info about their cover. Plus, although they offer Dunlop during the checkout process, they clearly favor Talalay, whereas I'm leaning towards Dunlop. The Savvy Rest emphasis on organic is nice, btw, but my Mom is not allergic nor (as far as I know) hypersensitive to chemicals.

Are you totally satisfied after two months? Do you think the Savvy Rest was worth the extra expense? 

Philly888

You're right, and it's it's a Catch-22 if you want Dunlop instead of Talalay - as far as I can tell, only Flobeds has the really good exchange and return policy, and they sell only Talalay.  I've ordered a Flobeds mattress and I hope my Mom likes it. A good sale, the fact that even in Std/Full there are split cores, and the emphasis on exchanges/returns in this forum are what swayed me to go with Flobeds.

Mattressmom in this thread was very persuasive about Dunlop and Savvy Rest, but Lynn2006 was ultimately more persuasive towards Flobeds. I really don't think my Mom will want to do any exchanges, but I like having the assurance that I could if I wanted to at low cost. Lynn2006 is probably closer to my Mom in height and weight than most of the other posters, and she (Lynn2006) prefers Talalay. I'm still not sure what I want for myself, and I've spent more than I've planned on my Mom's mattress, so I'm going to try to get by with a $65 topper. One crap shoot at a time.

Philly888

I visited the Savvy Rest site and it seems like they give you one comfort exchange and do not accept returns at all! I would never buy something as expensive and personal as a mattress without having test driven it first if I knew I couldn't return it if it wasn't right for me. I think that's a terrible policy for any online mattress merchant to have. Mattressmom was really lucky it worked out for her.

It's Lynn2006 who prefers Talalay - she has a Flobeds Talalay mattress, and she bought a Dunlop topper and returned it and got a Talalay topper. I don't know what my mother prefers. I know it's not inner spring, because it's been 50 years or more since she had an inner spring mattress and she's said she doesn't want inner spring. She's been sleeping on a Sears-o-pedic polyurethane mattress for the past 30 years, so I suspect she can sleep on anything.

The reason I was leaning towards Dunlop was because of all the comfort exchanges of Talalay I've seen being discussed here, and because Dunlop has been described as being less pushy, less bouncy, and more like polyurethane foam. And I was interested in a Savvy Rest Dunlop mattress because Mattressmom was so happy with hers. But their no return policy along with the premium price were a concern.

SleepEZ has the best price by far and offers Dunlop. Novahelp's dissatisfaction with his SleepEZ 10000 worried me, although what he got was Talalay (another reason I wanted Dunlop) and at 6'5" he's built nothing like my 105lb mother. Novahelp's troubles repacking and returning layers also was a concern. Lastly, when I called SleepEZ, I got a salesman who  seemed disinterested (he sounded sleepy). Flobeds' salesman was wide awake and spent a lot of time on the phone with me.

Lynn2006 is a good advocate for Flobeds, and very importantly she's close in size and weight to my mother. On the other hand, the multiple multiple exchanges she's discussed was a double-edged sword: it convinced me of Flobeds' excellent customer service and layer exchange policy, but it made me worry all the more about Talalay ... and that's all Flobeds offers. And I know my Mom will not be keen on the idea of doing an exchange or return, no matter what, so it's important to get it right on the first throw of the dice. But Lynn2006's situation is different in that she had an accident that put her in a lot of pain and made her particularly sensitive. My Mom is 80, has a sore knee, and recently had sciatica but still is relatively happy sleeping on her 30-year-old polyurethane Sears mattress.

So it was a difficult decision on what to get for my mother. As I've written elsewhere, learning that Flobeds offers split cores on a Full/Std, something others offer only on Queen and King size, was a big deal. And the clincher was the sale on the Flobeds "zone-on-point" that's recommended for side sleepers. Split cores, zone-on-point, free layer exchanges, no restocking fee for a total return (just shipping) ... these factors give me a lot of options for configuring my Mom's bed and made me give up the desire for Dunlop. Besides, maybe Talalay is the best for my Mom after all. Neither she nor I have tested them, so what do we know? Talalay has seemingly been dissed in this forum lately, but Lynn2006 isn't the only person here who's happy with it. Talalay is favored by many mattress makers, and not because it's any cheaper to make (I believe the opposite is true). If Dunlop was better, and cheaper to make than Talalay, Flobeds and SleepEZ and many others would be pushing Dunlop. And they're not.

Philly888