# Investing in a good Office Chair



## zidane (Jan 8, 2012)

I can’t take it anymore. My butt is numb again from the hard seats of my chair. My back aches from the lack of back support. This so called chair I’m sitting on should be recognized as a torture device. I really need a new chair. 

It may not seem too frugal to spend more than $850 on an office chair, but before your jaws drop; Let me explain to you my point of view.

I have my eyes set on the Steelcase Leap chair which costs $850. I'm waiting for a demo unit to be delivered to me. I’ve personally tried it and I must say it is rather comfortable, but it may take a while to find the perfect settings as the chair has an abundance of features. The chair has all kinds of adjustments from: lumbar support, seat recline, maneuverable armrests, seat depth, seat back firmness, and so on. It also comes with a 12 year warranty on major components, plus a limited lifetime warranty on product defects; which is reassuring. Steelcase is a reputable furniture company on par with Herman Miller (the makers of Aeron). It is worth noting, that this chair has had numerous good reviews and have had been Steelcase’s top selling product.

Does this chair justify as a good investment? After sitting on an Ikea chair for 2-3 years, one of the wheels had broken off. This other cheap chair I have is making my butt fall asleep. I was Looking at Staples and Ikea for chairs; their most expensive chairs was ~$300, but they lacked adjustability as those chairs only had the regular height adjustment and recline features. So why spend ~$300 on a cheap chair that you would probably have to replace in 2-3 years’ time, when you can get all the comfort and durability you desire with a premium chair? 

People spend a lot of money on mattresses because we want to be comfortable when sleeping. The same can be applied to office chairs, since most the time, I’m parked in front my computer desk for hours on end.

What do you guys think?


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## stardancer (Apr 26, 2009)

Is this your own place or the office?

If you are younger and have many years ahead of you to be sitting at a desk, go for it! It may take 20 years, but other symptoms can show up if you don't watch your spine support now.

I have given up on Staples brand; don't have much experience with IKEA.

Just make sure the chair has a good guarantee for that price. I had a good, fairly expensive chair at my old office, and the hydrolic adjustment died, so it wouldn't move up and down.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I've been using the Leap chair for the past three years in my home office and it's great. It is miles better than the Herman Miller Aeron chair that I tried before that, which was very uncomfortable and overpriced...one of those form over function things.

The Leap was worth it, although I am used to using a straight back support so I continue to use that with the Leap chair; I've been using the back support for 15 years now, my Alexander Technique teacher recommended it and I find it reduces fatigue and I haven't had any back pain since I started using it 15 years ago. The support I'm using is made by TruComfort (http://www.trucomfort.com/); it's a simple design and a bit expensive, but it'll last forever. You can use it on any chair; I bring it with me for long car trips as well.


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## uptoolate (Oct 9, 2011)

Definitely a good chair and potentially a good investment if you are chair bound for a significant portion of your day. Definitely make every effort to get up and around frequently and actively stretch if you are stuck there. Also get some in chair exercises going. 

Costco has recently had 3 levels of office chairs in stock. The high end one was quite nice and might be worth a look. Good thing about Costco is that you could use the chair for 6 months or more and if it didn't cut it you could take it back for a full refund. Chairs are a very individual thing and it is good to trial one for as long as possible to see if it fits you. Your analogy to mattresses is good.


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## Ihatetaxes (May 5, 2010)

That Leap chair looks fantastic. I think I will order one as my 5 year old office chair is starting to wear out.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

In addition to the Leap chair, I also bought a Steelcase sit-stand desk, which allows you to sit part of the day and stand part of the day. I would buy another Leap chair in a heartbeat, but not the sit-stand desk -- not because the idea doesn't work but because Steelcase's design is flawed, the thing was a bear to put together, and it was really expensive; there are much cheaper options available. When I type at the keyboard, the energy gets transferred to the desk and my monitor wobbles with every keystroke. 

Apart from that, I love being able to shift position. I usually start the day standing until I get tired, sit until I get tired of that, shift back to standing for a while, back to sitting, etc. -- I'm much less fatigued by the end of the day. During deadlines I often have to work 14-16 hours a day at my desk, six or seven days a week. Sitting that long is murder on your body, as many studies have shown -- even if you exercise an hour per day, sitting for eight hours a day undoes the benefits you get from exercise.


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## GregoryWong (Aug 11, 2011)

I bought the Herman Miller Mirra chair a couple years back and have no regrets at all. I debated spending that amount of money on a chair, but when it came down to it, I sit in front of a computer for 8+ hours day and wanted to be comfortable.

I previously bought chairs from costco and staples and either my back started to hurt after 2 hours, or one of my legs fell asleep  

Mine came with a 5 year warranty as well. One of pieces on the back broke when it was dropped moving out of my apartment, and all I had to do was take it to a dealer and they fixed it for free.


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## zidane (Jan 8, 2012)

Thanks for the replies. I feel more justified about spending that much on a chair. 

@brad - How is your Leap holding up? Did you get the fabric or leather option? Did you get the optional headrest?


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## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

@brad let me know if you ever find a good standing desk, I have one too and it also wobbles


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

zidane said:


> @brad - How is your Leap holding up? Did you get the fabric or leather option? Did you get the optional headrest?


