A member of our team uses a queen-sized Spindle Latex Mattress as a makeshift Montessori bed for their toddler. Here is our review after one year of use.
Spindle keeps things simple by offering one three-layered 10-inch mattress made with organic latex, organic cotton, and organic wool.
The company does not use polyurethane foam, chemical flame retardants, or other troublesome materials often found in mattresses.
The Spindle mattress is likely best for lighter side sleepers and back sleepers.
For stomach sleepers, the mattress may feel too soft to be comfortable. Similarly, heavier side or back sleepers may want greater support than this latex mattress offers.
Spindle Natural Latex Mattress
Highlights: Fully adjustable, 10-inch mattress comprising organic latex, organic wool, and organic cotton. Free of harmful chemicals. Smart design with three wrapped latex layers you can rearrange for comfort.
- Affordable
- Smartly designed
- GOTS certified mattress
- Made with organic latex, organic wool, and organic cotton
- Free of PU foam, chemical flame retardants, and other troublesome materials
- Quite bouncy (motion transfer may be too much if you’re a light sleeper with a restless partner)
- Not designed for folks with a BMI over 31
- Expensive to ship to Hawaii, Alaska, and Canada
What is in a Spindle mattress?
A Spindle mattress comprises:
- GOLS certified organic latex – three layers, in firm, medium, or soft (at your choosing), each wrapped in organic cotton
- GOTS certified organic cotton – for the sleep surface (circular knit), side and bottom fabric (cotton canvas)
- GOTS certified organic wool – as a flame barrier around the mattress
- Polyester thread – to stitch the mattress together
- A zipper – for the cotton encasement
- Kevlar taping – to seal vulnerable seams where flame could sneak past the wool.
Spindle sources its organic cotton from New Mexico or Texas, where possible, or India. These materials are then woven in Canada. It is all GOTS certified.
Spindle exclusively uses Dunlop latex. Spindle’s Dunlop latex is made in Sri Lanka and has a springiness of around 4/10, according to the company.
One really nice feature of the Spindle mattress is that each layer of latex is individually wrapped in organic cotton. This makes these heavy latex layers much easier to move and more robust over time.
The organic cotton wrapping also means this latex mattress is a good choice for anyone concerned about handling latex directly, such as when there’s worry over a latex allergy. It also prevents tears in latex over time.
Unlike most mattress companies, Spindle is transparent about its materials. This doesn’t just mean publishing the suppliers’ certifications for organic latex, wool, and cotton, but also detailing those mattress parts that typically get much less (if any) attention.
Under federal law, a mattress company need not list materials weighing less than 1% of the total finished mattress weight. As such, certain things don’t appear on the law tag, even of Spindle mattresses.
For instance, Spindle uses polyester thread to stitch the organic cotton fabric and organic wool batting into a quilt. This is standard practice across the organic mattress industry, but I usually have to badger mattress companies to reveal this information (and some refuse to say). Spindle estimates that the thread comprises less than 0.1% of the weight of the mattress.
In addition, Spindle uses a heat-resistant para-aramid thread (Kevlar; AKA poly-para-phenylene terephthalamide) to seal the mattress seams. Without this, the seams are vulnerable to flames. This kind of thread is, again, standard for the organic mattress industry and is permitted under organic certification rules. Spindle estimates that the use of Kevlar comprises less than 0.001% of the mattress’s weight.
Finally, the Spindle mattress is encased in organic cotton with a zipper that has nylon teeth, and a metal trolley and pull tab.
Although they lack Made Safe certification, which is arguably the most important mattress certification, Spindle mattresses are made with robustly certified organic materials. These comprise:
- Certified Organic Latex – (Latex Green CU 813274)
- Certified Oeko-Tex 100 Latex – (Latex Green 20.HLK.05093)
- Organic Cotton – (Latex Green CU 1085130)
- Organic Cotton – (Fine Cotton Factory CU 848243)
- Organic Wool – (Woolgather Carding Mill OTCO-OT-011118)
- Certified Oeko-Tex 100 Wool – (Latex Green 16.HUS.92223)
Spindle offers an incredibly thorough and nuanced discussion of mattress manufacturing and certifications on its blog.
