The design of our platform bed requires a mattress that is no more than 8" high. If it is higher than 8" then the hinged back support for reading that is built into the headboard will not pull out and cannot be used… The “original” (approximately 1995) Tempur-Pedic that we have is 8" and works well, but after 25 years of relatively gentle use it needs to be replaced. All modern Tempur-Pedic mattresses are too high. I am open to a high quality latex mattress or a high quality, low VOC memory foam mattress. It needs to be firm. I strongly prefer natural materials. So far the only ones I have found, among the dozens of brands and styles that I have investigated, are the Essentia Stratami, Essentia Tatami, and the 7" Pure Green firm by LatexForLess. Are there any high quality, firm latex or memory foam mattresses 8" or lower that I have overlooked?
Magniflex, I believe they are oeko tex certified memory foam. Brentwood home & plushbeds both use greenguard gold memory foam.
Great help, thank you. PlushBeds looks like the answer to my need for a firm, high quality mattress that is no more than 8" high. I guess I missed that one in my search. I even have a choice, there, of a memory foam 8" or a latex 8". They say that latex is firmer, so that would be my preference. By the way, for the benefit of other readers, I should add that Magnaflex mattresses are all > 8" high but customer service told me that it may be possible to get a custom 8" Magnaflex from a dealer. I am having a local dealer look into it. All of the Brentwood Home mattresses are > 8" so not suitable.
Your welcome 
. That’s interesting about magniflex possibly doing custom height mattress builds. Let us know what they say. If you decided to the diy route Brentwood home also sells 2" latex & 2" greenguard memory foam toppers where you could make the mattress any height you want with an electric knife. You would just need a 6" latex core or 6 " spring unit & an 8" (or less if you cut the bed shorter) mattress cover​:smiling_face:
Another mattress you may want to consider is from TMU Trusted Member Sleep On Latex. They offer an exceptional value organic latex mattress which comes to just over 8" in height, with 8" of latex (often a bit shorter due to tolerances) in an organic cotton cover with a bit of quilted wool. They have excellent customer service so you can contact them to discuss your needs or any potential concerns you may have.
One warning about PlushBeds is regarding their return policy. If you decide to initiate a return of their mattress they require you to box it and have it waiting curbside when the driver arrives for the pickup. Since the box the mattress ships in when it is compressed cannot be used on the expanded mattress, you’re required to purchase a full sized mattress shipping box which you must find and then manage to get the mattress into it. Their drivers will not assist with moving it so you have to move the boxed mattress to the curb for pickup at the scheduled time which can be quite difficult. They don’t make all of the details of their return process very clear on their site so I thought you should be aware that it’s not as easy as if they came and picked it up from your home as many other companies do.
Good luck with your mattress selection journey!
- Bill
Another good option IMO is the The Traditional — Certified Organic Innerspring Mattress from Lifekind. It is 8" thick & its gots & greenguard gold certified.
Bill - Thank you for the heads-up on Plush returns. Do you know anything about Essentia returns? I am considering the Essentia STRATAMI but I did see one user complaint somewhere about Essentia customer service regarding a return, with delayed communication and slow responsiveness. We all hope not to have to return a mattress, but what good is a policy if it is not followed by the company. So I am soliciting any return information and comments that you and others have about Essentia and SleepOnLatex PureGreen.
I have no experience with or knowledge of Essentia and their return process. I can vouch for Sleep On Latex who has excellent customer service along with a great return policy which they implement to make it as easy as possible for their customers. Unlike many other sellers who require you to make arrangements for a charitable donation, they arrange for a scheduled pickup from your home. For their toppers they even ship you a flat packed larger box for the return since the expanded topper won’t fit back in its original shipping box. Hope that helps!
- Bill
It looks like you’ve got some good options to look into. Here are a few more that I’m aware of:
Cozy Pure offers a 7" organic latex mattress:
Sleep EZ offers a 7" organic latex mattress:
Sleep EZ also offers a non-organic natural 7" latex mattress :
Foam Source offers natural latex mattresses in both 6" & 8" heights (it looks like they aren’t including the height added by the encasement)
With any of the options you’re looking at, you may want to have a convo with the manufacturer about your 8" height restriction. I have the feeling that when some companies advertise that a mattress is a certain height, there’s some fudge room there, and it’d be a shame to wind up with a mattress that’s half an inch higher than what you need.
The DIY route is also an option. For instance, you could order an 8" zippered mattress encasement and whatever type of latex or foam you wanted, and adjust the quality / features of the mattress components to your specifications.
Best of luck!
Emily
One more:
Sleeping Organic offers a 7" customizable latex mattress (you choose the firmness & type of latex):
Wow. That offering looks just about perfect for us. Many thanks. I have gone from almost no options to several great ones.
This Forum has been so valuable. Every one of your responses to my posting was useful. From your suggestions I assembled a good list of options for the low profile, high quality latex mattress I need. I was starting to compare them - a table of pros and cons - when I realized that one of the suggestions by ebs (Emily), foamsource.com, has a retail outlet 50 miles from my home. What a relief - a place where I can see, touch, and ask all my questions. I am an experienced online shopper but I was still feeling overwhelmed. Now my husband and I have an appointment in a few weeks with Boulder Comforts, the retail store for foamsource,com, and I am hoping to make a decision and order at that time. So this might be my last posting and I wanted to take the opportunity to thank all of you for excellent help. I could not have done it without you.
Optimistic and relieved!
Toni
Thanks for the follow up, and very glad that I was able to help. If you have a chance, please do let us know what you end up ordering and how you like it!
Best,
Emily
Toni,
If you go to foamsource.com in Boulder CO pay special attention to the odor in the store. For us the smell never went away over the 13 yrs we owned their 8" Nu-Lex Natural Talalay latex mattress. It got worse if it was humid out. Sometimes it was less and you couldn’t smell it as much but it never went away. A couple of years in we tried to get them to honor the warranty on sagging but the problem was to the eye there was no sagging. However you could feel it if you layed on it. Rotating and flipping a king size mattress is no small feat so maybe we didn’t do that enough. Eventually the foam breaks down as it hardens. We called them and they said after 10 yrs you should expect to replace it as the foam gets hard and crumbly. When we threw it out it still stunk.
Thank you for that helpful hint and for describing your experience. One of my questions for them will be why they promote Talalay over Dunlop. They have both (now) but definitely promote Talalay. I would prefer or maybe even require Dunlop, at least from what I have read about its being organic and its being firmer. What did you get to replace that mattress?
I was super sensitized to the smell so we went with the non-latex Naturepedic EOS pillowtop. No odor! There is a store in Cherry Creek Denver.
Most of the mattresses we tried did not live up to the advertised measurements in height or length.
Since you want all natural and firm you might want to look at My Green Mattress Pure Echo. We bought one for my mom and she loves it. It is advertised as 9.25 high so maybe too high. But don’t know if it is really the height.