Product Review: The Froli Sleep System

This product review is our opinion. We do not get any perks or compensation for this review.

The ATC Owners Facebook groups have a lot of discussions about keeping moisture out of the trailers. On our maiden voyage starting in North Carolina, we thought, because it was autumn, that the weather would be cool and so we wouldn't need to worry too much about AC or heat. While that was true, we completely forgot about the humidity factor. Imagine our...dampness...when we were traveling through NC and VA when it was 100% humidity out. Needless to say, there was quite a bit of condensation throughout the RV.

Such a rookie mistake, too, and we even had dehumidifiers at home! We actually made a conscious decision to not bring them on our first trip. Well, we quickly learned our lesson. Dehumidifiers are a must, plus we had bought some charcoal pouches for moisture and odor control. The next step was choosing what to do for our bed. Because RV mattresses are on solid platforms, there isn't a lot of ventilation. That plus increased condensation can result in some moldy situations. Since we have an aluminum trailer instead of wood, we don't need to worry about mold and rot too much, but we do when it comes to the mattress. So, we began researching products that increase airflow under the mattress. A few people in the ATC groups mentioned the Froli Sleep System. It's a grid made up of a bunch of pliable plastic pieces that connect together. The system goes under the mattress, elevates it for airflow, and comes with the added bonus of targeting pressure points and adding back support for a comfier sleep. We loved the idea of tackling two important issues with one product.

However, there were a couple of downsides:

1. The grid needs to be assembled according to the size of your mattress. It looked quite confusing, and we knew it would be time-consuming.
2. The Froli Sleep System isn't cheap. For a mattress our size (residential queen), we'd be looking at 2 sets, and it would run us over $300 - more if we couldn't find a discount or a deal.

We decided to put the system on our wishlist for Christmas. There are three heights to choose from: Travel, Star, and Zona. We chose the Froli Star, which is the middle-height system. While it's 3/8" higher than the Travel system, we thought it was worth the height to get the extra cush. Our plan was to use the sleep system, the stock RV mattress (which we actually thought was fairly comfortable for a 6-inch RV mattress), and our Japanese mattress topper that we used on our bed at home.

We ended up being gifted the Froli Star for Christmas from my parents and were excited to test it out.

First, we took the connector pieces out of the box and immediately realized that putting the system together would not be as much of a feat as we originally feared. The system came with easy-to-read instructions, and truthfully, it was actually kind of fun snapping all the pieces together. It was like K'Nex for adults with back issues.

There are three steps to put the entire grid together. First are the grey base elements, followed by the blue springs. The Froli instructions advised to put the light blue springs in rows 3 and 4, where the head and shoulders go. The final step was to add tension clips. These are red clips that go inside the blue springs to add more support. They are optional and only need to be placed where we feel extra support is needed. Therefore we decided to first see how we like the system without the extra clips.

Once we finished our assembly, we laid the mattress on top, followed by the Japanese mattress topper, padded bamboo mattress cover, and our sheets and blankets. We prefer to have a bunch of lighter layers for blankets, as opposed to a big comforter. This helps us with temperature regulation as well as laundering, since we do not have a washer and dryer of our own. I paired a Society6 mandala blanket along with a woven Turkish knit blanket to create a bedspread with lots of texture. It certainly looked inviting, but how would the Froli hold up?

At the time of writing this, we have only used the completed bed ensemble a handful of times, but it's enough to give a preliminary run-down of what we like and dislike about this sleep system. Keep in mind that in addition to the sleep system we did also add our Japanese mattress topper which we love, so some of the comfort has to be attributed to that. If you're interested in checking out the topper, we highly recommend it. You can find it here (non-affiliate link).

Froli STAR Sleep System

• Used on a 6-inch residential queen RV mattress
• Used with springs and no tension clips
• Mattress topper and padded mattress cover added

Pros:

• Easy set-up that, when in the right mood, can be fun
• Good quality pieces that connected together easily
• Adjustable and customizable for different levels of support
• Slight discernable difference in comfort as compared with the regular stock mattress

Cons:

• Expensive
• Causes our lift-up bed platform to not stay in up position, adding difficulty to getting things in and out of under-bed storage
• Slides on the platform and becomes misaligned with mattress
• Adds difficulty to making the bed because we need to tuck the sheets under the mattress and above the Froli; the blankets often get stuck on the connector pieces

The jury is still out on whether or not we think the Froli Sleep System is worth the price, but since we got it as a gift (and my mom found a heck of a discount for the holidays), we will continue using it and see if we notice any long-term differences in our post-sleep pain and stiffness. Overall, this was a less expensive solution than buying a whole new mattress, especially because we already had the mattress topper. However, when added together, a $400 Froli system + $300 topper would end up being the price of a fairly decent mattress anyway, so it will really come down to your preference on how to spend the money, and whether or not you want to keep the lower-profile stock RV mattress.

UPDATE!

After a couple more weeks of sleeping on our Froli system, we can say with confidence that our mattress modifications have made for a pleasant sleeping experience. However, the biggest con was how much the sleep system slid under the mattress! It got so bad that the little plastic base pieces were impaling my legs every time I walked on my side of the bed. Something needed to change. So, we bought an anti-slip mat for under the mattress. It's the same product as one you might put under a rug, only pre-cut to bed sizes. To add extra anti-slip insurance, we ended up using pieces of Velcro to hold the mat down. We then put the Froli on top of the mat. Another small change we made was tucking the Froli grid into our bedding - the mattress cover and fitted sheet, specifically. This way the base elements wouldn't stick out as prominently even if the grid moved. I'm happy to report that these adjustments seem to be helping quite a bit, and our sleep has improved even more now that the Froli is staying put better.