Those of us who sleep in western-style beds don’t really think too much about what it consists of beyond a mattress and a box spring; the box spring having the coils and the mattress being just a big lump to lie on.

But what if you eliminated the box spring. Then you’d have to have a special kind of mattress, one that combined both the abilities of a standard-type mattress and the abilities of a box spring. A hybrid mattress in other words…or the FlexiSpot 13″ Premier Hybrid Mattress (U3)

Why No Box Spring

Before anything else, let’s discuss the advantages of not having a box spring and instead having a mattress that takes over for that.

Now what makes the U3 different from conventional mattresses is that it’s not designed to go on a box spring that then goes on those metal rails. The U3 has a distinct and specific construction that obviates the need for a box spring. o let’s list it because they all work together to make for a comfortable and durable mattress: starting from the top there’s a polyester layer, followed by a 2” gel memory foam. Below that there’s a non-woven fabric with the coils beneath. Again non-woven fabric and a 1” ECO PU foam, followed below by a PF stitch bonded non woven. Looking at a diagram showing this, it’s pretty darn impressive but it’s the totality of it all that counts. As in excellent edge support (so you won’t fall off the bed and which keeps it from sagging) and a high density gel foam memory layer which helps in an airflow hat dissipates heat so as to create a cooler environment. This combines with 768 (!) individually wrapped coils (14/13 gauge), which reduces the stress pressure on individual springs by evenly disturb int the weight of the body. Interference/vibration isolation makes it so that two people lying on the mattress don’t cause the mattress to interfere with the other (making for a more stable surface area). Oh yes, an anti-piling helps to make for a comfortable feeling against the skin. Sounds simple but it makes a difference for sure.

The combination of memory foam and gel does things that a conventional mattress can’t. For one thing, there’s better airflow which results in a cooler feeling mattress. You can feel the difference between it and a conventional mattress — as we did the first night we slept on it.

Another thing that this hybrid mattress does is provide for better back support — example: our wife tosses and turns and that’s something that causes a conventional mattress to ripple; not just being uncomfortable to the person but also enacting “shock waves” that can wake up the person sleeping next to her (meaning me). This is due to a firmer material beneath her as well as the coils inside (fyi: these hybrid coils tend to maintain their shape/structure better and last longer than conventional ones as found in a box spring).

The Set Up

Now that we’ve gotten the specs out of the way, one might wonder how tough it is to get the U3 through the door. Turns out that’s no issue at all because it comes in a box. A big vertical box to be sure, but still a box.

The U3 is compressed and designed to “blossom” out once it’s placed on the bed frame. It’s cool to watch as the air escapes and the mattress starts to expand itself— first of course you have to get it over to the bed frame and cut through the top of the box, followed by placing the box on its side, carefully remove it from the box, removing a plastic layer and then flopping it onto the bed frame so as to let it unfold itself. Which it does pretty quickly.

A few brief pats/adjustments will get it placed the way it needs to be and then it’s a matter of letting it “rest” so as to fully plump itself out — this should be left to itself for a couple of hours which means putting the U3 in to position is best done early in the day. To have it reach its full potential takes another day.

So what’s the feeling upon first sitting down on the U3 — pretty good actually, Firm definitely, not smudgy, but also a sense of stability. Turning the seating into lying down just confirms this as well as providing a cushioned feeling throughout the body — turning onto one’s side doesn’t cause ripples but a steady response. We’ve no children to try and use it as a bouncy house, but pushing down on the mattress, you get a firm pressure that’s solid but not hard — bit difficult to describe without actually doing it.

Another thing that this hybrid mattress does is provide for better back support — example: our wife tosses and turns and that’s something that causes a conventional mattress to ripple; not just being uncomfortable to the person but also enacting “shock waves” that can wake up the person sleeping next to her (meaning me). This is due to a firmer material beneath her as well as the coils inside (fyi: these hybrid coils tend to maintain their shape/structure better and last longer than conventional ones as found in a box spring). She said that the mattress didn’t “bounce” when she was lying on it and we laid down ourselves.

So after a week of using the U3 we can definitely say that not having a box spring doesn’t mean squat — the U3 performs excellently. Comfortable without being push, you might say.

The FlexiSpot 13″ Premier Hybrid Mattress is a reasonably priced hybrid mattress whose features fulfills all the expectations one could hope for. That includes a lifetime warranty too. For more details go to https://www.flexispot.com/flexispot-hybrid-mattress-u3?ref=category_products