April eleven, 2022

Help! My Mattress has Mold Growth

Updated on November 06, 2022.

Finding mold on a mattress is not only disconcerting, it can besides be a potential hazard to your health.

Mold is a pest, information technology is insidious and spreads quickly; by the fourth dimension you can run into visible show of mold growth on your mattress, it might already be an entrenched trouble.

Unfortunately, mold doesn't demand much to grow; even the cleanest of households could become plagued with these unwanted guests.

Are you wondering: What'due south the Deviation Betwixt Mold and Mould?

Why is there Mold Growing on My Mattress?

Equally discussed in our final blog post, mold simply needs darkness, warmth, and moisture to thrive. Unfortunately, this describes virtually sleeping environments in the average household.

Anybody sweats while they sleep, some much more others, and this moisture tin accumulate in or nether your mattress, providing the perfect breeding footing for mold to thrive and reproduce in.

Almost mattresses are produced using some sort of foam, from latex to retentiveness foam; the open cells and air pockets (at that place can be millions in a unmarried mattress) provide tiny places for mold to colonize.

To complicate these problems more, y'all rarely actually see the surface of your mattress, and far less often the underside.

Every bit nigh people just see the mattress surface a few times each month when changing their sheets, a mold problem could go unnoticed for weeks. A lot of people use mattress covers every bit well, making them that much more unlikely to view the surface of their mattress regularly.

All these factors make the mattress a perfect host for mold growth.

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mold on a mattress

Stains on a mattress cloth acquired by mold growth

What Does Mold on a Mattress Look Like?

Mattress mold will not ever be immediately visible to you, peculiarly if yous don't tend to give your mattress a thorough lookover on a regular basis.

Here are some indicators that might assistance you spot the problem sooner:

  • Smell: Mold and its' spores have a persistent, musty smell. Some people compare the smell of mold to wet socks or rotting wood.
  • Health Indicators: As you should spend about 8 hours (at least) per night in your bed, this large chunk of time could upshot in overexposure to mold on a mattress (if you have mold, that is!). You may notice a mold problem because of the fashion the exposure affects your health. Usually, mold exposure will outset to show symptoms such as an allergy would: headaches, congestion, exhaustion, or itchy eyes/pare. However, these symptoms will lessen if the individual leaves the infected area – to become to work or another room in the house.
  • Advent: When the mold is visible to the human eye, you volition know. Mattress mold will look different than any other stain or marking on your bed. Pink or black fluffy-looking spots will announced in growths.

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Mattress mold

A worrisome example of mattress mold (photo credit: our distributor, Protective Technology in Australia).

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mold on mattress pad

Mold on underside of crib mattress pad

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Mold in mattress foam

Mattress foam after testing using ASTM G21 antifungal exam method

How to Remove Mold from Mattress

Once y'all've noticed mold on your mattress, the time to act is correct abroad! The longer y'all go out mold growth, the more opportunities information technology has to reproduce and couch farther into your mattress.

If a mold problem is left alone for too long, it can become incommunicable to remove the mold and your simply option will be to purchase a new one.

Follow these five easy steps to remove visible mattress mold:

  1. Vacuum both sides of your mattress thoroughly. Immediately after you consummate this stride, clean out your vacuum'due south dust catcher to avoid spreading the trapped mold spores into other areas of your house.
  2. Mix equal parts rubbing booze and warm water in a disposable container. Dip a make clean cloth into it, wring the cloth out well, and utilise this damp textile to scrub the moldy area of the mattress. Apply a circular move when scrubbing and a considerable amount of force. Information technology is in your all-time interest to go well beyond the area of visible mold.
  3. Rinse the damp area using a new well-wrung-out textile and warm water. You need to wring out these cloths well to avoid adding extra moisture to the mattress, equally this encourages mold growth.
  4. Evenly spray the entire mattress with a disinfectant solution that is suitable for the cloth of your mattress.
  5. Take your mattress to a well-ventilated, high-sunlight expanse (you can have it outside if your backyard allows.) Leaving the mattress here will allow it to dry out out fully while inhibiting more mold from growing during the process (sunlight is harmful to mold.)

A Few Tips for Future Prevention

To prevent unwanted mold growth from coming back in the future, here are a few more helpful tips:

  • Use a dehumidifier in your bedchamber. Mold thrives in clammy environments, so using a dehumidifier to keep the humidity levels in the sleeping accommodation down will help to preclude time to come mold growth.
  • Use an air purifier in your bedroom. An air purifier will help to circulate and filter the air in the bedroom. Using the appropriate type, an air purifier tin can actively remove mold spores that are in the air, preventing them from spreading further.
  • Let the air continue to circulate when you go away. People regularly close off air conditioning, fans, dehumidifiers, or air purifiers when they are away from their homes. Leaving air circulating devices on with time-controlled settings to ensure prophylactic is a great way to aid in preventing hereafter mold growth.
  • Ensure the underside of the mattress has access to airflow. Investing in a slatted bed base will help air circulate properly on both sides of the mattress, rather than but the top. Unlike standard box springs and flat top bases, slatted bed bases will assistance in preventing mold growth from forming on the underside of your mattress.

How Ultra-Fresh Can Help Prevent Mattress Mold

Ultra-Fresh is a range of safe and effective antimicrobial treatments used to prevent odors, staining, and deposition caused by the growth of bacteria, mold, and mildew.

Ultra-Fresh is incorporated into products during the manufacturing process. Materials such every bit mattress foam, cloth, adhesives, feathers, and down used to make bedding products such as duvets, mattresses, protectors, sheets, pillows, etc.; become much less appetizing food source for mold and mildew.

This inhibits microbial growth so unpleasant odors and unsightly stains don't have an opportunity to develop.

Example of Antimicrobial Protection

The photos below demonstrate the benefit of calculation antimicrobial additives to mattress foam. Under the right weather, mold and mildew tin can flourish in foam, especially when moisture becomes trapped inside a mattress.

Both foam samples were tested using the AATCC Method thirty, Part III. The test organism used was Aspergillus niger.

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Ultra-Fresh treated mattress foam

Mattress foam treated with Ultra-Fresh

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moldy mattress foam

Untreated mattress foam

The untreated mattress cream supports heavy amounts of fungal growth afterwards the 7-day incubation period.

Alternatively, the Ultra-Fresh treated cream sample remains gratuitous from mold growth afterward the same corporeality of time.

Antimicrobial treatments keep the areas you lot don't run across cleaner and fresher.

In add-on, Ultra-Fresh has been proven to exist effective in controlling dust mite populations (encounter regulatory information).

Note: Ultra-Fresh is not intended to create a healthier surround or to mask an existing moisture effect in your domicile. Antimicrobial product protection prevents odors, staining, and deterioration of the product itself, leading to increased longevity of the cloth goods.