any chance at having a reasonable discussion about office chairs?

Just had to make the joke in the title.  

There's been lots of discussion about office chairs and I decided to pull the trigger and spend more money than I really wanted on an office chair. I narrowed it down to

1 - a used Herman Miller Aeron (SP?) chair from facebook marketplace. These can usually be had in the 400-600 dollar range. Naturally they are used, and worse than that, you have to deal with flaky facebook marketplace people.  

2 - a new chair by Humanscale.

Notes about option 1. People are flaky and prices are all over the place. I found one chair locally-ish that had the mesh bottom totally shredded. Between the replacement bottom and the purchace price we were in the $600 dollar range. There would have been significant work cleaning that nasty, nasty chair. Good gawd it was nasty. I also found one a few hours from home. The purchase price plus about $100 in fuel to get there and back and we were over $500 but at least it wasn't shredded and it was clean.  

Notes about option 2. Humanscale is a competitor to Herman Miller. They have chairs that are just as stupid expensive. They also have a chair called the World One Task Chair that is basically one of their other models (Different World) with a few less adjustments. The WOTC is aimed at work from home folks and is $550, with a limit of two units sold to any one household to prevent companies from outfitting their offices with these chairs.

I went with the Humanscale WOTC and it arrived yesterday. I only have 9 or so hours into it, but it's very comfortable. I like the mesh bottom for air circulation around the wedding vegitables. 
So nice.....
The seat pan has fore and aft adjustments, the typical height adjustments for the whole seat, and the arm rests telescope up and forward (at the same time, not independent). I got a discount for being a first time visitor, I think it was 20%? I ended up paying less than $500 with tax and delivery. It was a warranty and a 30-day return policy so I felt safe giving it a try. 

I think it would speak volumes about who you are as a man, if you chose to bring a Viking chair to the office.  A simple, manly chair that you crafted with your own hands.  Perhaps more suited to leisure than work, but it would surely make a statement.

1988RedT2 said:

I think it would speak volumes about who you are as a man, if you chose to bring a Viking chair to the office.  A simple, manly chair that you crafted with your own hands.  Perhaps more suited to leisure than work, but it would surely make a statement.

 

I believe the only statement would be coming from the chiropractor's office.  But at least it would be HSA/FSA eligible!

The first upgrade to any home office chair is:  wheels & tires.  Get some rollerblade wheels for it.  Much improvement.

Check to see if there are any office furniture businesses in your area that sell used chairs.  That's how I got my Herman Miller office chairs; the price was fair, they had plenty to choose from, and I didn't have to deal with flakes on Facebook.

I'm sitting on one of these and am very happy: Soho from Laura David. 

The arms are optional, and I left them off so I could play guitar in my office. Shipping was quick. 

Looks like the price has increased from $265 to $300 (look for a 10% coupon on their site) but at either price, I'd be happy. 

^How is the leather (pleather?) quality?  

I have a ~12 year old chair I got of Amazon that is mostly fine, but the soft goods are basically dissolving and the leather paint is flaking off everywhere.

This guy is 6 years old and still super comfortable. IIRC it was about $400 at Staples. It's big enough for a big person, unlike many office chairs. 

In reply to stuart in mn :

I did. The nearest one was almost 2 hours away. 

I went to an office furniture place with used stuff and sat in a bunch of chairs, initially thinking I would get an Aeron.  I walked out with a Herman Miller Embody which works great for me some 5 years later, but my wife doesn't like it much.  After trying out a bunch of chairs I firmly think that it is necessary before you spend solid money for something you are going to spend 20% of your life sitting in.  

I have a Herman Miller Aeron here at the house.  Luckily, when we closed our offices, they let employees grab anything the needed from the office before selling the rest off to a used office place.  The rollerblade wheels I put on it made a huge difference on my hard floors.

With that, I agree that finding a used office furniture store would be an excellent option.  Especially with being able to test out different chairs and such.  I like my chair, but it's uncomfortable for my wife.  Being able to sit in a bunch of different ones reduces the risk.  I'd hate to spend $500 on a chair online and find out it's uncomfortable.

