We use 100% Natural Vita Talalay Latex at Fawcett. We often are asked, ” Is the Latex that you use in your mattresses 100% Natural? or a blend of Synthetic Latex and natural?
We simply never use a blend of synthetic and natural latex in our mattresses. We use 100% Natural Talalay Latex foams. Our preferred latex is Natural Vita Talalay Latex.
Natural latex is tapped from a hevea brasiliensis rubber tree. It’s benign and inert.
Organic VS Natural
We are able to create our mattresses with either 100% Natural Vita Talalay Latex, or Certified Organic Dunlop Latex.
The Dunlop latex is certified Organic, and the Natural Talalay Latex is not.
However, 100% Natural Vita Talalay Latex, based out of the Netherlands in Europe, has earned Oeko-Tex 100, class 1 and Cradle to Cradle Gold certifications. It can can be argued these are tougher standards than the “Organic” designation, which is popular in the USA and Canada.
Also interestingly, Organic Dunlop Latex is less costly for us to acquire.
But, we almost exclusively build with 100% Natural Vita Talalay Latex. The non-organic latex. The only time we will build with Dunlop is if a client specifically requires we use Dunlop latex.
We believe 100% Natural Vita Talalay Latex is the best material available on the market today.
When compared to the Dunlop process, we find Natural Talalay Latex to be more “alive” – what does that mean? Well, to a mattress maker of over 30 years – apparently a lot. The feel is more resilient and active than Dunlop.
Dunlop VS Vita Talalay Process
In the Dunlop process, natural rubber tree sap is poured into a mould before being cooked in a process called vulcanization. Before the latex is rendered into its solid state, any natural sediments within the mixture settle to the bottom. This may result in an inconsistent latex core that is softer on the top and firmer on the bottom.
By comparison, the Talalay foaming process takes place in a vacuum chamber, and yields a far more consistent product due to the fact that the latex is flash frozen before vulcanization.
This step evenly suspends any particulates, resulting in consistent firmness throughout the core. Besides their production processes, Dunlop and Talalay also differ in their buoyancy. Dunlop tends to be heavy and dense while Talalay is soft, bouncy and resilient.
Lastly, 100% Natural Vita Talalay is available in five firmnesses while Dunlop is only available in three. This gives us more flexibility to customize mattresses for our clients.
Synthetic Foams
A Queen size Mattress for only $299 ?
What’s wrong with synthetic foams? Where do we start?
First, many synthetic foams are what we refer to as a “toxic chemical bath”. Some, worse than others. Sure, you can buy a mattress for $299 CAD. Really, you can, here.
For $299, we can’t purchase, manufacturer direct, a 100% Natural Talalay Latex Core. But, you can purchase all sorts of nasty, synthetic, petroleum based foams for well – cheap.
Will a $299 mattress be comfortable? Possibly, for a few months or maybe even a couple of years. But synthetic foams just don’t last as long as either Dunlop or Natural Talalay Latex foams.
More importantly, what kind of toxic chemicals are being emitted from any memory foams? (they are typically one of the worst offenders). What kind of fire retardants have been utilized to combat the flammability of such petroleum based foams? Note, Fawcett uses natural joma wool as a component which has natural fire retardant qualities.
Cradle to Cradle Product Certified – GOLD
The 100% Natural Vita Talalay Latex that we use in our mattresses is rated GOLD by the Cradle to Cradle products institute. Arguably, this is a tougher standard to achieve and is popular in Europe compared to the North American based GOLS certification.
Conclusion
Like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Cheap products and shortcuts have their own “costs”. In the case of inferior foams, and chemicals, the cost may be your health.
At Fawcett, we are using the most sustainable, natural, healthy, non off-gassing materials available on the market today. All of our mattresses, from our best value model 6 to our most luxurious model 9, all use the same high quality natural, healthy materials.
If you’re interested in more health & sleep related articles, check out our health category.
What are you sleeping on?
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