A cool bed with a bit of bounce, and latex in it where so many beds have a slab of memory foam: that is what most people want when they go looking for an eco latex mattress. At Bensons, the Staples and Co Revitalise Eco Latex Pocket 3800 is the bed that answers it most directly. It is the top rung of the Eco Latex family that Bensons makes in its own factory under the Staples & Co name and sells nowhere else, and it puts a quilted box top, a breathable foam and a layer of latex over two kinds of pocket spring. It is also the only bed in that family graded Medium, there for the buyer who wants a softer top than the rest of the range gives. Bensons had it on the shop floor at the end of October, and I tried it lying on my side, on my back and face down.
On paper it ticks a lot of boxes. In practice it just didn't resonate with me. The latex stayed fresh while I lay still and my back was comfortable, but when I rolled onto my side it felt more medium-firm than medium at my shoulder, a notch firmer than I want at 61kg. Its Medium grade is what sets it apart from the firmer rungs below it: the Refresh Eco Latex Pocket 3000 and the Renew Eco Latex Pocket 2300 are both sold in Firm, and the Restore Eco Latex Ortho 2000 is Extra Firm. Think of the Revitalise as the softest of a firm family.
The buyers it suits are eco-minded back and combination sleepers who like a soft top, plus hot sleepers who want latex under them, because that is where its build makes sense. If you're slight and sleep on your side, look elsewhere, because the room at the shoulder isn't there for you. Pass it over too if you already find a tall bed hard to climb into, because on a divan the top of this mattress sits well above knee height.
How firm is the Revitalise Pocket 3800?
Firmer than the word Medium suggests, at least under a lighter side sleeper. Bensons sells it in Medium only, plus a Left & Right Medium version in king and super king with the same grade on both halves, so there is no softer option to fall back on. Your weight changes how it feels more than anything else. At an average weight or more, on your back, you'll get what the label promises: the top gives a little, the latex and springs push back, and your hips stay level with your shoulders. Turn onto your side at under about ten stone and your shoulder reaches the firm part sooner than a side sleeper wants, which is what I felt. Heavier side sleepers press further in and do better on it.
Owners mostly describe a comfortable middle, "not too firm but good support" as one put it, and side sleepers in another review found it "soft but also supporting". Others say the bed that arrived was nothing like the one they tried, one calling it "far firmer than the showroom model", and one was told it would soften with time. That doesn't surprise me, because a floor model has been sat on and lain on by every shopper who passed it. Lie on it in the shop the way you sleep, for longer than feels polite, then allow it two weeks at home before you decide. Still wrong after that? Bensons' 40 Night Comfort Guarantee covers one exchange for a different mattress, with a charge, and only if you've used a mattress protector on it.
A box top over latex, foam and two kinds of spring
Bensons calls the top a pillowtop. On the shop floor it is a box top: a quilted panel with straight, squared-off sides, stitched on as its own band. That pleases me. Pillow tops are the one top I steer people away from, and to my mind a box top keeps its shape for longer. It is still fixed, and the mattress is one-sided: you swing it round end to end as Bensons tells you and never turn it over. Where you have the choice, buy a bed you can turn over, because then two sleeping faces take the wear instead of one.
Under the Tencel cover and that box top sit what Bensons calls ecoAir foam, a vented foam it rates as far more breathable than memory foam, and a layer of natural latex. I wish more people tried latex: it's bouncy, cool and long-lasting, and it is the reason to look at this family at all. Bensons also credits the latex with helping your circulation and recovery overnight. Buy it for the bounce and the coolness you feel, and leave the circulation claim with Bensons.
The 3800 in the name is two different springs added together. The support is 1,500 traditional pocket springs at the bottom, and above them sit 2,300 nano springs, small ones in two layers that work as a springy comfort layer. Once a king passes about 1,500 springs, the rest are mostly padding by my reckoning, and the trade's race to the biggest number bores me. Here the full-size springs are the same 1,500 the Refresh stands on, so what this bed adds is 800 more nano springs, the Medium grade and the box top. Buy it for the grade and the top if you want them. The count on its own is no reason.
Two rows of extra-firm springs run round the sides, which Bensons calls Posture Perimeter Plus. The edge felt good and solid when I sat on it. That's worth having on a double, where a soft edge leaves you less bed to sleep on.
All of it stacks up to 38cm, which is very deep. Sunday is fresh-sheets day for me, and a standard fitted sheet won't reach round the corners of a bed this deep, so buy extra-deep 40cm sheets and a protector cut for the same depth. Then add the height of your base. On a divan it sits high: owners mention step stools, one owner built a step so their wife could get in, and another took the legs off the bed to bring it down. If getting into a high bed is already hard work, measure up first, and check the stairs while you're at it, because one owner calls it the heaviest mattress they have ever had.
Cool on the latex, warmer in the quilting
Latex doesn't sleep hot, whatever you have read, and this bed felt fresh while I lay still. Owners split on heat, though. One says it "keeps me so cool at night", while another writes "In the middle of winter I still wake up sweating". Where someone runs warm, blame the deep quilted top sitting over the latex. Bensons adds a fabric treatment it calls Temperature+, and I've never been sold on cooling finishes on a cover, so don't count on it. Hot sleepers who want latex are still on my list for this bed: give it a cool bedroom and a lighter duvet and the latex does its part.
The dips some owners report, and the question to ask
Early dipping is what worries me most on any mattress, and it is the worst complaint owners raise here. One titled their review "Started to sag within 8 weeks", and another says it "developed massive dips so that me and my partner roll into the middle of the bed". Several say they rotated it as told. Plenty of owners love it, one of whom says it "completely eliminated my back pain", but enough people describe dips to make it a pattern, so start rotating it from the first week.
What happened next varied. One owner had an inspector find a manufacturing fault and got an exchange, while another was told the dips were "within tolerance". So before you buy, ask Bensons what depth of dip the guarantee pays out on, because the depth in that clause is what separates a replacement from a "within tolerance" letter.
Is the Revitalise 3800 a good price?
At the full ticket it is a lot to pay. Bensons puts it in its sales, and one owner bought theirs for a lot less than the ticket, so wait for an offer. Bensons is a fine place to lie on things and read the small print, and the sale sticker is the part to be sceptical of, so judge the sale price for what it is. Back sleepers happy on a Firm should look at the Refresh first, which gives them this bed's latex and the same 1,500 full-size springs on a Firm grade, without the box top.
The Slumberland latex beds to try at Bensons instead
For a side sleeper who wants latex, the Slumberland Response Latex 3.0 is the bed I'd point you to there. It comes in Soft as well as Medium and Firm, and on the Medium its latex gave my shoulder room where the Revitalise didn't. Back and combination sleepers who run hot and want their latex plain should lie on the Slumberland Response Latex 2.0, my value latex pick at Bensons: cool and springy, with no top to think about.
