My Leesa Hybrid Experience

As a service to the many people trying to navigate the world of mattresses, I thought I would share my experience with the Leesa Hybrid, which I will update from time-to-time to let you know how things are going.

The basics:

- I was looking for a king mattress for me and my wife to replace an 11 year old Stearns and Foster with a pillowtop.

- Our mattress was going into a bed frame from Arhaus. The frame itself is about 5 inches deep with wooden slats at the bottom. Technically I could put a mattress directly on the slats, but it would sit fairly low.

The search:

We found the world of mattresses in general, and even bed-in-a-box mattresses, to be quite overwhelming. Money was not really a factor in our decision, although we did not want to spend money just to spend money. After reading a number of reviews and trying to cut through a lot of the fake information, we decided to take Wirecutter's lead and honed in on the Leesa Hybrid. Aside from the recommendation, the other nice thing about the Leesa for us is that we were able to go to West Elm and see it in person. We were pleased with the demo model and decided to give it a try.

The order:

We actually placed two separate orders. Costco has a fantastic sale on the Leesa Hybrid that saved us about $300 off Leesa's sale price. Leesa confirmed that there was no benefit to ordering direct, so we ordered the mattress from Costco and a foundation and mattress cover from Leesa. All three items arrived within a week.

The boxes for the foundation and the mattress were heavy -- so much so that the mattress box got pretty beat up in transit. It took a significant effort to get that 133 pound box up the stairs. The foundation is heavy as well, but because it comes in multiple pieces I recommend removing the items from the box and moving them one at a time.

Set up:

We immediately opened the mattress and set it up on the floor next to our bed (thankfully we had just enough room). It unfolded quickly and took shape within just a few minutes. The gas smell was present if you got very close to the mattress, but it was pretty feint and not unbearable by any means. My wife worked most of the afternoon in the same room and did not notice it at all. We decided to let the mattress sit for 24 hours before putting it on the bed.

/Important Note/: the cover on the mattress was not perfectly aligned when it decompressed. The stripes at the bottom of the mattress were a bit crooked and the seams on the edges were not straight. I guess this is to be expected for a mattress in a box and I was able to manually straighten them a bit, but it is something to know -- particularly if you are used to having a fully assembled spring mattress delivered.

The foundation was rather easy to assemble, but given the configuration of our bed frame, I did not know whether to install it on top of the existing slats or not. Ultimately, I decided that I had no choice -- the foundation was slightly smaller than the bed (and my existing box springs) and if I did not keep the existing slats the foundation would have been balanced on a single center beam. I installed the foundation directly inside the bed frame and it could not have been easier. It probably took me 10-15 minutes total, with the majority of that time spent unraveling the wooden slats. As an aside, the slats were not sanded, and I am hoping they did not tear through the bottom of the mattress at all.

Moving the mattress onto the bed was easier than we thought it would be. When the weight is distributed over the full mattress it is much easier to lift than when it is compressed. I do wish Leesa provided side handles, but that is a minor issue.

The sleep:

My initial experience getting into the bed was that it was both softer and firmer than our old mattress. How can that be? The top foam layer was soft and inviting, but there was a definite firmness underneath.

The first night of sleep was not bad, but I also did not just sink in and wake up the next morning feeling like a new person. There was some tossing and turning, but I never felt uncomfortable. We will see how the next several weeks go as the bed breaks in and we get used to it. I am a side sleeper and I did not have difficulty sleeping on my side, although I really had that "ahhh" feeling when on my back.

The sides are very well supported, and although I felt some movement from my wife, it was an improvement from our spring mattress.

Overall, I am pleased with the purchase so far, but we will see what the next 99 nights bring!