Comments on Norell's review of Natural Latex Smoothtop
Natural Latex Smoothtop
Description: 6-Inch natural Dunlop latex mattress.
Rocky Mountain Mattress - Green Series - 7" All Natural Latex Smooth Top Mattress
Well hey, would you look at that, RMM appears to have revamped their 2008 version of this mattress.
When I first started my search for an All-Natural, non-toxic, 100% Natural Latex mattress in Dec 08, I was enamored by the substantially cheaper prices of those offered by Rocky Mountain Mattress (most by organic specialty companies are $2000+ for a queen). I placed an order with RMM, at the encouragement of a kind, no-pressure, but ill-informed RMM sales rep. I ignored my suspicions regarding the seemingly vague, incomplete product description originally offered on the RMM website. The big issue was that the original description did not indicate how the product meets legal fire retardancy standards.
Anyone in the market for a natural or organic mattress knows that the Fire Retardancy substance is one of the most import issues, and many conventional mattresses are doused in toxic, unnatural chemicals in order to meet legal FR standards. I gave the RMM sales rep a call to find out what this product contains for FR. He hemmed and hawed, and offered "I don't know what it is... but I know it is a natural substance..." and then said he would have to call over to the warehouse. Later, I was informed that the fire retardancy standards are actually met with Rayon and another subtance that began with "poly-" (sorry I can't remember exactly). Either way, I was lied to, and these are NOT natural substances and I was disappointed to know that the original 2008 version of this mattress is not completely natural even if it does contain 100% natural latex. I cancelled my order.
HOWEVER, it pleases me to see that it seems RMM has remodeled/ relaunched this particular product and the newer version DOES say in its description that the Fire Retardancy Substance is 100% Organic Juma Wool!... along with a more thorough product description. Not sure, but this might now be an honest, quality All-Natural Product.
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David M. says:
This is Dave from Rocky Mountain Mattress. I just wanted to take a moment to respond to this comment from Norell. As she said, the mattress was marketed as "all natural" because that is the way I understood the mattress to be manufactured. I knew that the mattress was made from 100% natural dunlop latex mattress and an organic cotton cover. However, I did not know what the FR was made of and that was never brought up during the sales process. Later, Norell called in and asked about the FR barrier. I "hummed and hawed" because I did not know the answer, but I immediately searched for the answer on my end. This search turned up the information that caused Norell to cancel the order. What is important is that as soon as I found out what the FR was made of this information was presented to Norell. It also spurned me to find an alternative FR barrier, and now our company uses the wool based FR. Hope that helps to clarify the situation.
Norell L. says:
David M.,
Yes I did look at the new description on your website on the new model of this mattress online. It does appear that the new model covers all the bases that are important to me, and should be important to everyone looking to get a TRULY natural product. I can say that from what I see in the NEW description, that the newer version is a product that I WOULD consider if I was still in the market for a mattress (I ended up purchasing a Sleeptek Sueno). Thank you for the thorough clarification David, and I'm glad that our interaction spurned real action on your part and a quite quickly and seemingly substantially improved product on your end. My only concern is, did it take long to have the wool FR officially approved by the legal agency that approves those things? I've heard that very few companies are able to get their wool FR's approved so that they can say that their product meets legal standards for fire retardancy. Other than the "hemming and hawing," I did find my interactions with you pleasant and you were as honest as you could be and I appreciated your "minimum sales pressure" approach to working with me.
-Norell