Mattress Forum

Up until recently most people (that I talked to anyway) believed that this was simply a "relabeling" of their 100% natural product (at a higher price of course) using latex that had been segregated from their "main" plantation and certified as not using any pesticides in the early years of the trees growth and all the other things that "certification" requires, however there are some indications that their organic latex is qualitatively different from their 100% natural latex.

NAOMI "organic"

http://www.naomiorganics.com/naomicertifiedvendors.html

Phoenix

PS: Changed one of the links to the Bedroom magazine article instead of a vendors article.

Added later: link to USDA certified latex article was removed as Bedroom magazine is sleep related and accepts advertising which is against the TOS here. It basically said that there was now USDA organic certified latex

One of these is "Oregon Tilth" which certifies fibers and textiles for GOTS and others (including the USDA). http://tilth.org/certification/standards/standards-and-regulatons

OMI, NATUREPEDIC, and LIFEKIND claim that they are GOTS certified (Through Oregon Tilth).

I couldn't find LIFEKIND on either the Oregon Tilth website or the GOTS website so I phoned them. Well it turns out that they and OMI both manufacture in the same facility and are sister companies owned by the same people. They told me that they had just noticed a couple of days ago that Lifekind was not listed and plan to correct that.

So at this point here are the "organic" mattresses in North America

OMI (Cotton mattresses only)

LIFEKIND (yet to be listed as to which mattress)

NATUREPEDIC (Ultra crib mattresses only)

Since there doesn't seem to be a list on the USDA site of approved organic products, and since the USDA superceded all other private organic standards when it was implemented in 2002 http://tilth.org/certification/standards/standards-and-regulatons it "appears" that Latex Green at this point has the only "certified organic" latex available.

This also means of course that the NAOMI standard which I included in the last post ... while it may show "purity" levels higher even than the USDA standards (don't know the exact USDA levels) it cannot certify something as organic in the US (only tests for purity and not necessarily for the entire "organic chain of production" and it is not on the USDA or GOTS list of certifiers).

Phoenix

Do you carry the Sueno and Obasan as well as the Vimala?

If you do what do you (and your customers) think of them?

Phoenix

the Vimala was just recenty revised although it was our most popular mattress.  my brother sleeps on one, and I probably would have gotten one for myself however before we got the line I took the plunge on a Natura Eco Haven, which I am very happy with btw.  More than anything I just really like the base systems the GreenSleep beds use.

we do carry some Sueno product which we have actually private labelled so we could get Obasan's fabric on one of the beds.  The name Obasan is only sold direct from the manufacturer.  they are fantastic mattresses, customers generally like them a lot very comparable to the Natura organic line interms of the different build ups.  Although they do things a little bit differently. 

I really do believe though that when it comes to the quality of the raw materials and construction that GreenSleep is in a league of its own...we usually end up comparing those mattresses to beds in much higher price categories like Hypnos and Vi-Spring because from a build quality stand point that is really the more direct competition.  So a lot of really happy people there, although I think that rubber has some limitations so there is no real guarantee that the beds will deliver 100% of what people want, however I do believe that if someone had a Vimala or the new Dolcezza model from them and they were not satisfied then really no all latex mattress would have worked. 

I lay on the eco haven there and it was too firm for both of us but it was a good reference point. The transcend was too firm as well although it was on sale for a very good price and we "tried to like it" because of the price. We both liked the slats. They also carried the OMI Terra and that spoiled both of us, especially in it's softest configuration which we liked the best and it became our initial reference point for what we tended to like. They also had some Englander "all latex" as well and also carried slabs of latex to make your own but we didn't know that at the time (cause they didn't show us).

The other store had their own brand of "custom layers" but while we learned a lot about the feel we liked, we didn't like the quality of their ticking (well actually my other half didn't like it cause she notices stuff like frayed edges more than me). They also carried magniflex which didn't impress us with either the price or the "features" in all their different types of "additives" in the ticking. When we went back to the first place after this was when we found out they also had "make your own layers".

We made a lot of trips to other places as well and at that point I hadn't even discovered this forum yet.

I never did lay on a green sleep but I liked the look of the obasan a lot when I saw it online.

Anyhow, I'm just rambling on as she is marking papers (she's a teacher) in our bed so I can't go and crash yet (laughing).

Gonna go and see if I can convince her to go to sleep.

