The Folding Mattress My Overnight Guests Love
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In the summer of 2020, my family packed up and moved from our tiny apartment in Brooklyn to my mother’s property in the state of Washington. At the time, we were in the midst of the trying initial months of the epidemic. While my husband and I took turns sleeping on a conventional bed and an air mattress, our children made themselves comfortable on foldable best foam mattresses.
The folding mattresses, which are also known as tri-folds, were unexpectedly comfortable, especially when contrasted with the air mattress, which gave the impression of being damp, invariably developed leaks and hammocked after only a few nights, and caused me to suffer from back pain. Even the greatest air mattresses that Wirecutter has reviewed aren’t designed to be used for extended periods of time as sleeping surfaces. Since then, I’ve purchased two of the exact same Best Choice Products tri-folding folding mattresses in twin size, each measuring 4 inches thick, for use at my own house when I have overnight guests.
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The name of these mattresses gives away the fact that they may be folded into thirds (or fourths). Each one, when unfolded, creates a bed that is 183 centimeters long. The high-density foam beds are four inches thick and offer the hard yet gently sinking feel of some memory foams. They also conform to the body’s curves while providing support for the shoulders and hips. On the other hand, I have never experienced the sensation of being trapped in the foam, as I have when testing certain memory-foam mattresses for Wirecutter.
The tri-folds offer a pleasantly versatile alternative, as well. When I only have one guest over, I stack the mattresses on a folding twin frame to make a single mattress that is eight inches thick. No one is able to tell that they are tri-folds once I have covered them with a waterproof mattress covering and sheets. They have the appearance of a regular bed, which gives our guest room (which is also my workplace) a much more put-together look than it would have with a blow-up mattress. When I have two visitors over, I place the mattresses on the floor in a straight line. When placed side by side, they create a king.
When I want the mattresses out of the way, I slide them under my king-size bed frame, and I store the folded twin bed frame underneath the bunk bed that the kids use (oh, the Tetris of living in a small apartment!). The mattresses are, in almost all cases, appropriated by the children for use in their own bedrooms. We squish the tri-folds together to form a long sofa by placing them next to one another and securing a quilt around them with those odd-looking but highly efficient sheet clips. Alternatively, the girls sleep on top of the tri-folds. When we have parties with our friends, we also force them to join us in the living room for spectacular movie evenings.
I followed in my mother’s footsteps and purchased the Best Choice Products folding mattresses. These mattresses have received positive feedback (4.4 out of five stars across more than 4,400 reviews on Amazon), and the foam inserts can be removed so that the coverings can be laundered. I can’t say that I’ve ever done anything like that! It seems like more trouble than it’s worth, so I just spot-treat them; but, if my cat ever throws up on one of them, at least I’ll have the option of washing it. In addition, the mattresses came with cloth carrying cases; however, these extras had a low-quality feel to them and quickly tore after only a few usage. Nice in theory but problematic in application.
Even while I adore these beds, I recognize that not everyone will feel the same way. They are not a suitable choice if you have a limited amount of space available for storage. Even when folded, each one measures approximately 39 by 25 by 12 inches, which is a significantly larger footprint than a rolled-up air mattress. Having said that, they won’t ever pop or leak like the vast majority of air mattresses do.
Since the epidemic has begun to abate, I have had a steady stream of visitors staying at my house for durations ranging from a few nights to several weeks at a time. Everyone has complimented the quality of sleep that they’ve experienced from using our beds. And during the summer, my children and I continue to use the tri-fold blankets that my mother made, and I always comment on how comfortable they are. Never in a million years would I say something like that about an air mattress.
