So you know me, the research queen. I try to watch and read all the things before I buy something, especially if it's expensive. Due to some recent back issues I've been having (and Patrick has been complaining as well), I decided that we needed to do something about our bed. Unfortunately, we had just bought the Purple 4 back in March. And the funny thing is, it has worked great up until now. I've replaced my mattresses too many times over the last 5 years and spent way too much money trying to find the "perfect mattress" to have to toss this one and try another. So, I found another solution.
An adjustable base.
To the youtubes!! Just about everybody and their dog makes their own adjustable bases. Unless you've been living under a rock, I'm sure you've noticed the explosion of rollable, shippable, factory-to-consumer beds being sold on the market right now. And just about every one of those brands will make an adjustable base. I had to watch several youtube videos about "the 5 best adjustable bed bases!", which of course, each one had a different set of 5, so it made things even more difficult.
Feature-wise, I didn't need anything too fancy like under bed lighting, wall-hugging, or message. I really just wanted this so-called "anti-gravity" feature that raises the head and legs up so that it craddles you and takes the pressure off your lower back. But I was also desperately looking for measurements of the frame because a bunch of them touted that they would fit inside your current bed frame to look seamless, and also had adjustable legs to increase the height, which I really needed because my platform frame was 14" high. I also wanted to make sure it was going to hold enough weight. The cheaper frames I found only held 650-750lbs, which seems like a lot, but Purple beds are really freaking heavy. My queen is probably about 200lbs of floppy hyperelestric polymer. Add 250 for Patrick and round up to 200 for me, and that's already too much.
I also wanted something where the frame looked nice just in case it wouldn't fit inside the one I currently had. Now granted, there isn't anything fancy about my platform frame. Its a steal construction with wooden slats but a nice dark gray padded headboard; that's the part I really wanted to keep. But I had spent probably $200 on this frame, geez, a year ago, maybe 2? It's not like I like throwing away money.
I buy it, and end up with a coupon for a free 10-year parts and labor warranty on the motor etc, which is great because it originally only comes with a 3 year one, which is one of the worst offerings for adjustable bases. Patrick and I had a horrible time getting it up the stairs. First of all, there is something wrong with my left arm (that I will be seeing the doctor about) where I can't use it to lift much without it really hurting, so we had that going. Plus, Fed Ex dropped it off outside, with a cardboard box, on the day it was raining a monsoon. I got to it within 30 minutes but Patrick was at work, so just getting it inside the door of our secured unit (downstairs) was a feat in itself, as it weighs like 150 lbs. The cardboard was already falling apart, so when Patrick came home I told him we had to open it downstairs and then drag it up, because the cardboard wouldn't last the journey.
We get it up the stairs, and notice that the actuators for the motors weren't connected, and nothing was plugged into the control unit. It was also not already one piece (the video I watched said "it's already put together, all you have to do is unfold it and turn it over!" basically). So, we move the mattress out of the way, and I measure the adjustable frame and no, it will not fit inside the one I have. Sadness. I was not super surprised, as I was reading that platform frames are a bit different than regular frames so it might not fit. That's why I found one with the gray trim. But then I noticed the legs. They were a single piece of steel and not adjustable, even though the FAQ claimed that they were. So now they're lying. Fine, whatever, it wasn't going to fit inside my platform frame anyway.
We go to put the two halves together. Holes need to align so that we can screw in a leg on each side; only, the right side was being stubborn. Nothing we could do, no matter how hard we pushed, would align the two holes to screw in that leg. I finally had to bring out my dremel and start shaving steel. That was fun. I managed to make the hole just big enough to get the holes to align and we screwed in the leg. Then, we had to decipher the horrible instructions. They were completely wrong about which wire went into each plug for the control unit (they were color coded on the unit) and in general the directions just sucked. We had to guess at what they were implying most of the time.
Finally, we get it together, put the batteries in the remote, and the bed doesn't move. (Luckily, the mattress wasn't on it yet). We realized they had given us dead batteries. They're AAA - do I even have any? Luckily, I did; exactly 3, which is what it took. Then, we try again. The bed still doesn't move. Maybe we plugged something in wrong, after all, the instructions were shit. So we turn the bed on its side and look at the controller. I'm reading the instructions to see if there was something we missed. On the last page, there is something in italics saying that we need to pair the remote with the controller.
...why wasn't that in the instructions for set up? We had already turned the frame over and were ready to go. It would be pretty important to tell us this before we get everything set up. The controller is in the middle of the frame and hard to reach.
So, we do this, and finally, at almost midnight, we get the damn thing set up and now we can go to bed.
 |
| Pic from GoodBed review |
Additional: We've had this bed base for like a month, and I've already had to re-pair the remote with the unit as if I took the remote outside with me or something. The remote hasn't gone further than 5 feet from that controller for the whole month. It's ridiculous that it unpairs for absolutely no reason, and then I have to reach under the bed in order to do the pairing process again.
On a positive note, it seems to work great when it works, and sleeping in a modified Anti-Gravity mode is super comfortable and works amazing for the lower back pain. So I highly recommend buying one (maybe not this one though??) if you have that kind of issue and have the kind of bed that can be bent to its will.
