How long can I safely go with 4.25-5 inch space between slats on a foundation?

Mattress Talk Mattress Foundations
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Hello, I recently purchased a Winkbed Softer that will be arriving tomorrow. The same time I ordered the Winkbed I ordered the Helix Foundation. Prior to ordering the Helix Foundation I spoke with their live chat to confirm the distance between the slats. The person told me 3.3 inches between each slat so that sounded good enough for me and I bought it. The foundation arrived this weekend and to my disappointment the slats ranged from between 4.25 inches to 5 inches apart from each other which to me is unacceptable.

I’ve gone back and forth on what to do this weekend on whether to just return it and buy another foundation from another company that has something better like 2.5 inches of separation between slats to going to Home Depot and seeing if I could get some similar sized wood cut to make additional slats. With the increased price of lumber as of late I decided to reach back out to Helix and they will be shipping me additional slats for free. I’m then going to take those with the slats I already have and position it all so there is 2.5 inches of separation (I did the measurements it should work with just 4 additional slats). However I won’t be receiving these for 7-10 business days.

My Winkbed Softer arrives tomorrow. I emailed Winkbed and they said they recommend no more than 5 inches between the slats so on that end I’m safe at least from a warranty perspective. But I don’t know what to do these next two weeks while I wait for these additional slats to arrive. Would I be risking any serious damage to my new Winkbed if I just go use it for likely 2 weeks on this current foundation with the 4.25-5 inches of spacing between slats? Would it be less risky to just have my bed lay flat on the floor? Is placing my new bed on top of my old mattress that is on top of the foundation even a possibility that would be less risky to the new bed? Then there is also the option of keeping the WinkBed in it’s box for 2 weeks until the new slats arrive but I feel like that could do more damage than anything else to the mattress to stay in the box for that long.

Any advice would be helpful. Thank you.

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Nice that you were able to get Helix to provide you with additional slats to make their foundation firmer and more supportive. Since WinkBed has confirmed that 5" between slats is acceptable for their mattress (and manufacturers tend to be conservative about such requirements since they have to support any potential warranty claims) I don’t think you’d have to worry about damaging the mattress. If you’re still not comfortable with it you could use the mattress directly on a carpeted floor, but I wouldn’t recommend trying it on your old mattress. The WB is designed to be used on a firm foundation and having it on top of a flexible mattress will significantly compromise its support. As far as the possibility of leaving the new WB boxed for two weeks I looked through their FAQ to see how long they say you can wait to open it and I don’t see that specified, so you’d have to contact them to get their advise.

Good luck and hope I helped a bit,

  • Bill