The Leap is holding up great -- fabric cover seat and no sign of wear at all after three years of daily use. I didn't even know there was an optional headrest but I wouldn't have gotten that anyway. Five years of weekly Alexander Technique lessons got me in the habit of keeping my head properly balanced on my neck. ;-)


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

ddkay said:


> @brad let me know if you ever find a good standing desk, I have one too and it also wobbles


I've heard good things about the Geek Desk: http://www.geekdesk.com/ and it's about half the price of the Steelcase one. Not sure if it would also make your monitor wobble as you type, though; looks like it has the potential to do so.

I've actually gotten used to the wobbling monitor on mine and don't notice it anymore, but it was REALLY annoying at the beginning. I suppose I could attach the monitor to the wall to avoid the problem, but the beauty of having it attached to the desk itself is that it moves up and down with the desk, no need to adjust anything. I have my monitor on a bracket that's fixed to the edge of the desk, which gives me more desk space for papers than if I set the monitor on the desk.


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## leoc2 (Dec 28, 2010)

Can you recommend a Canadian vendor for the leap chair?


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

leoc2 said:


> Can you recommend a Canadian vendor for the leap chair?


Steelcase has a bunch of dealers in Canada; best bet is to go to one of them. Go here: http://www.steelcase.com/en/shop/dealers/pages/overview.aspx

Choose Canada and enter the name of your province.


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## groceryalerts (May 5, 2009)

What about just a swiss ball? I see many people using these!


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

I used a ball as my desk chair for two years, and stopped after I had a couple of close calls on different occasions: both times I wasn't paying attention and leaned back just a little too far and lost my balance, hitting my head against the wall. The second time my head also brushed the corner of a bookcase behind me, and it really hurt. 

Apart from that, I found sitting on a ball to be very enjoyable; I stayed more alert and felt more energized at the end of the day. 

It was certainly cheaper than a Leap chair.


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## leoc2 (Dec 28, 2010)

brad said:


> Steelcase has a bunch of dealers in Canada; best bet is to go to one of them. Go here: http://www.steelcase.com/en/shop/dealers/pages/overview.aspx
> 
> Choose Canada and enter the name of your province.


Thanks! Mayhew has it on sale! 

http://mayhew.ca/about/steelcase-leap-chairs.shtml


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## cityandcolor (Jan 24, 2012)

*Investing in a good office chair*

When I first saw this post I thought that spending over $800 on an office chair seemed pretty extreme. However after reading deeper into the situation, I now believe that it is totally worthwhile. I mean, if people invest in a nice mattress to spend less than 8 hours of sleep/night, and you spend (depending on what line of office work you do) 9+ hours sitting in that chair, then calculate the physical damage a crappy chair may cause long term, plus the bills paid to chiropractor for damages done = worth it!


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## Berubeland (Sep 6, 2009)

Hi all,

I think it's lovely that you spend a lot of dough on a desk chair and I certainly agree that we spend lot of time in one. 

However because this is a money forum I object to calling your fancy desk chair an investment. 

Investments are supposed to generate income. You desk chair will never go up in value or pay you a dividend therefore we should not call it an investment.

Other than that enjoy! You surely deserve it.


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

Berubeland said:


> However because this is a money forum I object to calling your fancy desk chair an investment.


I think of it as an investment in the health of your back and your bum, which are two important contributors to your human capital. If you have a job that involves sitting all day and your back and your bum don't cooperate, your productivity could suffer, and if things get bad enough you could be forced to switch careers or take a long leave of absence.

So the chair itself is not an investment; it's the effect of the chair that's an investment. How's that for rationalization?


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## canadianbanks (Jun 5, 2009)

You can buy a very decent leather office chairs at Costco and you can do it for less than $300. Check out their selection below:

http://www.costco.ca/Common/Search....e=1_en-_-Top_Left_Nav-_-Top_search&lang=en-CA


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

With chairs you generally get what you pay for. I did okay for about 8 years with a decent used Steelcase chair (not Leap, but a cheaper and simpler model) that I picked up for $150 at a used office supplies store in about 1995, but I did have to use my TrueComfort backrest to make it comfortable to sit in all day. The Leap is a far better chair than that one was and I can definitely feel the difference.

Chairs like the Leap that are designed with input from ergonomists can make a huge difference in the long term.

When I worked as a journalist, I had to turn in 16 news stories plus a full-length feature article every two weeks, which meant I spent a lot of time hunched tensely over my keyboard, typing like mad. After five years of that I developed a common repetitive strain injury (thoracic outlet syndrome, which is actually more common among computer users than carpal tunnel syndrome). It was so bad that I couldn't type for more than 5 minutes without my right hand turning completely white and numb. I ended up having to quit my job as I couldn't meet my deadlines any longer, and took a 50 percent paycut when I shifted to a new line of work. It took five years of massage therapy, Alexander Technique, and a switch to voice-recognition software for me to recover and to get back into my previous career.

All of that could have been avoided with ergonomic office furniture and equipment, as well as better body awareness on my part. I've been working mostly pain-free now since 1996, although if I switch the mouse to my right hand my symptoms come back in 10 minutes or less (most repetitive strain injuries stay with you for life, they're never fully cured, you just learn how to keep the symptoms at bay).


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## leoc2 (Dec 28, 2010)

Just got my Leap chair on sale at Mahew. Love the way it contours the spine. Grateful to have found this thread.


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## indexxx (Oct 31, 2011)

OK- off topic, but any advice for a ruptured disc at L5-S1? Brutal sciatica that I don't wish to recur.


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