Buying an office chair - suggestions?

So back during the dot-com bust I bought myself a pretty nice office chair from some dot-com that was selling off its assets. It’s served me well all these years, but it’s going kinda kaput now (it occasionally sinks down to its lowest position and it’s a real struggle to get it back up to where I like it, my dog has kinda chewed up all the levers, I’ve worn a hole in the upholstery, etc).

I’m thinking of buying a new chair - I’ve found by painful experience that going cheap (ala $99 Ikea swivel chairs) doesn’t work for me, as they are uncomfortable and they don’t last well.

Any suggestions for a good office chair? - solid, adjustable, but not too expensive (I don’t mind spending some money, but I’m looking for the “bang for your buck” sweet spot chair). Do you guys recommend buying online? It seems dicey, as I probably should at least sit in the chair before buying…

Do what I did and cruise Craigslist for a second hand Aeron. You’ll save a lot of money, Aerons have great build quality and an excellent warranty. Although they’re not officially transferable, as long as you have the chair’s serial number you can return them via any dealer.

Aeron seconded.

Hmm, I just ordered a KLAPPE chair (in leather) from Ikea as part of my new home office arrangement. The chair was okay, but kind of hard. As long as it was locked in place I liked it, but the spring for the back was so tight (even on the loosest setting) that it would just push me all the way forward, forcing me to comically struggle to push it back while bracing myself by curling my feet around the legs. It’s hard to explain, but imagine the scene in black-and-white with some scratches and a honky tonk piano and you should be good.

I guess I went for it out of convenience… These Aerons are expensive but I remember sitting in one and it seemed good. Is there that much difference between the various models?

I went for the deluxe one after testing out both. It’s a lot more adjustable, which goes a long way towards making it as comfortable as possible.

Aeron thirded, and the warranty rocks, which makes the price a little more bearable.

Some more rationalization for you: like a mattress, you are going to be spending a lot of time in a work chair. So, on a per-hour basis, those hundreds of dollars start to look a lot cheaper when you think about the years of use you’re going to get out of it.

I’ll buck the trend and suggest Ergohuman. It has better ergonomics than the entry level Aerons, competitive construction / build quality, and better prices. You can often even find them at Office Depot (call ahead), though online pricing is better (eBay).

If you can spring the bucks for an Aeron, they are very, very nice. I lookde at one for my office at home, but at $1200 CAD, it was a bit much. I ended up picking up a very comfortable office chair at Costco. It doesn’t look as nice as an Aeron, but it works well and was less than $300 CAD.

Aeron for sure.

I found a brand new one on Craigslist for 500 bucks. I love it.

(A) What makes the Aeron so comfortable?

(B) What makes them so goddamn expensive?

(A) What makes the Aeron so comfortable?

No idea I think its the fairy dust.

(B) What makes them so goddamn expensive?

Again I think its the fairy dust. Honestly though when you start looking at the really ergonomic office chairs they are all god damn fucking expensive.

Aerons are overrated. The dot-com I used to work at had Aerons, and they’re decently comfortable, but:

  1. The part in the front, where the mesh meets a bit of padding for the front edge, was always uncomfortable.

  2. The mesh is hard on fabric; all of my pants wore holes in the back pocket where I keep my wallet very quickly.

When I went to buy a nice chair for home (on the basis that I spend shocking numbers of hours sitting there, so why not), I read a bunch of reviews, most of which said the Steelcase Leap is better than the Aeron.

And it is. It’s very comfortable, the leaning back motion is ergonomic (it slides the seat slightly forward), you can adjust everything in ways that are mostly intuitive (and there are instructions silk-screened onto the area under the arm pads, which is visible if you move the arms in a particular way), and it just in general does everything you’d want a chair to do.

Main downside is, it doesn’t look very cool. It’s a very utilitarian-looking sort of chair, unless you pay the extra hundreds of dollars for leather and chrome. It seems silly to buy a $600 chair and not even have it look cool, but given the choice between impressing guests and impressing my ass, I’m going with my ass every time.

all of my pants wore holes in the back pocket where I keep my wallet very quickly

Is that the fault of the chair, or your George Constanza wallet? Agree on the front edge criticism. HM should really do an Aeron 2.0.

I also broke the reclining pin on mine and had to do open-Aeron surgery on it with a replacement part. Lesson learned: don’t do XXX extreme monster reclines in an Aeron!

The Steelcase chairs are excellent, too.

Bottom line, invest in a quality chair. And by “invest” I mean, if you’re paying less than $400 (new), you aren’t buying the right chair.

Agree with the aeron. I bought mine in 1998. It finally broke last year, and they fixed it under warranty, no questions asked. Cheap chairs will break in under a year. Spend the money. It’s worth it.

This really is the point of this thread. You are sitting in this chair for hours at a time so you owe it to your self to invest in the proper support for it. It really is just like a matress.

Penitent, penitent…

Seriously, though, has anyone here had any good experiences with a Håg?

I’ve tried one. For about 20 minutes. They don’t force you to use good posture, as I had heard. Just as easy to slump your upper body forward as with anything else (though maybe my fatass center of gravity helps). And in a corner-shaped cubicle desk arrangement, very tempting to rest your forearms or elbows on the desk and then you’re hunching. Your desk height may vary.

I’m very interested in the new Aeron stools that have a much greater height. I want to move to a drafting stool situation so I can work comfortably standing up or sitting, which means a higher desk.

My aunt owns a few, but she is not “normal” so she cannot sit in every kind of “regular” chair. I tried it when I first saw it, but I hated it because you feel like you have no support. And as much gaming as I do, I would hate to be playing UT 2007 and go flying off onto the floor cause I am dodging some shit in real life [I do this from time to time when gaming]. ANyways, yeah I don’t like it. It sounds good concept wise, but no support for a gamer, and probably not the same good support for people who need it [back problems?] would be very bad.

I did buy a chair recently, but gave it to my roomate, it was only 15 bucks. I was thinking about buying one of those leather chairs, but then I remember how FUCKING HOT it gets here in San Diego and decided I didn’t want to be sweaty and nasty in a chair… During the winter months it would be great and comfy, but the summer? Hell no!