I just received and started using a nice full sized 3" sheet of Lux-HQ from FBM. Got it in five days, weighed almost 19 lbs, and I calculated the density to 2.62lbs/ft3. If the compression modulus is anywhere near the stated 1.9, then we should be good to go for a few years. I only spent $83, so I'm pretty cool with that. I don't see a problem with them listing "support factor" or compression modulus at 1.90 for all of their foams because they probably use close to the same formula for all of their foams. They may change the density by varying the amount of fibrous material(??) in their pores and ILD in some way, again, not a chemical engineer here, but for the money if they are anywhere near close, I think it will do fine. I'm not worried about the combustion properties of material because I don't smoke in bed, and I'm not in the practice of overloading my electrical circuits or allowing high resistance connections. There are smoke detectors in every room of our house (we rent, the land owner is nuts) so if my mattress catches on fire, I probably set it on fire or I'm already out of the house. If I wanted to test the ILD or compression modulus, I'd just get a 25x25x4" chunk (or whatever the ASTM D 3574 requires), obtain a steal plate that is the correct size (I can't remember, but they can be obtained for cheap) and then put weights on it. After I got weight correct with the plate and weights on top I'd measure the amount of deflection with a ruler. I'm not sure where I'd get a round ball that could do the bounce test, but none of this really matters because if I really cared, I'd spend more money on materials. This leads me to my next question.
If I was going to drop a grand on a real mattress…
What do you think of Carpenter's Qualux product? I have seen this Qualux available online and priced per board foot. I believe it works out to be about $100 per inch at full size dimensions, so king and queen would be more. I'm thinking that I could build a king sized mattress in layers of Qualux with a Sensus memory foam topper for about $1000. I'm thinking it would last a very long time. In the future if FXI or Bayer introduces a higher density memory foam (like Venus) again, I could upgrade this mattress later. I'd pack it all into a wool cover and might build two different setups using two twin sets with the foam "bridge" in between for the ultimate in flexibility. I don't see the point in gluing the layers of foam together and it really frustrates me that companies do this. If it moves, I'll just take the cover off and fix it. Really not a big deal but cutting them to separate takes a couple of hours and can really mess the foam up if you aren't careful.
Just what are the limits of foam as a bedding material? Why go with Qualux if I can do Latex? Isn't it more resilient than any synth poly? Cleaner too, correct? Less allergies? More natural and better for the environment? If I paid $1000 for Qualux, I'd be mad if I could have a better material like latex (even if it's bouncy and I have to get used to that, so what) for less money. What do you see as the next generation of bedding materials? Energia? Drug induced temporary comatose stasis?
And in case anyone is wondering, I used and destroyed a $12 electric knife to separate the bottom layer of mystery foam from my rip-off mattress so that I could sub in the Lux-HQ. It feels much better now. I might add a 1" layer of HD36 in between the LUX-HQ and the existing 34 ILD mystery foam, but it's pretty nice now. No more pain, very satisfied. For now with 3” of 50ILD, 3.5” of 34ILD, 3” of 10ILD low density memory foam. An example of a mattress I might build a few years from now would be 3” of 45-50, 3” 35ish, 2” 14 memory foam, 1” 10 very HD memory foam, and maybe an extra 1” layer of 25ILD in between the 35 and the memory, but still very up in the air and have little idea of what things feel like.
Here are some resource links that I used:
www.pfa.org/intouch/new_pdf/lr_IntouchV3.1.pdf
www.pfa.org/intouch/new_pdf/lr_IntouchV5.1.pdf
www.pfa.org/EFC9_Handout.html
www.pfa.org/jifsg/jifsgs1.html
www.ahfa.us/uploads/documents/foamstandards.pdf
An old FedEx email shows the foammattressdiscounts.com mattress weighed in at 58lbs total with bag and box. Tisk Tisk…
*Also, I'm thinking that compression modulus/support factor is THE most important determiner in the quality and suitability of human bedding materials, but since they have to last, things like elasticity and tensile strength are very important too. I think you can take a bad formula and add worthless heavy stuff to the pore, and come up with a heavy foam. I think this could be the "fibrous material" I read about? If you can add that filler evenly to the whole slab, then you have density. My research indicates that you don't need a $12 million dollar machine to do that, and if you only look for densities, you won't catch this theoretical junk material until your back hurts again.
My assumptions and guesses about FBM:
That $12 million dollar machine ensures quality and accuracy across the whole production lot. If I had to guess, I would guess that FBM might produce high volumes of what I might call medium grade foam with a very wide tolerance in features that could be used to judge the material's quality. They may send you a piece that is in the range of what you ordered and match the less desirable material to a lower price point. I would guess that a batch might have some sheets that came out to 2.8lbs, some 2.6lbs, some 2.3lbs, and some 1.7lbs. They might then grade those and send them out according to what you order. If they wanted to spend money, maybe they could buy a better machine and come up with a more accurate result and thus what could be understood to be higher quality? That might put them in a different price point, and they might not be competitive there. This all just MY guess. I have no idea what I am talking about and I don't mean to make them look bad. They've done great in my book, and are tops in my personal value equation at this time, for my purposes. I'll report later if the foam somehow fails over the next three to five, unless I just want to scratch build a king before then. Once again, I know NOTHING about FBM, or the industry, I am NOT an expert, and all of the prior assertions are my own, from my own research which could be totally flawed.
The material's ability to completely recover from being smashed nearly flat multiple times a day, every day, is what matters most. So, in the 21st century, Theoretically, a 3lb foam with compression modulus of around 2.5 with a disorganized cell structure is what you should look for, and should be pretty awesome foam, if you can get it in your preferred ILD rating. If it doesn't burn, that is great too, and if it's somewhat natural, then you win in every way. I guess we'll have to wait a few years for a super cheap, 100% non harmful, fire resistant, indestructible, antimicrobial bedding material that smells great, weights nothing, and is available in nearly infinite hardnesses.