Birch Latex Mattress Review
Summary
Birch is an eco-friendly latex and pocket coil mattress made with natural and organic materials.
Great choice for: Anyone looking for an affordable and eco-friendly latex hybrid mattress. It’s also ideal for heavier sleepers looking for a supportive mattress and hot sleepers looking for a cooling mattress.
Avoid if: You prefer the feel of a memory foam mattress.
If you prefer buying eco-friendly bedding, the Birch mattress is one of the most affordable natural mattresses you can buy.
It’s made with natural or organic materials – including natural latex, natural wool, and organic cotton – and has various certifications to prove its eco-friendliness.
Birch’s medium-firm feel makes it a comfortable choice for most types of sleepers, including overweight individuals.
Read on for our full Birch natural latex mattress review.
If you are looking for an even higher-quality latex bed, we recommend the organic latex PlushBeds mattress. Just know that it’ll cost you more.
You can also read our reviews of the best latex mattresses for other top recommendations.
What’s in this Mattress Review?
Table of Contents
- What’s in this Mattress Review?
- About Birch
- Social Impact
- Purchase Process
- Price
- 100-Night Sleep Trial
- 25-Year Warranty
- Shipping
- Delivery and Setup
- Foundation and Frame
- Care and Cleaning
- Aesthetics and Styling
- Construction
- Mattress Cover
- Smell/Off-gassing
- Sleeping Experience
- Firmness
- Sinkage
- Motion Transfer
- Hot/Cold Issues
- Pros and Cons
- This Mattress is Perfect for You If…
- Conclusion
In this 10-minute review, we breakdown the Birch mattress and find out what it’s made from. Most importantly, we explain how it feels to help you decide whether it’s the best choice for you.
Use this table of contents to skip to the features you care most about.
About Birch
Birch is a Helix Brand. Helix makes one of the most customizable online mattresses, offering up to nine configurations to suit different sleeping needs.
Birch is their eco-friendly offering. From the sourcing of raw materials to manufacturing, Birch is designed to be as eco-friendly as possible.
The best part is that its eco-friendliness doesn’t come at a premium. It costs just about the same as other hybrid mattresses.
Social Impact
Helix contributes positively to environmental preservation by manufacturing the Birch mattress in an environmentally friendly way.
Every single material in the mattress is sourced sustainably and can be traced to the source.
The wool is sourced from farms in New Zealand. Latex is harvested from controlled plantations in various countries. Organic cotton is gotten from the US. The steel used in the coils is also sourced locally.
You can see all the certifications here, including OEKO-TEX and GREENGUARD.
Also, 1% of all Birch mattress sales go to the National Forest Foundation to support their tree planting efforts.
Purchase Process
Visit the Birch Living official website to order the Birch mattress. Currently, that’s the only place you’ll find the mattress. It is not available on Amazon or any other retailer.
The Birch mattress is available in just one comfort option, so you don’t need to choose whether you want a firm, soft, or medium firm.
You only need to pick the size. All standard sizes between twin and California King are available.
If you are concerned that the latex might feel a bit too firm for you, you can add a plush pillow top to your purchase for $400. The topper is 2” thick and made from natural wool and latex.
Birch also offers a shredded latex and wool pillow for $99.
The Birch mattress comes with a standard warranty, but for $119, you can add 10-year accidental damage coverage.
It covers what the standard warranty doesn’t, namely, accidental spills, stains, and other forms of damage. Birch will send you a repair kit, provide at-home repair or send you a replacement mattress.
You probably don’t need the extra coverage. A spill or stain on the mattress won’t affect the mattress’s comfort, and you can easily deal with it.
But if you want full peace of mind, go ahead and add it to your order.
Price
Here’s the latest Birch mattress price list. Visit their website for the latest prices and discounts.
If you don’t want to pay the full amount at once, Birch offers two financing options.
If your credit is good, use Klarna. You don’t pay any interest if you complete your purchases within 12 months.
If you have low credit, use Zibby. They offer a comfortable lease-to-own payment plan.
100-Night Sleep Trial
Birch comes with a 100-night trial, which is standard for online mattresses. You’ll have to sleep on the mattress for at least 30 nights before you can initiate a return.
All returns are free. The returned mattress is either donated to charity or recycled.
25-Year Warranty
The 25-year warranty is one of the longest among online mattresses.
During the first ten years, Birch will repair or replace the mattress at no cost to you. Between years 11 and 25, coverage is prorated.
Birch will replace the mattress at a prorated cost, depending on how long you’ve had it. You can read the full warranty here.
Shipping
Birch ships their mattress to all fifty states at no cost. That’s right, you can order the mattress from Hawaii or Alaska, and you don’t have to pay any shipping costs.
Shipping takes, on average, 4-6 business days.
Delivery and Setup
The Birch mattress is delivered compressed and rolled into a small box.
Birch does not provide any special delivery services, such as white glove delivery. The mattress will be delivered curbside via FedEx Ground. It’s up to you to carry it inside and set it up.
