Office chairs are hard to shop for online. If you use Google to search for “office chair”, you’re in for a chaotic collection of search results and sponsored links. What’s worse, many of these links don’t offer specific suggestions (which I can understand; chairs are very personal). Nevertheless, I was able to sift through some of the mayhem (and a search on Mahalo, which I had never used before, helped me out a lot).
In the end, I decided on an older model: the Steelcase Criterion. My reasons were simple:
- I could get a (slightly used) leather model cheap: $250 on eBay with reasonable (under $100) shipping
- Many, many useful adjustments
- It has an articulating seat depth, which should allow the same kind of forward/reclining movement of the higher-priced current Steelcase models. It hasn’t arrived yet, so I don’t know.
In the hopes that this link will rise to the top and help out other people after this same info, here is a rambling recollection of some of the things I learned along the way:
Good chairs are very expensive, and the leather option adds a lot to the cost. As with many big-ticket items, the gulf between MSRP and street price is huge, and basically a joke–I didn’t find anyone charging MSRP. However, some chair dealers do have deals. Sit4Less has a clearance page with some pretty good deals. I almost went for a loaded Herman Miller Mirra chair that was $575. CSN does not list their clearance items on their web page, but they do advertise them on craigslist, and if you’re in New England, they have a warehouse in Massachusetts. See this link for more information. If you know of more, post ‘em in the comments.
If you have a choice between basic and loaded, you need to know that basic means there are few, if any, adjustments on the chair.
Even if the chair is described as full-featured, dig up what you can. Use the model number, if available, to do a search. For example, the Criterion chair I ordered was described as having fully-adjustable arms. But according to the Criterion specs, the model had almost fully-adjustable arms: height+width, but not pivot. I went into the purchase knowing this, though.
If you’re buying a used chair and slightly obsessive compulsive like me, you’ll probably take more comfort in a leather chair because you can clean it to within whatever your personal comfort zone is. If that doesn’t work, just put it in the sun for 3 hours and tell yourself it’s “refurbished”.
Mahalo led me to a roundup of office chair roundups on ConsumerSearch, which ended up being the most helpful single resource I found. The Consumer Search web page design is cluttered, so give yourself some time to check it out and pick out the info from among the ads.
Hi! I wrote that page on office chairs, and I’m glad you found it useful! It was a lot of fun to research.
If you want to buy a top of the line ergonomic office chair that still has the modern stylish design of today without spending 1000s, then I recommend the Ergohuman Chair. It is available in mesh and leather and both options are available with or without an adjustable headrest. It has a lifetime warranty and all the ergonomic functions that the other industry leaders offer. It is only about $500 for the mesh version and the leather version is about $20 more. I ended up going with mesh version http://www.1officefurnituremall.com/eurotech-ergohuman-chairs.htm and have no regrets.
Hi Brian.
This is a great post. You are quite right – the online office chair marketplace is quite glutted. (But you wouldn’t know it from the point of view of the buyer, because buyers are having considerable difficulty finding the right chair online.) Online office chair retailers and distributors should take more care to describe their products in a way that buyers will understand.
As a UK-based online office chair retailer, I find that the market over here is just as bad as it is in the US. Buyers are confronted with a lot of choice, yet it is hard to differentiate between them all to choose the right chair. The matter is compounded by cheaper imports from the Far East which make the Europe-made (and US-made) items look very expensive.
I would advise office chair buyers to read the descriptions carefully and look at offerings from several different suppliers before making a purchase. Try to understand the office-chair-speak used in the descriptions, and then call the retailers of your chosen chairs for further clarification.
Sometimes the online retailer/distributor will have a showroom (, sometimes it will be the manufacturer’s or importer’s showroom), so you can try the chairs before you buy. In the UK, if you are buying a specialist ergonomic chair or heavy duty chair, some retailers/distributors will send a sales representative to demo the chair to you if you cannot visit a showroom. Or they will allow you to try the chair out for 5 days or 10 days.
In summary, you have to search through the online market very keenly, talk to retailers/distributors, and see if you can try the chair before you buy. Your health and your work output are dependent on it.
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Did you end up liking the chair? I’ve been looking into steelcase chairs. I’m trying to find a good local store that carries them so I can test them out. Actually, trying to find a nice office chair is what led me to create my website: http://www.my-officechairs.com/. I’m still trying to find the right chair at a decent price. I can’t afford a 800+ chair.
Hi, I’m searching for a good office chair and am taking leave of my sense because there are no/ virtually no showrooms, all is sold online it seems here in the US (am from Europe). Very dumb as one needs to sit on a chair to know if it is right. Was just wondering if you could give some hints re chair, suppliers – I am in NYC am looking for an ergonomic chair (ie. w seat tilt, not just tilt tension) but it must have a firm seat, not memory foam. The whole idea of memory foam, making you sink in, and sit in the chair not on it, is disasterous in my opinion. Our bodies are meant to sit on things, bearing weight by our bones, not to sink into chairs and have soft tissue bear weight. Besides, when sinking into chairs, one cannot sit with the upright s curve in one’s back. At least I cannot. Maybe I belong to a different species. Any help re. this would be immensely appreciated.