I’m Looking for a good office chair.
Late to the party but we use these
I’m a 5 axis CNC programmer and can sometimes be glued to this baby for 12 hours excluding breaks. Cant complain at all, super comfortable. Would definitely recommend.
Mine does have an additional lumbar support but I cant seem to find the exact version with google. Pretty sure our company orders via a different distributor than amazon. If you’re interested send me a DM and i will find out the exact model and distro.
Happy hunting.
Instead of investing in a chair, I would say invest in a sturdy desk that can be raised to standing height.
IDK who the two idiots who downvoted every suggestion of something that isn’t a traditional chair but they’re both cowards for not even saying why.
Please recommend a good anti-fatigue mat.
Custom fit Wooden clogs. I’m not joking. All cushioned surfaces aim to mold themselves as closely as possible to our body, but if you simply skip that process and shape a hard material to your feet exactly, it’s extremely comfortable. There is a reason that clogs have existed for like 1000 years and co-existed with shoes for an extremely long time, only dying out more recently.
If you sit at a keyboard for multiple hours every day you should consider getting one of these: https://kinesis-ergo.com/shop/freestyle2-for-pc-us/
Scroll right in the picture carousel to the photo showing the two monitors. That is the configuration I use mine in.
I was developing ulnar neuropathy from typing something like twelve hours a day while working for a startup. I got this keyboard and started using it with the 15 degree tilt configuration, and the ulnar neuropathy cleared up in about a month.
Before that, typing for a couple hours would result in tingling and numbness along the pinkie side of both hands. After about a month, that stopped and never came back.
I’ve since left tech and no longer have crazy long time on the keyboard, and now I just use the keyboard on my macbook, without any issue.
For reference, I was in my late twenties when this occurred. I’m now in my 40s and I will say that the ulnar neuropathy never came back.
The one thing about that keyboard to be aware of: it’s BIG. Each half is nearly the size of a macbook air. So it can be a bit much to carry in a messenger bag. A decent backpack, doable. But it’s really best as a permanent desk fixture.
Sideways mouse is great too.
Steelcase or Herman Miller, find them used from local offices going out of business. Offer $50 and see if you get lucky.
Adjustable armrests make a huge difference. Fixed armrests are better than none but really you need to be able to raise them to the right height for you, so your shoulders and back can properly relax. Without supportive armrests your shoulders need to carry the weight of your arms all day.
The secret to not having back pain or other health related problems due to office work is very simple:
Move!
Furniture that enables you to move throughout the day:
A standing desk. Use it to alternate between standing and sitting throughout the day.
Get one of these to seamlessly transition between sitting, near standing and standing: https://www.varierfurniture.com/en/move
Or these, they will make you maintain good posture: https://www.varierfurniture.com/en/variable
Using these will also train your core muscles ever so gently, giving you better posture and preventing back pain.
If you are not in a healthy range as far as the BMI is concerned, obviously fix that first. No furniture can compensate for overloaded joints.
This chair is completely insane, every time I researched about ergonomics it said your knees should be at a 90º angle.
Yea, the stool thing I can understand but the instant I saw the second one my knees were like “nope, fuck that”
Once upon a time, I was fairly strong but I couldn’t touch my toes. That full deep stretch was just a little beyond me. It always had been, as long as I could remember in my adult life. Throughout years of martial arts and parkour that moderately normal level of flexibility eluded me.
Then I quit my job at Amazon. I was so burned out I ended up taking 6 months off. During that time I mostly hung out around the house. Played with my kid. … played a ton of Minecraft.
The point is, I wasn’t doing any new exercise. I was just doing things other than hunching in a chair all day. And just before I started a new job I discovered that I could touch my toes again!
I asked my new job for a standing desk - and I’ve kept that practice up at every job since. I alternate between standing and sitting on a tall office chair. I estimate that I stand a little more than half the day all in, but being able to transition has made a huge difference for me.
I’m in my forties now and I can grab my feets no problem. I don’t do any dedicated stretching - I’m just not hunching all day.
I can’t recommend steelcase enough. I bought my wife and I a couple chairs from them at the start of covid, and the clip on the lumbar support for my chair broke recently. They shipped me an entirely new chair and told me to keep or donate the other one.
Steelcase leap v2 from Crandall online.
They’re an official remanufacturee, so they put new cylinders, new casters and other parts like fresh foam and fabric on them.
Mine was a grade B and honestly, I couldn’t find a single mark or scratch on it.
I got the same brand from Madison seating out of new Jersey. Slightly used at less than half the cost.
