ZINUS Keenan Metal Mattress Foundation

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.