Latex

Are you a discerning shopper looking for the best buy for your money? Then natural latex foam is what you are looking for. Today's innerspring mattresses and polyurethane foam mattresses typically have a maximum life of three to five years. But with latex your mattress can last as long as 40 years! More importantly, unlike polyurethane or innerspring topped with polyurethane, latex will feel as good years from now as it does in the showroom today.

Sound ridiculous? A mattress that can actually last 40 years?! Recently I delivered a mattress to a customer's home and when I went to remove their old mattress, I noticed it was a latex mattress and that it appeared extremely old. I asked the customers how old their mattress was and after a little discussion between them, they told me they purchased it in 1965! That's 41 years! When I brought the old latex mattress back to the store, I took pictures of it and removed the law label to show you that indeed it was that old. The customers told me the only reason they were replacing it was because the cover had ripped, as you can see. After 41 years it had no body impressions and had not softened.


This is a picture I took after I ripped away the cover underneath to expose the latex. As you can see, the latex is still whole and usable.	This is a picture of the rip in the cover that was the reason the customer was replacing it. The latex foam underneath was still good.

This is the law label that I removed from this mattress. It clearly says that the mattress was made of latex foam rubber.	This is the testimonial that the customer wrote for me verifying that she purchased it in 1965.

In Contrast

In contrast to latex is polyurethane. Polyurethane, or poly as it is most often referred to, is derived from petroleum so it is essentially plastic foam. Interestingly, one week after picking up the latex mattress, I picked up a poly mattress from another customer and it was less than one year old. The customer complained that the mattress had developed huge holes where they laid. Even though poly doesn't develop deep visible holes, it does soften substantially in the areas where the sleepers lay and thus develops "holes."

This is a picture I took of the polyurethane mattress. As you can see, it looks fine on the surface but the customer was very unhappy with this mattress in less than one year. Unfortunately, the manufacturer's warranty doesn't cover softening of foam. Manufacturer's consider this "normal."

This is a picture I took after I ripped away the cover to show that it is 100% polyurethane. The unsuspecting customer paid very little for this mattress but they got very little in return. In fact, they wasted their money!

So what is latex foam? Latex is the milky sap of the rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis. It is a complex intracellular product of a system of cells that synthesize a polymer (cis-1,4-polyisoprene), which is the main component of natural latex rubber. This natural latex rubber is produced in Africa, South Asia, South America, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, where trees are tapped for latex by cutting a spiral groove in the bark and placing a spout and collection cup at the base. This natural latex rubber is then molded into remarkable bedding products like mattresses and pillows.

Hevea brasiliensis (rubber tree)

Sleep Essentials has 3 natural latex mattresses on display made by Perfection. Please come by our showroom and try one for yourself. Click here for directions.