I have a leap v1 I got about 5 or 6 years ago that was reupholstered by a local used office furniture place. I keep using cheap cylinders, so I’ve changed that out a couple of times, and I changed out the original armests about two years ago (bought from Crandall for that). All in, including the original purchase, I’m at maybe $350 over the entire time I’ve owned it, and the structural parts and new upholstery are holding up perfectly. The tag on the bottom says it is 22 years old.
The other side of my home office has a HM Mirra v1 I got for free when they shut down my employer’s local office, and my wife uses a Steelcase Gesture in the “study,” which is to say the nice home office that doesn’t have two 3D printers, a soldering station, half a dozen keyboards, a dog crate, and an elderly cockatiel. My 10yo uses a godawful “gaming chair,” but it’s pink and she’s ten, so ergonomics are barely a blip on her radar. She has a standing offer to take the Mirra.
I second the Steelcase Leap if only for cost reasons, since it’s an office staple and could be found all day for around $200 in decent shape (vs. $1000 new) and unlike the Herman Miller competition, the Steelcase Leap v2 is one size fits all with fewer if any optional accessories, making buying one used incredibly simple.
Herman miller aeron. they are outrageously expensive but totally worth it. You can get them used from resellers but honestly just get one new from the store. I got a used one and have no complaints other than I didnt get a brand new one to my specifications.
I didn’t find it comfortable at all.
Agreed they are crazy overrated
Come back after sitting in one for a literal decade and report.
Herman Miller Embody.
We have what I believe to be Steelcase Leap at my work, and they’ve been outstanding for 12 hour shifts and 24/7 use for years now. Best office chair I’ve ever sat in.
Some desireable things to look out for are a back that pivots separately from the seat (major deal-breaker if not), a tensioner on the backrest so that you can lean forward and back naturally without using a lever, adjustable armrests (the more adjustment options the better), the shape of the armrest (convex is better than concave), correct height, correct seat depth, and correct backrest height.
…a back that pivots separately from the seat…
Is that a personal preference or something backed up by science? I ask because I typically really dislike chairs where the seat and back aren’t at a set angle. I don’t like leaning back and feeling like I’m just laying down.
Going to go a bit against the grain on this one and recommend SecretLab. It does have that “gaming chair” aesthetic, but it is a great chair IMO.
I work from home, sit on my ass for 8 hours straight, and occasionally game right after work into the evening. I can park my ass in that thing and sit for 16 hours no problem (obviously getting up to take short breaks etc). It is super comfortable. I own the mesh one, instead of the leather/pleather, and I think it’s the way to go.
Furthermore, the customer service is excellent. I needed to replace the armrest after 4 years as it was beginning to crack. My model didn’t come with the snap on/snap off armrests, so I had to send an email to customer support to see if there was something they could do. Not only did they inform me it was actually easily replaceable, they sent me instructions, and gave me 50% of the replacement cost, which was only $20CAD, as I was just over the warranty at that point. It might be a 3 year warranty, but I can’t quite remember, possibly 4.
My circle of friends largely work from home as well, and many of them have SecretLab chairs, and they also love them. No back problems, super comfy, breathable.
The only downside I can really think of is that it is a fairly heavy chair, as the base uses a large amount of metal, and the price tag can be expensive, at around $500-$700CAD if you purchase new.
They are also sized to fit your height and weight. I own the Titan 2020 model, and I love it.
Hope this helps!
Comfort wise I have to say it saved me. That said, for their price they lack any real durability on the aesthetic parts. The functional parts are amazing (save for the mis-manufactured back I got originally. The warranty process was involved but they delivered a new back).
So it’s expensive, wears quickly, has QA issues, and they slow play warranty claims? Glad you ended up with a chair you like, but this is not inspiring confidence. :-)
I’d recommend against this. I have a 2020 Titan XL and it’s been nothing but headache. It’s finally in an OK state after two years.
The QA is poor beyond belief and the support team is nearly useless. The chair shipped with defects resulting in very loud creaking in the backrest when you make any movement (enough to be heard on Zoom or across your home). What’s worse is they KNEW about the defect and only sent you a small email about it after the item arrived. Returning the chair requires you to cover shipping, so they banked on people keeping a defective product.
It took them 6 months to replace the chair back and the replacement was even worse. It took them a month to replace THAT one and I had to call twice to get them to schedule a pickup for the first defective replacement they sent.
Finally, the seat bottom was replaced about 4 months ago because some metal wire started poking out of it.
Each interaction with support was awful, it doesn’t matter how much detail or how many photos and videos of the problem you provide, it’s ignored and you get put on a script.
In hindsight, I should have charged the stupid chair back. You couldn’t pay me enough to have next chair be Secretlab.
It does look nice though.