How it performs
While we recommend Spindle for lighter adults, the exact performance will depend on how you configure the mattress home. Spindle is helpful enough to label mattress layers as: firm, medium, and soft.
Spindle lets you return layers for replacements with a different firmness if your initial set-up isn’t working for you. This is much easier and more eco-friendly than returning an entire mattress.
Down the line, should you need replacement layers or find your sleep needs have changed significantly, Spindle offers a 30% discount on new layers for previous mattress customers.
Overall, the Spindle is best for lighter adults (close to 130 lb. and less than 230 lb.) who sleep on their side or back. We recommend a medium, medium, firm set-up for most lighter adults, though some side-sleepers might prefer a soft, medium, firm design.
How comfortable and supportive is a Spindle mattress?
Even if you choose a mixture of firm and medium layers, though, the Spindle mattress may still feel too soft for some stomach sleepers and heavier folks. Spindle doesn’t recommend its mattresses for anyone with a BMI over 31 (which is part of the reason we decided to use the mattress for a toddler’s bed).
To firm things up a tad, you could switch the top layer for a firm layer, but if you like a firmer sleep surface, you may be better off choosing a hybrid latex mattress with innerspring coils.
Shop LeafScore’s Mattress Collection
If you’re in the market for an organic latex mattress or bedding, check out LeafScore Essentials, our curated online store of 5-Leaf vetted products. Mattresses that make the cut to be featured in our store carry Made Safe and Eco Institut certifications.
Customer reviews are fairly mixed when it comes to how much support this mattress offers. Given that the layers can be configured in a variety of ways, it’s hard to tell how much of this variation in comfort and support is due to the mattress rather than the way it’s set up.
Heavier, restless sleepers may find the mattress causes too much motion transfer, especially in a medium or softer configuration. Lighter folks may find this mattress just the ticket for cushiony comfort. The only way to find out is to give it a try!
Our team member who owns the Spindle test model pictured in this review uses the bed for story time, and occasionally sleeps on the mattress when his daughter is up at night with a bad dream. He is a stomach sleeper who weighs 175 lbs. His comments are included below:
I use the Spindle primarily for story time with my daughter. We both lay down together and read books before bed. When I have slept on the mattress its as a stomach sleeper, and I think it is not quite firm of supportive enough for everyday use (I am 6’2″ and 180 pounds). We bought the Spindle for a Montessori bed because Leigh recommended it for lighter adults, and because we could ultimately convert it for use in a guest room. My favorite feature is the latex wrapped in organic cotton. When you have used mattresses, like the Botanical Bliss, that send “raw” latex, you see the genius of wrapping the latex in cotton.
LeafScore team member
What customers say about Spindle
The best:
“Having slept for the past 5 years on a latex mattress that cost twice as much, we were hoping that our Spindle mattress would be almost as comfortable. Instead, it is incredibly more comfortable. The perfect blend of support and suppleness. We are amazed and thrilled with our purchase. By far the best sleeping experience of our lives.”
Alan H, 2019
“After 4 months, we love this mattress even more than when we first laid down on it. The fact that you can configure the mattress by rearranging the layers is genius. It is a little bit of work to do the rearranging but you can get it “just so” and the payoff is amazing. We sink into it just the right amount, and then it’s just nice even support. We can’t feel each other turn over, and there’s no weird pressure spots. It’s a joy to lay down on every night, and when I travel I miss my home mattress quite a bit.”
Aleksandr M, 2022
The worst:
“I hate this mattress. It causes extreme back pain. I’ve given it several months to loosen up and it’s still terrible.”
