Looking for a full sized mattress on Amazon <$600

[jkxs]

Hello! My name is Jason and I am moving into an apartment off campus in August. I am hoping to buy a new full sized mattress on Amazon for approximately $500 (apartment already has a metal frame which is the reason for the size). I am hoping to buy it through Amazon because I have prime membership (free shipping) and also ~$400 in gift card balance. I skimmed through the tutorial (I have not had the chance to read through all of the posts linked) and started to feel like the amount of information was overwhelming, so I decided that putting up a post might help me get some advice in the meantime and organize my thoughts.

How I got here
At first I looked at Reddit’s r/BuyItForLife forum for advice on buying a mattress. I saw a comment that recommended the website sleeplikethedead for reviews. When I visited the website, they had a chart saying that memory foam beds have the highest level of owner satisfaction, so I went to the memory foam mattress review page. On the page I found a table with several popular memory foam bed manufacturers. I chose Sleep Innovations over the other choices because it was available on Amazon, around my budget, and had a pretty good owner satisfaction rate/sample size compared to the other choices. I’m not exactly sure how I came across themattressunderground, but I found this post on Amazon mattresses and was surprised that the original poster had linked the same mattress I had been looking at on Amazon. I felt like I had picked a good mattress by looking at the sleeplikethedead website and also the amazon best seller’s list. I was surprised when I read Phoenix’s reply and was convinced that specific mattress would be a bad decision. I skimmed the tutorial and then used the search feature to find a thread where the opening poster had a similar budget and was looking to buy off of Amazon like myself.

In this post it says that

When you aren’t able to test a specific mattress in person before a purchase then there are only three remaining ways to predict whether a specific mattress would be a reasonable match for you in terms of PPP.

I am hoping to get some suggestions on potential mattresses that may work for me. I admit that I do not know anything about mattresses other than what I read on the tutorial and thought that it would be a better idea for me to get suggestions. Thank you for taking the time to read my thread! Please feel free to ask me any questions and I apologize if I made any mistakes.

Format copied from another thread:
Height: 6’2"
Weight: 170 lb
Size: Currently Queen, but looking to buy a Full sized mattress
Usually sleep on back, or side and prefer cool mattresses
Location: Currently Fairfax, VA but will be living in Harrisonburg, VA when school starts in late August
Budget: Under $600
Mattress/topper picture album: here
Current Mattress: Simmons (not sure what model - see tag?) - innersprings units covered with 100% urethane foam
Sleep Innovations 3" Polyurethane Foam (Memory foam?) Mattress Topper
Not sure what my frame is model-wise, but it is wooden and has 12 slats (see album)

[phoenix]

Hi jkxs,

Welcome to the Mattress Forum!

[quote]I am hoping to get some suggestions on potential mattresses that may work for me. I admit that I do not know anything about mattresses other than what I read on the tutorial and thought that it would be a better idea for me to get suggestions. Thank you for taking the time to read my thread! Please feel free to ask me any questions and I apologize if I made any mistakes.

Format copied from another thread:
Height: 6’2"
Weight: 170 lb
Size: Currently Queen, but looking to buy a Full sized mattress
Usually sleep on back, or side and prefer cool mattresses
Location: Currently Fairfax, VA but will be living in Harrisonburg, VA when school starts in late August
Budget: Under $600
Mattress/topper picture album: here
Current Mattress: Simmons (not sure what model - see tag?) - innersprings units covered with 100% urethane foam
Sleep Innovations 3" Polyurethane Foam (Memory foam?) Mattress Topper
Not sure what my frame is model-wise, but it is wooden and has 12 slats (see album) [/quote]

Unfortunately I don’t have any specific suggestions because the first “rule” of mattress shopping is to always remember that you are the only one that can feel what you feel on a mattress and there are too many unknowns, variables, and personal preferences involved to use a formula or for anyone to be able to predict or make a specific suggestion or recommendation about which mattress or combination of materials and components would be the best “match” for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) or how a mattress will “feel” to you based on specs (either yours or a mattress) or “theory at a distance” that can possibly be more accurate than your own careful testing (using the testing guidelines in step 4 of the tutorial) or your own personal sleeping experience (see mattress firmness/comfort levels in post #2 here).

I can certainly help you to narrow down your options, help you focus on better quality/value choices that are available to you either locally or online, help you identify any lower quality materials or weak links in a mattress you may be considering, act as a fact check, answer any questions you may have along the way that I am able to help with, and help with “how” to choose but only you can decide which specific mattress is the best match for you in terms of PPP or all the other parts of your personal value equation that are most important to you.

As I mentioned in the post you linked I would avoid any mattress with 2.5" of 3 lb memory foam which would be a weak link in the mattress in terms of durability and the useful life of the mattress. There are certainly many better and more durable options available.

I would also be very cautious about about using other people’s experiences or reviews on a mattress (either positive or negative) or “amalgamated review sites” as a reliable source of information or guidance about how you will feel on the same mattress or how suitable or how durable a mattress may be for you and in many if not most cases they can be more misleading than helpful because a mattress that would be a perfect choice for one person or even a group of people may be completely unsuitable for someone else to sleep on (see post #13 here).

Two of the most important links in the tutorial that I would especially make sure you’ve read are post #2 here (which is the one you’ve already read and linked in your post) which has more about the different ways to choose a suitable mattress (either locally or online) that is the best “match” for you in terms of PPP (Posture and alignment, Pressure relief, and Personal preferences) that can help you assess and minimize the risks of making a choice that doesn’t turn out as well as you hoped for and post #13 here which has more about the most important parts of the “value” of a mattress purchase which can help you make more meaningful quality/value comparisons between mattresses in terms of suitability, durability, and value.

If you are looking at Amazon or any other online options then you can use these posts as a reference source to help you decide whether any particular mattress would be worth considering.

If you are limited to lower budget ranges yet then some of the better lower budget online options I’m aware of are listed in post #4 here and the posts it also links to (which is in the same topic that you also linked in your post).

The better local options or possibilities I’m aware of in and around the Washington, DC area including Fairfax (and subject to the quality/value guidelines I linked) are listed in post #2 here. The forum list for the areas in and around Charlottesville/Lynchburg/Waynesboro (which would include Harrisonburg) are listed in post #3 here.

Based on your picture it looks like your platform bed would be suitable for a foam mattress without needing a foundation as long as it’s the right size and has a firm, flat, and non flexing support surface and it doesn’t have any soft spots or sagging. With a full size you can get away without center support but if you purchase a queen then your support system would also need good center support to the floor.

Phoenix