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- Verified Buyer
Modway Aveline 6-inch twin mattressBeing disabled, I spend about 23 hours per day in bed, thus putting nearly 3 years worth of wear on bedding per year. For the last 7-8 years I've been on a 4-inch memory foam pad on plywood, and it was good until the last year or so, when it finally started breaking down and bottoming out, giving me sore shoulders, hips, and lower back (200-pound side-sleeper). Time for a new mattress!I read all the Amazon reviews on several 6-inch foam mattresses, and picked the Modway Aveline because it has the lowest negative reviews. It's a bit more expensive than some other brands, but well worth it. The cheaper 6-inch mattresses seem to use less memory foam and more base foam, but the Modway 6-inch uses 2 inches of memory foam on 4 inches of urethane foam base (measured at corner). This gives it both firm support and a medium-soft top.Firmness: Reading the reviews, I expected it to be very firm, but after using it I'd call it medium. I was pleasantly surprised to feel shoulders and hips sinking in just the right amount. The first night I slept 17 hours and woke up with no shoulder, hip, or low-back pain. It's very comfortable!When you un-bag it, the foam rubber expands instantly, but the memory foam layer takes 24 hours or so, as expected. The measured height after 24 hours was about 6-3/8 inches.Cover: The nice zippered cover is tight enough to round the edges and corners, and smooth enough to make stretching your fitted sheet easy. The bottom of the cover has a zipper and little rubber non-slip dots. The cover material is nice, but not as heavy as the covering on the typical innerspring mattress; i.e., it's thicker than a bed sheet, but thinner than upholstery material. You might want to add a mattress protector for kids or night-sweaters."Cooling" gel: I didn't find the "cooling" gel-infused memory foam any cooler, or warmer, than regular memory foam. It's pretty warm but not uncomfortably hot. It's definitely a little warmer than plain polyurethane foam or innerspring mattresses. As with any mattress, you'll turn less and sleep better if you pile on the heavy covers and keep the room cooler (68-70).Chemical smell: When I first un-bagged it I stuck my nose right in it. There was a chemical smell; it smells like when you open a can of latex paint (not surprising, the mem-foam is latex). It did not stink up the room. The first night in bed I could fan the covers and just barely smell it, and by the second night there was no smell at all. Latex is a natural product, so don't worry about it.The base foam makes it rigid enough to stretch your sheets, and it's so lightweight you can start your fitted sheet over the corners, flip it over, stretch and finish your corners, and put on 4 elastic sheet grippers. I used Bed-Band brand grippers with Amazon Basics microfiber sheets (standard fitted sheets are made for thicker mattresses, so it's a good idea to use elastic gripper bands with fitted sheet on a 6-inch mattress).Foundation: I read many questions about what to put under a foam mattress -- slats, box-springs, etc., many with bad answers. The reality: all foam mattresses need continuous decking under them. You can use a regular bed frame with box-spring or hard-top box-foundation; or slats with plywood or hardboard; or a steel box-spring-replacement frame such as the Zinus SmartBase (which I used), again with plywood or similar on top (I used eighth-inch "tile-board," a hardboard with glossy white melamine coating), screwed to the Zinus frame with 4 drywall screws, then covered with a bed-skirt. You should NOT use a foam mattress on slats only -- it'll sag between the slats, and you'll feel them. The manufacturer says slats need to be less than 3 inches apart, but if you're gonna use that many slats, you might as well use fewer slats and plywood (quarter-inch grade A-C sanded), or Masonite hardboard (no splinters), over slats spaced 7-8 inches.How long will it last? I've slept on various foam rubber most of my 58 years, and even the firmest poly-foam breaks down and sags in the middle after several years, and since this mattress is two-thirds PE foam, I'm expecting to get about 5-8 years out of it. We'll see.Recommendation: If you like a firm-support mattress with a medium-soft top layer, you'll love this one. It's much lighter and more comfortable than an innerspring mattress, and is one of the better dual-foam mattresses.If I had to buy again, I'd probably get the 8", just because it'd last longer and be cheaper in the long-run.Disclaimer: I paid full price and received no compensation for my review. I hope it's helpful. Nitey-nite!