Good night

Phoenix

OMI is all 'natural' talalay right?  They actually tried to contact us a long time ago to carry their product....how would you compare the product to the Natura's you tried on the overall? 

We also had Magniflex contact us to become a dealer....their product seems very confusing and very gimmicky, I really was not interested in it whatsoever.

The Terra has a Talalay core and then "softer" latex on either side and then the topper. They do say it's all natural but their literature doesn't say the other layers are Talalay although I would think they were (and some other places say it is all Talalay). At the time I wasn't really considering it due to the price but I did like it's feel a lot. It would probably be safe to say that if it wasn't for the Terra and that we both wanted something that felt as good as that but within our budget, I would probably have bought something much sooner. It was the desire to reproduce it and see "what else was out there" that was the initial impetus to my research before it took on a life of its own. It to me felt and looked much nicer than any of the Natura's that I either lay on or even saw. It was very impressive. Their 81 was also very interesting and from a retail point of view could be quite practical as there are no comfort exchanges (it has 81 different configurations).

The magniflex to me was one big series of gimmics. I did lay on a couple and they were ok but nothing special ... especially for their price range. Even the salesperson there didn't treat them too seriously. I guess I just couldn't see the benefit of 22 karat gold impregnated yarn ... or any of their other "special benefits".

Phoenix

Congratulations on your mattress. Sounds like you hit the right formula. Enjoy!!!!

My wife and I are continuing our hunt. Ran into the back store and came across Swiss Rest. Was very comfortable and all talalay latex. Also tried the OMI lago. Here are the specs on the Swiss Rest: The cushion firm was a great combination for us. Euro pillow top was quilted latex. Latex Int. is the supplier. I am cking out the company on the web.

Have you heard of them? Positive/negative??

                                             sy

They are one of a large "family" of websites (at least 20) that I came across often in different iterations in my research. I came to recognize them pretty quickly and kept adding to a long list of sites that was (sort of) the same so I wouldn't keep covering the same ground. At that time most of them hadn't attached the name "Swiss Rest" to their mattress (and I don't think most of them do even now). They have been around for quite a while and specialize in adjustable beds and "medical" applications although they sell to consumers as well. They are all in the electropedic "family" of businesses and to their credit, at least the bbb rating of this site is an A (don't know if this covers the whole family or just this site).

I wanted to talk to someone closer to the "origin" of all these websites so I talked with someone here (pretty sure it was this one anyway but I'd have to go through a bunch of old notes to be sure) . This may or may not be the main site (Its different from the previous link) but I'm glad I called it.

The different websites had a lot of conflicting information and prices and they seemed very disorganized. For example at some sites the breakdown of the outer layers is 1.1, at other sites it is 1.9. Perhaps this is the difference between their high and low profile but I thought their low profile was just the core.

Having said that, I did have quite a long conversation with the person I talked to and he was quite up front with me. He said they were in a kind of "transition" period and that they hadn't really decided on a mattress that they wanted to "promote". He acknowledged the confusion that could come from the differing information at their many websites. He did say that while he personally did like the mattress with 1.1 + 5.6 + 1.1 ... that they were having some problems with it especially on adjustable beds. He seemed to know what he was talking about and seemed very honest ... but what he said didn't inspire me about the company (even though I appreciated the person). The main reason I talked to them was because of their combination of latex mattresses and the selection of adjustable beds at good prices (at least if you bought both from them) but not the best prices.

In the end, I was getting so much conflicting information about them that I pretty much decided to pass them by given the amount of choice there was out there.

Everything I did with them though was on the internet, it sounds like you found a bricks and mortar outlet. If that is the case then of course your research becomes much easier. FWIW ... the Latex International blended talalay comes in 5.6 inch slabs. The all natural is 6". Even many/most of the blended they are producing now is 6".

I would personally question outer layers that were that thin (1.1 or 1.9 depending on which website you go to) but personal experience should always overrule theory.

I also believe that each of the different outlets has some degree of "independence" so the actual mattresses may be different as well.

There is another "family" of websites (homeplacegroup) that I spend many hours trying to "unravel" that is even worse with outdated pricing and information. In their case all their sites lead to the same place (or at least the same place answers the phone). They would not honor any of the adjustable bed/mattress combinations I was interested in and kept trying to do a bait and switch with me (with the better value similar pricing BS).

So was this an actual store where you lay on mattresses?

Phoenix