Casper Mattress review for 2019 – why we still strongly recommend it

Though the bed-in-a-box industry continues to attract new start-ups, there are a few brands that are starting to set themselves apart from the competition.

One of those brands is Casper. The company was an instant success when it launched five years ago. Since then, it has expanded its offerings to five different mattresses, along with pillows, bed frames, bedding, and an array of accessories.

Recently, Casper updated its best-selling all-foam mattress with a new zoned-support layer designed to provide specialized pressure relief to targeted parts of the body. I had the opportunity to test out this new mattress, and below are my experiences with it.

Read more: The best mattresses you can buy

Design

The Casper mattress consists of four foam layers for a total of 12 inches of support. The layers from top to bottom are:

• Breathable open-cell foam
• High-density memory foam
• Zoned transition foam
• Durable support foam

All of the foam layers are CertiPUR-US-certified, which means they aren’t made with ozone-depleting chemicals. The mattress is also fully encased in an easy-to-remove zip-off cover in case you wanted to wash it.

The mattress is available in Twin, Twin XL, Full, Queen, King, and California King sizes. I tested the Queen-sized mattress, which weighs a manageable (to me) 85 pounds. For more products specs, check out the Casper website.

If you want to check out the mattress in person before you buy it, you can visit one of Casper’s brick-and-mortar stores in just about every major city and even reserve a 30-minute sleep trial. Casper is also available at Target stores across the nation.

Set-up process

You can skip the whole set-up process by choosing in-home setup at checkout. With this service, Casper sends someone to unbox and set up your mattress, foundation, and/or bed frame. They’ll also remove the packaging and take away your old mattress and/or foundation if you need it. The service costs $149 regardless of how many products you order and is available throughout the US; there is some availability in Canada too.

I chose to set the mattress up myself, which I didn’t find too difficult. It comes with unboxing instructions and removing all of the packaging took about five minutes. I found it helpful to open both ends of the box and fold the flaps of one end of the box down to serve as handles while I slid the bed out.

As soon as the mattress was free from the packaging, it started to expand. Since memory foam often has an odor at first, I let it air out for about a day before I slept on it. That being said, I didn’t notice odors at any point.

Though the company recommends use with the Casper foundation, the mattress is designed to work with all standard foundations. It also suggests that you provide as much direct support under the mattress as possible, which is the standard for foam beds, but since I was testing several mattresses at once and didn’t want to introduce any confounding variables into my comparisons, I simply slept with the Casper directly on the floor.

Read more: We compared 9 online mattresses to show you what each is best at

What makes it stand out

The only way to know for sure that a mattress is right for you is to actually sleep on it.

Fortunately, Casper allows you to do this by offering a 100-night, risk-free trial. Basically, if you aren’t satisfied with your mattress, you give the company a call and it’ll send a local charity or recycling center to your home to remove it. Within two weeks, you will receive a full refund — there are no hidden restocking or shipping fees taken out of your refund.

I’m a hot sleeper, but I stayed surprisingly cool on the Casper mattress. Most foam mattresses tend to trap heat, but thanks to the open-cell foam used in the top layer of the bed, the Casper version is more breathable.

I was also impressed by the edge support. I slept on the bed by myself so I can’t speak to how well it works with multiple people, but I didn’t feel much give when sitting or laying right on the edge. It was also easy to sit on the side to put on socks and shoes — I didn’t feel like I was going to fall off.

The Casper did an excellent job in my motion transfer test. I dropped a 20-pound weight from four feet above the mattress so that it’d land 12 inches away from a can of soda. The can of soda stayed upright, which showed me that motion doesn’t transfer easily. This is an indicator that the Casper may help you sleep through someone tossing and turning in the night or, in my case, a cat prancing around.

Thanks to its firmness, the mattress is easy to move around. This is helpful when you’re putting on a fitted sheet, performing regular mattress maintenance (which means rotating every six months), if you decide to move, or if you rearrange your bedroom.

The Casper mattress is backed by a 10-year limited warranty that covers deterioration, physical flaws, manufacturing defects, and major indentations that occur despite normal usage, proper handling, and the use of a supportive foundation.

Cons to consider

The Casper is firmer than your average mattress. This makes it ideal for heavier individuals as well as back sleepers. However, I’m a side sleeper with stomach sleeping tendencies. On my mattress, I had trouble getting comfortable on my side because it was so firm, so I defaulted to my stomach. If you’re only able to sleep on your side, you might want to consider the Casper Hybrid instead.

Because it’s so firm, The Casper also doesn’t have much bounce to it so it isn’t fun for the kids to jump on. However, the firmness of the mattress allows for individuals to move freely since they’re not sinking in.

The bottom line

Overall, I enjoy the Casper mattress and my favorite aspect is how cool it keeps me — this is definitely a great mattress to have during the summer months.

The firmness is a bit much for my side-sleeping, but it serves me well when I’m on my stomach. And the absence of motion transfer ensures I’m not being awoken throughout the night by my cat. I strongly recommend the updated Casper foam mattress for back and stomach sleepers, especially if you share a bed with someone or you tend to sleep hot like me.

Right now, Business Insider readers can also use the code “ INSIDER” at checkout to get up to $100 off select Casper mattresses.

Pros: Breathable open-cell foam top layer help keeps you cool, offers firm support, has excellent motion transfer dampening, has great edge support, includes 100-day risk-free trial

Cons: Might be too firm for some side sleepers, has very little bounce, could be expensive for some

Buy the updated Casper mattress from Casper for $695 (Twin) to $1,495 (California King)