Tom's Guide Verdict
With 1,184 pocket springs and a layer of breathable latex plus temperature-regulating wool, the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress delivers fantastic support, cooling and pressure relief. In short, it's every inch the luxury hotel mattress for the home. This heritage Relyon bed is hand-crafted with a traditionally tufted pillow top finish, offering sink-in softness for side sleepers in particular. You may not enjoy it if you like firm beds and sleep on your back or stomach. We waited five weeks for our Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress to be hand-crafted and delivered, so this isn't a quick fix if you need a new bed urgently. It also only has a five-year warranty, which is short for a bed of this quality. However, overall we still think it’s an excellent mattress that should last you for years to come.
Pros
- +
Great all-over pressure relief
- +
Made with toxin-free natural materials
- +
Naturally cooling to stop overheating
Cons
- -
Warranty is only five years
- -
Pillow top isn't ideal for those who like a firm feel
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Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress review in brief
The Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress is a handcrafted luxury bed with a focus on harnessing the cooling comfort of natural materials. Relyon Beds have been making mattresses for over 160 years, so there's an illustrious pedigree at play here. And when choosing the best mattress for your body and sleep needs, it is important to research the manufacturer behind the bed you're thinking of buying. But all that pomp aside, is the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress right for you? We reviewed it for three weeks and are sharing our test results here to help you decide.
The first thing to know about this Relyon mattress is that it's hand-crafted, so we aren't talking about an off-the-peg bed here (we we had to wait five weeks for it to be made, but the delivery process went smoothly). Relyon's Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress has a traditional tufted finish, which feels both luxurious and durable – we could see straight away that this bed is made to last.
A large part of that durability is down to the choice of natural products used to make the mattress: Dunlopillo latex, derived from the sap of rubber trees grown in managed plantations, and wool. Not only is latex among the hardest-wearing and most durable of mattress materials, it also lasts the longest, with some top-end latex mattresses lasting up to 25 years if cared for properly.
Type: Hybrid
Materials: Dunlopillo latex and natural wool, 1,184 pocket springs
Firmness: Medium-firm (we give it a 7/10)
Depth: 11.8" (30cm)
Trial: 100-night exchange period
Warranty: 5 years
Price: From £1,099
Latex is also known for its cooling properties. Couple that with naturally temperature-regulating wool, and the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress stacks up as an excellent choice for people who overheat during sleep.
While this a medium-firm mattress, it does have a bouncy pillow top cover which gives it a softness you don’t normally get with a standard medium-firm mattress. While this adds a layer of hotel-style luxury and 'squish', we found that it still feels nicely supportive from edge to edge. That said, if you are a die-hard back or stomach sleeper with a heavier than average body weight and you love firmer mattresses, you may not get on well with the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress. In that case, we'd recommend the DreamCloud instead (read our DreamCloud mattress review for more).
During testing, we felt that the 1,184 individually wrapped pocket springs inside the mattress provided good pressure relief across the entire sleep surface. We enjoyed ample support around our hips, back, lumbar area, head and neck, with great pressure relief all over. We found sitting on the sides comfortable too, with good edge support and no risk of sloping off the sides.
For that point alone, we'd recommend it to people searching for a stable mattress that's easy to get in and out of. Keep in mind though that the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress is taller than average at 30cm (standard mattresses are around 25cm tall), which could prove a challenge for shorter people if it's paired with a tall divan or other bed frame.
There aren't many downsides to this luxury handcrafted mattress, apart from the warranty: it's only five years, which is very short for a latex mattress of this quality – even budget memory foam beds have a 10-year warranty. Overall, the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress is a superb choice for many, especially side sleepers seeking a little bounce and cushioning from a natural bed.
Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress review: Price
- Competitively priced for a premium Dunlopillo latex mattress
- Cheaper than most rival natural hybrid mattresses
- Rarely, if ever, on sale so savings are hard to come by
Founded in 1858 by a Somerset family of wool merchants, Relyon has a reputation for making top-rated natural mattresses. The Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo bed sits at the mid to premium end of the mattress market, but we think the luxurious finish and feel merit the cost.
We haven’t seen this Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress discounted anywhere online yet, and we haven’t seen any bundle deals that include bedding and pillows in the price.
Still, we'd recommend checking the Dreams (official Reylon retailer) website at peak sale times such as the January sales or when the Black Friday mattress deals arrive late November. To keep up with the latest savings, also keep an eye on our monthly mattress sales roundup.
Here are the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress prices by size:
- Single £1,099
- Small double £1,299
- Double £1,299
- King size £1,399
- Super king size £1,499
Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress review: Design
- Made from naturally cooling Dunlopillo latex
- 1,184 pocket springs boost support and pressure relief
- Temperature regulating wool wicks away heat and sweat
From our testing experience, the best hybrid mattresses are made from a combination of breathable foams and supportive springs, and the Relyon is no exception. Including its cover, the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress is made up of 10 layers. With a 30cm depth, its thick and luxurious surface is designed to support your body in all the right places. Gracing the top of the mattress is a soft damask tufted cover that feels smooth to touch. Next, there’s the single comfort layer and another ‘luxurious cashmere comfort layer’ presumably to provide just that – a lot of comfort.