Denise H, 2016
“Hard to put together, very difficult/almost impossible to move, normal sized sheets do not fit. Wake up with a lower back ache most mornings and do not look forward to going to bed. 🙁 “.
Katie W, 2019
How to choose your Spindle Mattress layers
Not sure where to start with choosing mattress layers? Spindle recommends the following configurations for medium and firm comfort:
Downsides
The main downsides to a Spindle mattress are that it’s not ready to use right out of the box and can be a bit tricky to put together by yourself, especially if you’re hefting around king size slabs of latex. The King-size weighs more than 180 lb.! These mattresses are a bear to assemble.
The other main complaint about Spindle mattresses is that they can be a bit bouncy and create more motion transfer than some sleepers like. The bounciness may benefit some bedroom activities, but could also lead to sleep disturbances.
Spindle also only offers Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, and King sizes, with no Cali King or split size options. This means you can’t configure the two sides of the mattress to meet different sleep needs. You could, however, choose two Twin XLs to make a dual firmness King size mattress, though you’d want a King size topper to even out the gap in the middle.
Spindle mattress also take a little while to deliver; around two to four weeks typically. This is because they’re handmade to order. Some popular builds are usually already in process, so these may arrive earlier. Note that you may receive one or two boxes a day or so after the rest of your order. Check you have all your boxes before beginning set-up.
Shop LeafScore’s Mattress Collection
If you’re in the market for an organic latex mattress or bedding, check out LeafScore Essentials, our curated online store of 5-Leaf vetted products. Mattresses that make the cut to be featured in our store carry Made Safe and Eco Institut certifications.
Packaging and shipping
Spindle doesn’t remove your old mattress and doesn’t offer a white glove delivery service. This is to help keep the cost of goods as low as possible, i.e., to make the mattresses more affordable. Spindle offers a wealth of good advice on its website about how to assemble the mattress yourself or how to find folks who can help with mattress set-up and removal.
Spindle offers shipping for free to all 48 contiguous states in the U.S. It doesn’t currently offer international shipping, though it does ship to Canada (not for free). As the company ships from Illinois, the cost of shipping to Hawaii, Alaska, and Canada is prohibitively expensive for most customers. Note, too, that Spindle doesn’t cover the cost of shipping for returns and exchanges from Hawaii and Alaska.
Spindle makes its mattresses to order but typically has some of its most popular products in progress. This means it can take two to four weeks to receive your mattress after purchase. The closer you are to Illinois, the faster you’ll get your mattress. Most mattresses are shipped within seven to ten days of ordering and FedEx Ground shipping takes one to six business days.
Because the mattress is shipped in two (or sometimes three) boxes, you may get part of your mattress a day or two after the rest.
Note that Spindle offers a military discount (contact the company for more information), but doesn’t ship to military bases or PO boxes.
Final thoughts
With Spindle, you can choose three latex layers for your mattress and then move the layers around as is your wont.
To keep it simple, Spindle offers medium-firm and firm options in a Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, or King size. For the same price, you can also choose your layers yourself in a combination of soft, medium, and firm Dunlop latex.
Spindle gets a solid thumbs-up for materials, design, and customer care. The company has been in business for enough years to know what it’s doing. This also means there’s been enough time for any issues to reveal themselves in terms of quality or service (which they haven’t).
All in all, Spindle is a great choice for an affordable, quality mattress made with certified organic materials. The company seems to genuinely care that you get a good night’s sleep and will work to make that happen. However, if you’re on the heavier side (weighing more than 250 lbs.) or are a stomach sleeper, this mattress might not be for you, even in a firmer configuration. Instead, consider similarly eco-friendly latex mattresses such as the Botanical Bliss from PlushBeds, or an Avocado or Birch latex mattress.
Shop LeafScore’s Mattress Collection
If you’re in the market for an organic latex mattress or bedding, check out LeafScore Essentials, our curated online store of 5-Leaf vetted products. Mattresses that make the cut to be featured in our store carry Made Safe and Eco Institut certifications.