Means to an Endy: Jeepers Keepers

Means to an Endy: Jeepers Keepers

I had originally planned to chronicle my experiences with the Endy mattress a lot more regularly than I actually have been. Oh who am I kidding? That was a dream that died before it could ever really become reality. We’ve had our Endy for a bit now, and I spent more time sleeping on it than doing any actual writing about it, which should tell you how much I enjoy using it. So to answer a solicitous e-mail from the company wanting to know “how have you been liking your Endy?” I like it. I like it very much.

The whole process – from purchase, to receipt, to unboxing, to watching it puff up like a lovely souffle, to being able to use it within half an hour – was quick and easy with none of the pain of buying a regular mattress.  There was no need to troop to Sleep Country and spend an hour lying on different beds with varying modes of softness, feeling like an urban Goldilocks with no idea if a 2-minute test on a Serta would work out in our favour.  A big part of the appeal of buying an Endy is how streamlined and simple the process is. It’s a mattress in a box with a one-size-fits-all approach, with a money-back guarantee and a generous trial period, which gives a lot of leeway to the customer.

It’s not the answer to world peace, but I found myself actually missing our Endy at the end of August, when we went off on a two week vacation. Nothing against hotel beds – they’re still the jam – but its cool, firm support is  something I longed for. I found myself consciously comparing the hotel bed to that of the Endy, and found there wasn’t that big a difference. I actually like the Endy more, because I’m a fan of firmer mattresses and a hotel bed can be quite plush.

The hubs has liked it so much, he went all-in on an Endy pillow. The goosedown ones that I use have so far done the trick, so he volunteered to be the crash test dummy of the pillow experiment. He is a mite heavier than I am and very picky about pillows so I figured if he likes it, I would take the next step. He’s had the Endy pillow for about a month and a half now and claims to happy with it so far. While the trial period for a pillow is shorter than that of the mattress, Endy very kindly lets you return a pillow after 60 nights if you’re not satisfied with it.

The only thing keeping me back was its price point – it’s not a cheap pillow by any means. At $80 a pop plus tax, it’s an investment, but I’ve found myself bogarting Le Hubs’ pillow whenever he’s not in bed, so maybe I might just take that next step after all!

Means to an Endy: The First Five Nights

Means to an Endy: The First Five Nights

Before anything, apologies for the photos – we unboxed at five in the morning last Saturday so the lighting is crap. Also, our bedroom looks like we just moved in. I really should get a rug and a few more doodads to make it look like a wet dream straight out of Pinterest, but the truth is I can hardly be bothered. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of random house froufrou is always how much cleaning am I going to have to do now? We don’t have a maid and I’m lazy. Still, I really should get a headboard, if only to annoy the elderly neighbours next to us with constant knocking against the wall, hint hint, nudge nudge.

Having watched the instructional video, the first few minutes were spent discussing how they could possibly have fit a king sized mattress into a box the “size of a hockey bag. ” If it didn’t say Endy on it, you’d think it held an extra large Christmas tree. It’s definitely a space saver, helpful for moving around corners. Obviously it only works when you’re buying it, because you can’t compress it again if you do decide to move somewhere else. Still, you couldn’t ask for a more convenient way to get a mattress – buy it online, they ship it to you (gratis!) and you get a hundred nights to see if you want to keep it. There’s a a full refund if you decide it doesn’t work for you, and they’ll send people over to collect the mattress, where it either gets recycled or donated to a local charity.

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Based on box size, he guessed fold + roll and he was right. It’s actually flattened, folded, then rolled and comes out looking like a gigantic Little Debbie Swiss Roll. We had a debate on the merits of compressing a foam bed so aggressively, but what’s life without a little belief thrown in?

The mattress is heavy, so if you’re working with a king sized one, make sure you have help. Or you know, do it yourself, but maybe not at five in the morning, because it’ll involve a lot of grunting and a few thuds here and there, nothing new for the Joneses next door, hint hint, nudge nudge, wink wink. Alright, I’ll stop.

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Anyway, once the box is opened, there’s a helpful infographic insert re the steps to take to get your Endy up and running. They also include a plastic cutter, which functions just like a letter opener (it IS a letter opener, and I’m totally reusing mine). Before cutting into it, you’ll have to maneuver the roll into the middle of your bed frame, get the plastic unrolled with the help of the plastic “tab” (a really long piece of extra plastic wrapped around it, think scotch tape when you first use it) then unfold. You’ll need to work fast, because it immediately starts to expand when it’s unrolled, and it’s not shy about it. (Think watching a sped-up video of a souffle rising in an oven. It’s that fast.)

It inflates VERY quickly and is ready for use almost immediately. I was going to give it at least three hours to stabilize a bit, even though their website says you can use it almost immediately, but it looked so enticing, we were lying on it after about half an hour. It feels like being in the arms of Jesus. To be fair, anything would be heavenly compared to our old mattress, but the Endy, which I had been apprehensive would be too soft for me, is actually just right. (So far.) It seems fantastical for a full foam mattress that came out of a box to feel so solid, but it does. The topmost layer is memory foam followed by a transition layer and then the support core. I was iffy about sinking into memory foam and feeling warm and icky, but it isn’t cloying at all, nor is it overly soft and you can almost feel the mattress working to displace your weight evenly. It’s also great at muffling movement; I can barely feel Le Hubs fidgeting around when he gets restless.

There’ve been notes about a chemical smell from the mattress, and we did notice it, but it goes away within a few hours and I’ve no complaints. So far, the first week has been going well, the sleep quality has definitely improved, and I’ll continue to keep tabs on our experience for the first hundred nights, so expect an update every so often!

Once more for the cheap seats in the back: this is not a paid Endy endorsement. I am in no way, shape or form connected to anyone behind Endy sleep.