Purple Restore Mattress review

Purple mattresses, known for their purple color and their use of the company's proprietary GelFlex Grid polymer material, have a bouncy feel that sets them apart from other mattresses you’ll find in stores or from other mattress-in-a-box brands.

We tested one of Purple's latest styles, the Purple Restore Mattress. It's a hybrid, layering their GelFlex Grid with memory foam and a coil base. After sleeping on the Purple Restore Mattress for a month, we found out everything you need to know.

Purple's Restore mattress is soft and squishy yet supportive; perfect for side or back sleepers who want to sink into bed but don't like the warmth or enveloping feel of memory foam beds.

Under the Purple Restore mattress's stretchy fabric cover, you’ll find the company's famous Purple GelFlex Grid, a layer of foam and a base of coils. I’ve been testing all kinds of mattresses over the past several months, so I noticed immediately when I lay down on Purple's Restore mattress that it felt different. It felt slightly bouncy, which is due to Purple's signature GelFlex Grid, a single mattress-sized solid piece of Purple's proprietary GelFlex polymer with hollow squares that create a grid. It looks like a giant silicone ice cube tray.

I was initially skeptical about whether I would like this slightly bouncy feeling or find it comfortable, but luckily I ended up liking it quite a bit. The Grid lets your body sink into the mattress and is more yielding than most foam beds I’ve tested, but it doesn't hug your body as closely as foam. I thought this might be an issue for my back, but I found it surprisingly supportive, and that's with the softer of the two firmness level choices, which felt appropriately soft. If you want even more back support, there's also a firmer option available.

Purple doesn't claim its mattress is cooling, but the company does state that the GelFlex Grid doesn't trap heat, which makes sense because of the open construction, and I found it to be true. The cover material doesn't feel cool to the touch, but there wasn't any heat buildup throughout the night. Since cooling features are a major factor in how to choose a mattress, the Restore should be a good choice for someone who wants a bed with a lot of breathability.

As has been the case with the great majority of the other beds I’ve tested over the past year, I didn't notice any unpleasant odors or smells of chemical off-gassing. This had been a concern in the early days of direct-to-consumer bed-in-a-box sales, but in our experience it's been much less of an issue, suggesting that manufacturers have been addressing the issue. Similarly to components used in other mattresses, the GelFlex Grid and foam materials are CleanAir GOLD and CertiPUR-US certified which means they don't emit VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and are made without formaldehyde and flame retardants.

Since I had this bed delivered and set up for me, the mattress didn't come in any sort of vacuum sealed bag, so it had time to air out during delivery.

This bed has a perimeter of edge support foam, which held up well when I sat on it. I found that the slight bounce in the mattress also made it easier to get up from the bed since it gives an ever-so-slight spring when you stand up.

Purple offers in-home setup and old mattress removal. I opted for the in-home setup and was glad I did because this mattress is a whopping 114 pounds (queen size) and would have been very difficult to set up by myself and potentially even with two people. The one drawback was that when the third party company gave me a delivery window, it was from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., a rather large and inconvenient delivery window. That being said, they did come around 10:30 a.m., so I wasn't waiting all day but I may have just gotten lucky.

Like I mentioned previously, this bed is extremely heavy at 114 pounds and is 11.5 inches thick, so it's on the bulky side. The gel also makes it squishy, so it's very hard to push around on a foundation if I want to make adjustments. It will be difficult to install alone, or to turn or otherwise reorient later.

Size options for this mattress include twin XL, full, queen, California king and even split king, however, there's no option for a regular twin size bed, so you’ll have to look elsewhere if you need that size.

This was one of my favorite mattresses I’ve tested so far. I found it soft, squishy and supportive, so I would recommend it for side, back and combination sleepers. Stomach sleepers or those who like more support will likely want to choose the firmer option.

Purple mattress are unique in feel, so it's hard to compare directly to any other mattress. It has a sinking, squishy feeling like memory foam but doesn't completely hug your body like memory foam, rather producing a bouncy sensation that isn't as restricting.

I would recommend it to someone who wants that yielding feeling in a bed but doesn't like memory foam, or someone who hasn't quite found a bed they love and wants to try something new. It's also great for someone who wants a highly breathable bed but doesn't want a traditional innerspring mattress.