You should have no trouble getting the narrow box through the doorway, though you might need some help to lift it.
Lay the box on the bed and pull the box out to reveal the mattress. Open the plastic packaging around the mattress to unroll it on the foundation.
Give the mattress about an hour to expand fully.
Unlike memory foam mattresses, the Birch natural mattress has no off-gassing. So it’s ready to sleep on immediately after setup.
Foundation and Frame
What type of bed frame/support does Birch Mattress require?
Any sturdy support will do. It can be a box spring or a slatted foundation. Make sure the slats are no more than 5” apart to prevent damage to the mattress.
Does Birch work on an adjustable bed?
Yes, it does.
Care and Cleaning
Is a mattress protector needed for Birch?
The cover is not removable, so we highly recommend using a mattress protector to prevent spills and stains on the mattress.
A good quality mattress protector will also keep allergens like dust mites from settling in the mattress.
Do you need to rotate the Birch mattress?
No, you don’t need to rotate the mattress.
Aesthetics and Styling
The Birch mattress doesn’t stand out in terms of appearance. It looks like your average mattress with a white top and a brown pattern on the sides.
Construction
Birch is a hybrid mattress consisting of latex and pocket coils. It has four layers and an 11” height. Here’s the full construction breakdown.
0.5” Natural wool: The wool is sourced from New Zealand. It provides a soft sleeping surface and regulates your body temperature, ensuring you don’t get too cold or too warm. It also wicks away body sweat.
2” Natural Talalay latex: Talalay latex is plusher than Dunlop latex. This layer easily contours around your body, relieving pressure points and ensuring proper spinal alignment. The latex is OEKO-TEX certified.
8” pocket coils: This is the support layer. It holds up your weight, ensuring you don’t bottom out. A reinforced perimeter support system ensures you don’t fall off the bed if you sleep near the edge. The individually wrapped coils also help absorb motion, which prevents disturbances when your partner turns or gets out of bed.
0.5” Wool batting: A thin layer of wool at the base provides overall stability and maintains good airflow from the bottom of the mattress.
Mattress Cover
The cover is organic cotton. It feels soft to the touch and has a nice stretchy feel to it. It’s very breathable, which helps keep you cool and sweat-free as you sleep.
Just below the cover is a fire barrier consisting of natural wool fibers combined with rayon.
Smell/Off-gassing
The Birch mattress doesn’t contain polyurethane foam, which is often associated with an initial chemical smell.
There is a slight rubber-like smell from the natural latex, but it’s very mild, and you likely won’t find it irritating.
If you don’t like it, it’ll go away in a few hours. The mattress’s excellent airflow sees to that.
Sleeping Experience
The Birch mattress passes all the key tests that make for a good sleeping experience.
It provides excellent support edge to edge, it relieves pressure on your shoulders, lower back and other pressure points, it sleeps cool and has a pleasant bounce to it thanks to the latex foam and pocket springs.
Being a latex mattress, it doesn’t have quite the same deep hug as a memory foam mattress. But you can get a memory foam-like experience by adding the optional plush topper.
Firmness
Birch is a medium-firm mattress. We rate it at a 6/10 on a firmness scale.
It’s designed to feel comfortable with most types of sleepers, including the back, stomach, and overweight sleepers.
However, some side sleepers and people who weigh less than average may find the latex surface to be a bit too firm. You can easily remedy that with the optional 2” plush pillow top.
Sinkage
Sinkage is less than in memory foam mattresses. That’s why you don’t get the deep hug associated with memory foam.
But the Talalay latex has enough given to ensure your shoulders, hips, or lower back are not pressing uncomfortably into the mattress.
Sinkage remains consistent from the middle towards the edges. This is because of the reinforced perimeter that enhances edge support.
Motion Transfer
The Birch mattress does not show significant motion transfer. The pocket coils do a great job isolating motion, which allows couples to sleep without waking each other up.
Hot/Cold Issues
The Birch mattress does exceptionally well when it comes to maintaining temperature neutrality.
It’s not just that it doesn’t get hot; it also doesn’t get uncomfortably chilly. The latex – which, naturally, doesn’t retain heat – and the ventilation-boosting coils help a lot with temperature control.
The wool also plays a significant role. It cools you down when it’s hot and holds onto some warmth when it’s cold.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Great support and pressure relief.
- Temperature-neutral.
- Long-lasting.
- Safe and eco-friendly.
Cons
- Not ideal for those who prefer the feel of a memory foam mattress.
- Without the pillow top (which you have to buy separately), the mattress can feel a bit too firm for side sleepers.
This Mattress is Perfect for You If…
You are looking for an eco-friendly mattress that sleeps cool and offers good support and pressure relief.
Conclusion
Birch outshines most mattresses when it comes to being eco-friendly. But that’s not the only good thing about it: it’s also comfortable, supportive and seems like it will last for a long time.
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