Englander Laytex in Southern California
Nov 7, 2007 11:58 PM
Joined: Nov 7, 2007
Points: 3
Hi Everyone - I'm new to the forum, and I hope I can make my first post a good one...

I have been researching and shopping for a Latex Eastern King to replace to our 12 year old Simmons.  I have been mining the old WTB-M forum, and googling, and I've visited the 5 largest shops in my area.  So far, my wife is dead set against me trying to build out a set of cores at sleepez.com or the other online foam favorites.  So, that limits me to local stores.  The selection is pretty thin in mattresses with Latex cores - it appears to be Englander, Serta Vera Wang or Sealy Spring Free.  We did NOT like the Serta or the Sealy - all the models on the showroom were too soft and/or too plush.  We have seen an Englander that we liked - it was quilted, but it did not have a pillow top, and the support seemed just about right.  I'm aware of the bad reviews scattered around on the 'net about Englander quickly having body indentations, but it appears to me that many of those reviews are from people who bought "The top of the line Englander", and I suspect they bought huge ultra-plush pillow tops.  I wonder how the reviews would look for the non-pillow top Latex models.

 The Englander web site is useless - they don't even show the model names, let alone specs.  However, I did find the Englander mfr for SoCal, it is Medi-Pedic Bedding Co in Commerce, CA.  http://www.medi-pedic.com/  The only page on their web site appears to be the specs of the mattresses they produce. 

Looking at those specs, I think the mattress we saw and liked is probably the "Laytex" (apparently, they aren't wizards at product names) - it has these specs:

Laytex
6" core pure natural rubber (30 ILD)
Quilting material:
a Hollow Fill™
a Quiltflex™
Approximate mattress thickness: 9"
Comfort level: Firm                          Medium                          Soft
                              1     2      3      4      5       6      7      8      9      10

Or, it could have been the "Natural-Pedic":

Natural-Pedic
6" core pure natural rubber (30 ILD)
2" Flex 55 base material
Quilting material:
a Hollow Fill™
a Quiltflex™
Approximate mattress thickness: 11"
Comfort level: Firm                          Medium                          Soft
                                   2      3      4      5       6      7      8      9      10

I'm planning to go back and get more detailed info at the showroom.

I dug around a bit and found this info on "Quiltflex":  http://www.foamex.com/quiltflex.php

I think "Hollow Fill" is probably good old polyester .  I'm assuming "Flex 55" is some sort of PU foam that is put on the bottom of the Natural-Pedic.

So - the quilted & hollow-fill tops have me a bit concerned - body indentations is the main reason we want a new bed.  The PU base is also a big red flag warning for me - based on what I have read here, I don't really like the idea of having the whole mattress based on a 2" PU base - wouldn't that be a recipe for break down?

My question is - are there any current owners of an Englander "Laytex" that can comment on how well their mattresses have performed?  Also can any forum members that are familiar with Englander Latex beds sold in SoCal confirm or deny the Englander Latex mattress models sold here?

Thanks!!!
This message was modified Nov 7, 2007 by BillyBob_jcv
Re: Englander Laytex in Southern California
Reply #1 Nov 8, 2007 12:16 AM
Joined: Aug 30, 2007
Points: 464
BillyBob_jcv wrote:
So, that limits me to local stores.

Consider including Custom Comfort (Orange County) in your research.

Re: Englander Laytex in Southern California
Reply #2 Nov 8, 2007 6:22 PM
Joined: Nov 7, 2007
Points: 3
Thanks for the responses.  Actually, I forgot to write that we did try the Natura - it was OK, but the 2 models they had in the showroom were too hard & too plush, respectfully.  I'm on the North side of SoCal, so Custom Comfort would be a bit of a drive, and I doubt they would deliver to me, but if I get a chance I'll try to drive down.

We just saw a new contender at Sit 'n Sleep - the Aireloom "Sweden".  The salesman claimed it was a new all latex model from Aireloom - and the cover was imprinted with "100% Latex" (for what that's worth) - but, of course, they had no specs or literature and the Aireloom web site has nothing about a 100% latex model.  It is *considerably more* money than the Englander - but (again, of course) it felt wonderful.  Does anyone know anything about the Aireloom "Sweden"?
Re: Englander Laytex in Southern California
Reply #3 Nov 17, 2007 5:25 PM
Joined: Sep 11, 2007
Points: 111
We live in Oregon and bought an Englander Laytex mattress that has a 100% latex core with some small amount of quilting on top. The salesperson said that the density was around 36 ILD. Well, we ended up taking it back after a 30 day trial. This density is not firm enough to be supportive nor cushy enough to relieve pressure points. I realize now that if you want to go with latex, you need to do what most people on this forum have done and customize a bed with layers of different densities. We didn't want to go to the trouble of ordering and sending back layers, but I think it would have been worth it. We are now locked into a comfort exchange with our local store with a regular inner spring mattress as our only option (we know we don't want a Tempurpedic). Ah well, live and learn...

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