Beneath these two surfaces comes a layer of Dunlopillo latex, which has been included for its breathable, pressure-relieving qualities. It’s this layer of latex that has been included to help your body move around the mattress with ease. As we’ve touched on above, Dunlopillo is a sustainable material sourced from rubber trees and has both anti-bacterial and anti-microbial properties. This makes the mattress both hygienic and temperature regulating.
Beneath these layers are three supportive layers on top of a layer of 1184 individually wrapped pocket springs. It’s these pocket springs that provide the backbone of the mattress, and have been positioned in a way that helps to evenly distribute the body and provide pressure relief. They also provide that nice bit of bounce you’d expect with pocket springs. Completing the layer line up is a supportive pad and base cover that keeps the mattress nicely in place.
There are four Relyon pocket spring mattresses available at Dreams, and we chose to test the mid-range option here. It isn’t, however, the most expensive Dunlopillo mattress you can buy at Dreams, with the Relyon Highbridge Dunlopillo Latex Mattress costing a further £200 as a starting price.
You’ll also find a wide selection of best hybrid and pocket sprung mattresses direct on the Relyon website, each with their unique selling point and including natural materials such as calico cotton pocket springs, hand teased mohair and horse hair.
Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress review: Support & comfort
- A medium-firm mattress, which we rate as a 7 /10 on the firmness scale
- 1,184 pocket springs help to evenly distribute body weight
- The top foam layer has some give but you won't sink in
The Bridgwater is a hybrid that includes a generous mix of pocket springs and Dunlopillo latex for a combination that is both supportive and hotel spa-like in its offering. The first thing we noticed about the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress was just how thick and lavish it feels. At 30cm in depth, it’s at least 5cm thicker than your average bed in a box design. Its soft tufted damask cover adds that feel of luxury you just don’t get with your standard bed in a box design either.
When we first lay on the mattress, it took us a while to get used to the subtle dips in the top pillow top layer, which is tufted to help evenly distribute the cover and keep everything in place. It’s the tufting that gives the mattress that superior finish, however, making it stand out from your average flat-topped bed-in-a-box mattress. We found that these grooves worked well to get our body in position and feel nicely balanced on top of the mattress.
Relyon states that this mattress has a medium comfort grade, but it doesn’t rate it out of 10 like some brands do. The mattress was softer than we expected from a medium-firm design, probably due to the sumptuous pillow top, but it also had a nice firmness to it at the core that kept us feeling secure, balanced and supported over the course of the night.
During the month, we grew to really appreciated just how well the mattress kept its shape and ensured that we felt well rested and supported from edge to edge. While we were able to get comfortable in all positions, we found it particularly comfortable when sleeping on our side, with the mattress giving us particularly good support around the hip and lower back area. Back support was impressive in fact, and the thickness and width of the mattress gave us a lot of wiggle room to align our spines and feel like we were well balanced when laying on top.
We asked a range of testers to have a go laying on the mattress and one tester who is 5ft 3 commented that the topper felt like ‘laying on a cloud’, even though they felt well raised and nicely held in position. The mattress was equally comfortable for our taller testers too with our 6ft tester commenting at how balanced their entire body felt from head to toe while sleeping on their back.
To get some sort of measurement on how supportive this mattress, we used a weight to simulate the feel of a person’s body sinking into it and we measured the sinkage. We placed an 8kg weight in the centre of the mattress (between the tufts) and used a tape measure to see how much the weight sank in. We measured this at around 3cms, which is an average sinkage measurement and proves that the mattress is capable of giveing good support and pressure relief.
Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress review: Performance
- Limited motion transfer – great for restless partners
- Cloud-like softness without the risk of overheating
- Evenly balanced from side to side with good edge support
To really immerse ourselves in this mattress and get a feel at how comfortable and well-rested it made us, we tested a super king size and rated it in all key areas of performance including motion isolation, edge support and temperature regulation.
We slept on it over the course of two months with a partner, but also asked a range of testers of varying heights to lay on it and feedback their thoughts. We conducted a series of tests on the mattress using weights to back up our thoughts and findings.
Motion isolation
Motion isolation technology is important in a good mattress as it ensures that you and your partner can move around during the night without running the risk of disturbing each other. A mattress with good motion isolation will ensure that each side of the mattress remains nicely grounded and that movement from one side of the mattress doesn’t permeate to the other.
During the course of the two months that we slept on this mattress, we shared it with a partner and found the design to have very good motion isolation. On the nights that we were feeling particularly restless and moving from side to side, we felt confident that the mattress was absorbing motion well and that we didn’t run the risk of waking our partner. They didn’t complain in the morning anyhow.
