What is latex foam?

Latex foam is a natural product that is derived from the latex rubber extracted from rubber trees. It is not temperature sensitive, as memory foam is. It is available in numerous different densities (rated by ILD from 14 to 44), is extremely comfortable and supportive, and is considered the premimum sleep surface by most European sleepers. While not as well known in the United States as memory foam, latex foam beds are becoming more and more popular, for good reason.

What is Natural Latex Foam?

Natural latex is latex that comes right out of the tree and is put into the mold. Some manufacturers claim that natural is better, because it's completely natural. Actually, all-natural latex is consideralbly cheaper to manufacture. The problem with natural latex is that it contains oils that dry out within about a year. Once these oils dry, the latex begins to degrade rapidly, losing its resiliency, and can actually become chalky and begin to flake away.

What is Dunlop Latex?

Dunlop latex is similar to Talalay Latex (What is Talalay Latex?) in that it uses both natural and synthetic latex in the compound. In fact, Dunlop process latex is the same as Talalay process latex, except that is simply poured into the mold the same way natural latex is and does not go through the vacuum or the freezing process that Talalay latex does. Because of this, Dunlop latex is not as consistent in feel and support as Talalay latex, nor can it be made to exacting firmness levels as Talalay can.