ZINUS Keenan Metal Mattress Foundation, Standing Box Spring, Headboard Brackets Included, Easy Assembly, Queen

It's tax refund season, and it's been about ten years since I bought my mattress and box spring. Having moved into a new house with a currently empty guest bedroom, I figured the time was right to replace my old bed; it can go into the guest room and I'll get a new one.After some shopping, I ended up on a Zinus foam mattress and this box spring. The box spring arrived in a large box--the box itself was about 6 feet tall and square, maybe 9-10 inches on each side. I was able to move it on my own, but I'm also a big strong guy; if you're by yourself and not a big strong guy, you might need some help moving it.I pulled the old mattress, box spring and frame out of the bedroom so I'd have plenty of room to work. I opened the box, reached in and pulled out the first part. And this, my friends, was the moment that immediately sealed my five star review.If you're looking at this, you're like me: you've assembled more than your share of "RTA" (ready to assemble) furniture in your time. Your knuckles start to hurt if you even *look* at an Allen wrench. You've lost count of the number of times you've been trying to tighten a bolt with that cursed hunk of hexagonal metal and slipped and bashed your hand into something solid and started swearing at it.The first thing I pulled out of the box was a ratcheting Allen wrench. Ratcheting. A ratcheting Allen wrench. Yes, there was the regular "hunk of cold metal" L-shaped Allen wrench that costs them three cents packed in with the bolts. But separate from that, there was a ratcheting Allen wrench.In my book, whoever decided to include a ratcheting Allen wrench is worthy of canonization.Assembly was fairly straightforward. The directions, like most RTA stuff, were printed with almost no words. (BTW, if you're like me, you read ahead while doing these sorts of projects; in step two, if you start adding up bolts, you might find yourself suspecting you're short a few, but not clearly indicated in the directions is that there are bolts actually built in to the frame pieces that you just have to tighten nuts onto.) The executive summary: you assemble the metal frame, insert the crossbars (no bolts; they just snap into place), wrap the cover around the frame, then screw in the feet. Take your time, examine the diagrams carefully and it's quite an easy assembly.The frame fit into the cover very easily; there's a zipper which goes around the bottom. The cover isn't super taut, so it zipped up quite easily. There are slits in the bottom of the cover in appropriate spots to allow the bolts from the feet to screw into the frame.The only quibble (and this is very minor) is that the brackets for attaching to a headboard are attached to the frame via two of the legs. On a traditional bed, you'd have a metal frame upon which the box spring sits, so you could pull the box spring off and attach the frame to the headboard, then replace the box spring on the frame. Because this is all one unit, getting the headboard attached to the box spring brackets can be a bit of a pain. But that's a pretty minor complaint.Assembly time: it took me about 1:15 to assemble. That includes moving time for getting the old bed parts moved out, the box in, unpacking, assembly and clean-up. It also includes ten minutes or so trying to figure out step two (mentioned above).Zinus did a good job with packing; the pieces are lashed together with thick plastic zip ties, so you'll need a utility knife or strong pair of scissors to cut them, but aside from that, there's just a couple of small pieces of styrofoam at either end for cushioning, so when it's done, you're not buried in plastic wrap and shredded foam and crap.End result: a decent looking box spring which provides a good support for the foam mattress on top of it.And did I mention the ratcheting Allen wrench?EDIT IN JUNE 2021: Just swinging by to add a couple more notes:1) I've seen some people complain about squeaking from their box springs. I've never heard a peep out of mine. It's been about 2-1/2 years and it's never made a sound. Still in perfect condition.2) Did I mention the ratcheting Allen wrench? Because I kept it. And I've used it on other RTA stuff. Many times. (I'm cheap.) Seriously, America is an incredibly divided nation right now, but I think we can all come together in support for sainthood for the executive at Zinus who greenlit spending an extra 42 cents on including this.

I'm very satisfied with this box spring, It's the only one I've ever seen that has it's own legs. There are bed frames with built in box springs, but they're on the expensive side, and the price was one of the biggest reasons we bought this product. It's the price of a normal box spring, but it has legs, so you don't have to spend the extra money for a bed frame as well if a mattress and box spring are already breaking your bank. If I had one negative, I must say it's a bit difficult to put together, or I just got one that was lazily packaged. Now, we recently moved into a new house, and I've been putting tons of furniture together, desks, beds, dressers, chairs, etc. But this was probably the most difficult of them all. Don't get me wrong, the whole tightening down bolts with an allen wrench is no problem, but I had a very hard time differentiating the parts. I had to take it apart two times until I got it right. The parts are labeled "A" "B" "C", etc. in the directions, but there's no stickers or anything on the actual parts, like just about everything else I put together in the past month or two had. The only difference between most of the parts, was which side a flange is on, but if you just flip the part over, it could be on the right or the left. You really have to understand how it's assembled before you go bolting it up. So two tips: hand tighten everything as you go along, that way you don't have to use the tools to loosen bolts if you put something together backwards, and then tighten everything with the allen wrench when it's all together and right. And, the directions say to lay the cover out, flip the box spring over, and slide it in. If you're working by yourself, lean it against a wall on its side, and slide the cover over that way, much easier than trying to hold the thing up in the air and direct it on your own.

We wanted to upgrade from a queen bed to a king without breaking the bank. (The dog needed extra room to spread out!) We paired this with a memory foam mattress in a box, and the combination has worked great. I decided to wait a bit before posting this review, but after a year-and-a-half of daily use, both the mattress and the foundation are performing well. No squeaks or wobbles. The assembly was a bit tedious - lots of small parts, and it took some work to figure out the directions, but it all came together without a problem in a little over an hour. The mattress overhangs the foundation just a little - about an inch on either side and 2-3 inches at the foot of the bed. The manufacturer says it's designed that way to keep you from banging a knee into the hard metal of the foundation, and I would say it works as expected. The cloth cover was a little challenging to pull on - it fits very snuggly, and some of the leg holes did not match (but it was easy to cut new holes.) Also, there is a bracket to attach a headboard, but there isn't much room to maneuver the nuts and bolts - this was probably the most frustrating part of the whole assembly. I would have given this 5 stars, but I knocked off a star for the assembly frustrations.Update: October 2021 - We have now been using this foundation for 4 years, and there have been no problems with it. No squeaks or creaking. (Well, maybe from my bones, but not from the bed.) Assembly challenges are now a distant memory, so I'm going to upgrade to 5 stars, given the long term durability.