-Rob

ProDarwin said:

^How is the leather (pleather?) quality?  

I have a ~12 year old chair I got of Amazon that is mostly fine, but the soft goods are basically dissolving and the leather paint is flaking off everywhere.

I did the fabric ribbed version, and so far it's holding up very well. The chair is almost a year old. 

It's hard to have a reasonable discussion when you just ASSUME we all need a chair and ASSUME we all can afford the same type of chair that you have. No one promised anyone a chair for free, much less a home office.  Educate yourself before you start such a dumb thread.  You don't want a reasonable discussion, you just want to say "Look at meeeeeee. I have a chaaaaair"

Im out.

My Aeron chair came from the company office when we closed a location. It was made in 1998, and I just replaced the seat base two weeks ago. Parts are available, but rarely needed. It's not my favorite chair, but I can sit in it all day and it's very well made. I would personally try really hard to get another one of these before buying another chair. Note that they have three different sizes, so do verify what you're getting if it's a local deal. 

We've got a pair of Haworth Zody chairs I bought as part of a group purchase.

They're very comfortable and adjustable.  The big factor is having a chair where the seat slides forward as the back is reclined.  Don't know what they cost right now, but they were reasonably priced about 17-18 years ago, and they're still in production.

Mechanically they are solid as a rock even now.  The only issue is the soft plastics.  We've already replaced the arm rests once and they need it again.  Plus earlier this year we had to replace the hard-floor casters because the tires were giving up.  But they are the better part of 20 years old at this point.

In reply to Steve_Jones :

An office chair is not a human right Steve! I understand that there are anti-chair people, there are exercize-ball people, and standing-desk people among us. I don't mean to offend those people, but let's get with the program here. People have been using chairs since butts were invented and nobody is going to convince me otherwise. 

One more thing. LOOK AT MEEEEEE. I HAVE A CHAAAAAIR!!!

That was great. You took this thread RIGHT where I wanted it to go. You gotta have some fun in life man. 

Duke said:

The big factor is having a chair where the seat slides forward as the back is reclined. 

This chair has the sliding seat bottom. It's GREAT. It feels totally natural. From here on out, all my chairs will have that feature. That chair looks really nice. 

In reply to Duke :

Ouch! $2,000. You can configure them cheaper, but not a lot cheaper. 

DrBoost said:

In reply to Duke :

Ouch! $2,000. You can configure them cheaper, but not a lot cheaper. 

$2,000?  Looks like they start at about $800 at MSRP to me.

Ugh!  More of what has become the all-too-familiar elitist twaddle.   Are we really going to have a "reasonable discussion" about a chair that costs as much as the GDP of some third-world countries?  There's no way this thread doesn't get locked for being political.  I mean, you've got asses, parked in chairs, doing next to nothing.  If that doesn't sum up politics, I don't know what does.  IBTL.

Hitler sat in office chairs so basically office chairs equal Nazis.

But seriously watching this cause I will need an office chair for my new home office when it is finished.

In reply to Duke :

Interesting. On this page
https://www.haworth.com/na/en/products/stools/zody-1.html
if I click Buy now I see $795. When I clicked Configure and Price it was 2 grand. But that configure page is REALLY slow so I didn't try different configs. 

93EXCivic said:

Hitler sat in office chairs so basically office chairs equal Nazis.

 

But seriously watching this cause I will need an office chair for my new home office when it is finished.

I think Jesus sat in an office chair. Now it's religious!!

I'll echo what others have said. If you can find a used office supply place near you, go. You might LOVE the Aeron, but might find something you love just as much for 1/2 the price. 

DrBoost said:

,,,but might find something you love just as much for 1/2 the price. 

I've always heard that in matters of "love", you should never go with the lowest-cost vendor, 'cause you might catch some nasty disease.

I have a Steelcase chair. 

The key thing with an office chair is to get something that's designed for you to sit in for 10 or more hours a day, every day. Most of the big box chairs aren't designed for that level of constant use.