As our natural latex business has exploded, more and more customers have called me back after sleeping on their new latex bed to tell me how much relief they’ve had from chronic neck and back pain. Amazingly, some of the folks have been “through the mill” as I call it..having tried everything from the leading brand of memory foam bed, expensive high end pillow top mattresses, all kinds of air beds, water beds, and urethane foam beds. The elastic qualities of Natural Latex are hard to duplicate, and when trying them out for the first time, many people have told me that the support they get in the head and neck area is completely different form anything else they’ve tried. You don’t sink in or bottom out, and when you move, especially if you are a side sleeper, natural latex “instantly responds”, and there’s no “waiting for the bed to catch up to you” in the words of one of my customers who has suffered for decades after being rear ended in a car. Other customers have indicated that since “foam rubber” (which is an archaic term for Natural Latex, but nevertheless accurate) does not accumulate body heat like petroleum based foams, it is far more soothing and you don’t have to constantly reposition yourself because you are overheated. One question people often ask me is “Which of your two models should I choose?”, which is why we highly recommend watching our videos which, step by step, evaluate both our 6″ and 8″ models so you can choose the right fit. You can watch our videos on our site, http://www.habitatfurnishings.com/latex_mattress.html, scroll down to choose the “..which model might work best for you” video, which is really in-depth. Latex bedding, even though it’s been around for decades, is becoming a mainstream bedding option now, and in many cases, we’ve found that pain relief is a driving force behind this.
July 18, 2007
The Difference Between “Visco” Memory Foam And Natural Latex
This is a commonly asked question, suprisingly, and easy to answer, too. Viscoelastic memory foam is manufactured using petroleum based products, and is a urethane foam. The manufacturing process itself is what provides the “memory” characteristics, the slow response time, the settling or sinking in feeling, if you will. Natural latex, which is foam rubber to be exact, is a botanical product, derived from the rubber tree, Hevea brasiliensis.
The raw material used to make a latex bed is collected in vast quantities, and vulcanized after being mixed with air, to create the wonderfully elastic and flexible all natural material. You can watch a video about the “green” characteristics of our Natural Latex on our site, http://www.habitatfurnishings.com/latex_mattress.html, including lots of information about the unique qualities of this renewable and sustainable resource.
I guess one of the reasons why people want to know the difference between “visco” foam and natural latex might be issues regarding offgassing and fumes, which are often associated with petroleum derived products like the visco-elastic urethane foams. Natural Latex bedding produces no offgassing or noxious fumes, since it is an all natural material.
July 16, 2007
Natural Latex Mattresses: Foam Rubber Beds Are Nothing New
We receive many calls from customers really excited about natural latex beds, both inspired by reading our website (http://www.habitatfurnishings.com/latex_mattress.html), and by nostalgic recollections of the foam rubber mattress that Mom had in her house in the 60’s and 70’s. As we mention on our site and perhaps in other blog entries, foam rubber latex beds have been around much longer than most of the alternative bedding products on the market today..by decades longer. “I remember how incredibly comfortable it was..how elastic, how responsive, how giving it was” was one comment from a woman whose Mom had a Sears foam rubber bed that lasted for 30 years. “It was as white as the day she bought it, in perfect condition..like it was in a time machine”. Of course, we’re aware of the wonderful organic properties of a natural latex mattress such as it’s resistance to photoreactive discoloration, cracking, drying out, and general disintegration well known by folks who own memory foam or high density foam beds. Of course, as petroleum products came on strong and synthetic foam rubber and other materials displaced the natural foam rubber mattresses, they fell out of favor for many years. Now, the appeal of an all natural foam rubber mattress is unprecedented, and we are astonished at how many of these beds we sell, how people love them, and the networking they do to get friends and relatives to own them, too. Totally green, wonderfully comfortable, your Mom’s foam rubber bed is the hottest mattress trend out there! If you’re the least bit nostalgic, call Mom and tell her to come visit..you’ve got a surprise for her.
July 10, 2007
The New Fire Regulations..And Our Unique Cover!
The new federal fire codes for mattresses manufactured in the U.S. went into effect on July 1, 2007. The regulations, collectively known as CFR Part 1633, require that all mattress products meet rigid open flame testing which essentially meets or exceeds even the tough California regulations. Many of our customers have asked me, “How do you guys meet the code..do you use any of the notorious PBDE chemicals, brominated materials, or other chemicals?”. I certainly understand the concern, especially since we sell a botanical product that is all natural, with no petroleum based compounds anywhere near our product. First, to put everyone’s mind at ease, PBDE’s (polybrominated diethyl ethers) aren’t even used in the U.S. any longer to treat foam or other materials, and haven’t even been manufactured here since January of 2005.
What’s really cool, though, is how our manufacturer, and our resident “in-house” textiles expert, Mark, developed an innovative, all natural covering for our Natural Latex mattresses, which meets the CFR Part 1633 regulations. Up until July 1, 2007, our Natural Latex mattress came with an organic cotton cover, that had no fire retardant material or qualities in it. So, we wanted to use the organic cotton cover as the main element of our exterior casing, because everyone loved the wonderful feel of the material and the fact that the fiber itself was not harvested from cotton product using herbicides, pesticides, or other chemicals.
The organic cotton cover we offer now has an additional blend of wool fiber called wool “vissle” woven into it. The wool fiber is encased with silica (not be confused with colored silica gel, which is toxic because of dyes added to the sand), which of course, is made from… pure sand. The process is unique, and involves mixing the wool fiber with a slurry made using the silica material, so that it coats the wool fiber, basically coating it with a protective and fire resistant layer of flexible glass (no, it’s not scratchy like fibreglass, and in fact, is remarkably soft, soothing, and insulative, like the flexible coating on speaker wire, for example). The end result is an all natural, fire resistant fiber covering which is chemical free, and because of the wool vissle, provides insulation so the material sleeps cool in summer, warm in winter. We’re really excited about it, and everyone who’s received them on our new compliant product, has raved about the unique qualities of the fiber.
Let us know what you think of our new organic covering!