To get a more objective view, we used an empty wine glass and set of weights to conduct a motion isolation test. We placed the empty wine glass in the centre of the mattress (away from the tufts) and dropped a 5kg weight 25 inches away, then 10 inches and then 4 inches. We were surprised at just how little the wine glass was affected, only slightly wobbling when we were 4 inches away. And this we can say is testament to how well this mattress disguises movement and can complement even the most fidgety of sleepers.
Score: 5 out of 5
Temperature regulation
As we’ve pointed out above, our testers reported that the topper on this mattress creates an almost cloud-like feeling, whilst also giving good pressure relief and support. While you’d expect the topper to make the mattress feel a little warm at night, the breathability of the materials used inside the entirety of the mattress mean that airflow is kept to an optimum level.
We dressed the mattress in Egyptian cotton sheets and used a 4 tog duvet to sleep with during the summer months when the room temperature rose to 24 degrees. We can report that the mix of breathable Dunlopillo latex and the temperature regulating cashmere wool filling inside the mattress did well to ensure that we didn’t overheat and wake feeling too hot – even on the most balmy of evenings.
Score: 5 out of 5
Edge support
Our testers all had a go at sitting on the edge of this mattress, which is an important thing to do when choosing a new mattress. Good edge support will ensure that you don’t roll out of bed or feel like you’re sliding to one side when laying on the mattress, after all.
It also means that you’ll be able to get in and out of bed easily, without that feeling that you’re sliding off the edges like you can get with some designs. Then there’s the matter of usable sleeping surface and the better the edge support, the more space you have to stretch out and relax.
We tested the mattress by sleeping right up to its side on our back, front and side, and were impressed at how evenly balanced the mattress felt. We didn’t feel like we were running the risk of sliding off the side and all agreed that the sides of the mattress made us feel just as secure in position as we did in the centre.
To gain more insight into how supportive the sides felt, we used our 8kg weight to measure the sinkage at the side of the bed. It’s a heavy weight so it wobbled a bit at the sides, but the sinkage still came in at around 3.5cms, which was a similar measurement to the sinkage in the centre of the mattress.
Score: 5 out of 5
Delivery and setup
We were really impressed with the service at Dreams, who supplied the Relyon mattress. We found ordering online easy and we were given a delivery date, which fell within five weeks of placing the order. On the day before delivery, we had a customer service call from Dreams to tell us that the mattress would be arriving and we were kept up to date on delivery time by text message.
The delivery team were very respectful and took their shoes off before taking the mattress up a flight of stairs and placing it onto the bed frame. The mattress arrives fully formed and came double wrapped in plastic, which they took off and offered to take away with them for recycling.
There was only a faint smell of off-gassing, which is that new factory smell you sometimes get with a new mattress. But this cleared within hours and didn’t leave any unpleasant smell in the room unlike some rolled up mattresses we’ve tried.
Relyon recommends rotating the mattress head to toe weekly for the first three months and then every month thereafter to keep it in tip top condition. Using a mattress protector to shield against stains is also advised as is letting your mattress breathe by pulling the covers back now and then so it can breathe.
Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress review: Customer reviews
- There were 111 published 5-star reviews at time of reviewing
- Plenty of praise for the great back support
- Some mixed comments on it being either too soft or too hard
Dreams has pulled in reviews of this mattress direct onto its website, and gives the mattress an overall rating of 4.7 stars out of 5. In short, 94% of reviewers recommend this mattress, which is a very positive and reassuring score for this hybrid design.
Customers have given the mattress high ratings in the overall quality, its value and design. Many of the comment praise the mattress for the latex that seems to create a feeling that the mattress is ‘hugging’ you without feeling too soft. Many of the reviewers have also noted just how supportive the mattress feels for their back.
Should you buy the Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress?
We think that if you’re looking to invest in a hybrid mattress that is made up of a supportive amount of pocket springs and breathable materials, the Relyon is worth adding to your shortlist. While it doesn’t come cheap, it’s made up of quality materials such as latex that is a sustainable source and has anti-bacterial and anti-microbial properties, ensuring you have a breathable and hygienic surface on which to sleep.
We loved how evenly this mattress distributed our body weight and held us as we moved from side, back and front. The edges are satisfyingly supportive too, making it easy for us to get in and out of bed in the morning. It isn’t the firmest mattress you can find, however, and the tufted finish may not be to everyone’s tastes - particularly if you like your mattress to have a streamlined and sturdy surface.
That sumptuous pillow top may not be to everyone’s taste either. It does, however, offer a comfortable medium-grade support and has a nice bit of bounce and ‘give’ to it, which reminded us of the kind of beds you find in luxury 5-star hotels. With such premium materials used both inside and on the cover, we think it’s a design that is built to stand the test of time and requires minimum maintenance.
Relyon Bridgwater Dunlopillo Latex Mattress review: Alternatives