I just want to say, I’m in my 40’s and most of my friends are late 30’s/early 40’s, and those chairs are starting to cause some of them some serious issues. If they’re the ones that have the ‘racing car’ style seats, where the left and right are forward of the back, that design is to combat G-forces while driving. When you’re stationary though, they can cause your shoulders to bend forward. Over a year or so, no big deal. Over 5-10, it starts to cause issues.
Seconded this, if you’re a bigger guy or like sitting on your legs like I do then the Titan is the right choice, that wide flat platform is ideal
Herman Miller Aeron and Steelcase Leap are both good.
Check out Crandall’s Office Furniture for good refurbished chairs.
Can +1 for Herman Miller (and maybe mesh chairs in general), however I went for the Cosm instead. It’s supposed to be a “relaxation” chair in comparison to their Aeron but the taller back on the Cosm I tried was much more suitable for me than a regular Aeron.
That being said, OP, look up where you’re able to try the chairs once you’ve got some recommendations. Not a good idea to go in blind. For Herman Miller, John Lewis is a good retailer in the UK that has their chairs on display.
Will echo the aeron. Have had mine for about 5 years, rock solid.
Bought one from a guy who refurbishes them for $500. Definely get it used and look at Craigslist/Facebook marketplace for local deals. May luck out.
I got a refurbished Aeron for $400. The thing was originally manufactured in 2002 and it is still rock solid.
I highly recommend the Steelcase Leap (v2, is what I have).
However, you may need the headrest, and they are extremely expensive/hard to find, just a warning.
I got my Steelcase from a place that resold them, so it was like 275 Canadian. Still, a great chair.
I have the headrest, don’t recall it being terribly expensive, but I also don’t think it’s that great.
The last time I found one it was 200 USD (which is basically what I paid for the entire chair).
Wow, if you got a Steelcase Leap V2 for $200 that’s a damn good deal!
That said, I think I paid like, maybe, $70 for mine direct from Crandalls. Might’ve even been less than that, I’d have to go look for the receipt.
Sorry, to be clear I got it for 275 CDN, which is roughly 200 USD.
But when it comes to the headrests I cannot find anything for under roughly that price. :/
Yeah, that’s a good deal IMO. Strange, I can’t find headrests for it now though. Maybe they stopped making them or jacked prices up during the pandemic…
The embody is much better than the Aeron. I used an aeron for years and switched to an embody that was a decade old and it outperformed the aeron easily. Much more adjustable, much easier to sit in in different positions, none of that mesh. It’s a much better chair
Heck the aeron!
I used to work in the warehouse where we shipped them. They’re good chairs. If you’re gonna spend that money though, get the Embody. Make sure to get the correct size. After hours of lugging designer couches around and other overly heavy stuff, sitting in an Embody chair makes the hurt stop immediately.
I’m not a promoter and they stopped paying me over some stupid shit a coworker pulled. It’s just a damn good chair. The eames lounge is also sick, but so incredibly expensive.
I keep hearing about that one, must be pretty good…
It’s actually really nice. Wish I could afford one. There’s something to be said for the designer bullshit for sure, but cost benefit ratio is bad sometimes.
My Aeron is nearly 10 years old and still great
I’ve owned £80 chairs that lasted that long though. Everything except the cheapest nastiest chairs from Amazon should be lasting 10 years.
If I bought a £1000 chair, I’d expect to be leaving it to somebody in my will.
That’s fair.
The leap is an excellent “mid range” one since a lot of these chairs can hit $2000 new.
Probably why decent refurbs are such a popular choice as well.
Yeah if you watch the site for sales the Aeron can get decently cheap. Plus, consider that these chairs have a 10 year warranty, unlike the ones you pick up at an office supply store.
The Aeron really changed everything for me.
That’s it, these two. There are more expensive options in those two brands, but these are the baseline. They are actual professional chairs, not Chinese gamer chair bullshit like the stuff that gets marketed everywhere. Because they last forever due to actually being well built, you can oftentimes find them second hand.
When work from home first started during covid, lots of offices liquidated. I got my steealcase leap V2s for $200 a pop.
I have the Aeron at work and it’s pretty meh. Not sure how it’s $2k
I’ve been working from home about 90% of the time since the pandemic lockdown era. I had a cheap office chair and had noticed my back starting to hurt after a few hours in it per day. I eventually wound up getting a Humanscale Freedom headrest chair, which has been awesome. These chairs are stupid expensive, but I bought mine used, and reeking of the previous owner’s perfume. It took months for the smell to completely go away, but I saved about $1,000 over buying one new, and it is otherwise in mint condition.
humanscale makes lovely stuff. I have some of their monitor arms and cable management and they’re top notch.
