Hey guys, I am kinda stuck. I am now working from home and I am wanting to upgrade my good will office chair to something a bit more comfy.
Here is the catch. Since I am doing mostly programming work, and I am working close to 60 hours a week, I have a tendency to fall asleep in my chair. I will get stuck on a problem, lean back a bit to think about it, and fall asleep. When I wake up, my body is super sore.
I want a better reclining office chair that is tall enough to support my head.
I would like it if it could tilt forward as well so that when I fiddle with my circuits that I am still somewhat comfortable
My budget is a max of 2000 for something really special, but I would like to keep it closer to 500 ish.
Yeah, I am looking for the equivalent of orthopedic furniture. The reason I am willing to spend the money is because I am spending so many hours in the chair that I am starting to hurt a bit.
If 2000 bucks can save me from having back problems later on in life, then I consider it a very good deal. But obviously if I can achieve the same thing at 500 bucks, I would be happy with that too.
I will browse overstock. I always forget about them.
Staples, Office Max and any Office Supply or Office Liquidation store. I would guess this is one area where brick-n-morter is better then online. I wish I knew of an office chair that came close to the chair in my truck, it has a ton of adjustments and several inflatable sections. I feel a twinge, press a button and ahhhhhh. Unfortunately I have never seen these in an office chair.
Truck drivers are notorious for having back problems. Oddly those who have more physical jobs (furniture moving and food delivery) have far less then those who just drive and sleep. I would highly recommend a cheap office exercise bicycle. Strengthens the back and increases blood flow to the brain, sometimes mental breakthroughs can occur during physical activities. Wish I could help more.
Just bought the Steelcase Leap with the Cogent Connect fabric and headrest. Freakin love it! It is actually my second one, the first being a leather one without a headrest. I like it a lot more than the Aeron actually.
Seriously though if you are spending that much time in front of the computer, you won't regret it. The one thing I would recommend on top of the chair would be some sort of foot rest/ottoman; it makes resting soooo comfy!
Everything they have there is dog shit and felt worse than the 12 dollar good will office chair that I currently have. The serta chairs were kind of nice, but they all felt like they were made with smaller people in mind.
Thats actually a really interesting approach you have there though. I like it because its kind of a hybrid between sitting down and standing up.
How is the cushioning on those things? That is one issue I keep running into with these ergonomic chairs. They have great lumbar and body support, but they are as hard as a rock.
I tried out my friend's Steelcase Leap chair and it was pretty damn comfy, also the seat on his had a nice forgiving firmness. I have been interested in getting the Steelcase Gesture with the headrest, although I am curious as well if others have tried the Herman Miller Embody. I've seen people mention this chair before, but I really don't know much about it or how comparable it is to the Steelcas chairs.
As a 300lb dude, I literally have NO complaints on cushioning. The leap is actually made to withstand 400lb and still function normally, while most other chairs out there are usually rated at almost half that; if that doesn't speak to how well built this thing is, I'm not sure what will.
Comfort wise, the reason I never liked the Aeron is because it has weird plastic support in places that simply doesn't make sense, and makes it uncomfortable. The Leap isn't like sitting on a pile of pillows like some of the cheap ass chairs from big box stores, but what padding it does have is strong enough to keep even my big ass from being too sore.
A big key to long term comfort is actually movement and support. What I mean by this is that you want to continuously adjust your body position throughout the day, and chairs like the Leap have adjustments that allow for small, minute adjustments to keep your weight shifting through the day and blood flowing.
Seriously, I've tried SO many chairs, and I always end up coming right back to the Leap....especially with that Connect/cogent fabric.
Never did get to try the Embody, mostly because I've LOVED the Leap so much, that I honestly don't see the need to. As far as the Gesture, I seriously considered it over the leap for the design alone, but ended up with the Leap because of its higher weight rating (read: better built), and better comfort for larger dudes. Apparently the Gesture is great though if you are closer to normal size.
Also, the Embody didn't have the option for a headrest from what I remember, and the weight limit was 300lb vs 400lb for the leap. Again, this to me means the Leap is built more like a tank.
I picked up one of these for $60 at a discount liquidation store by me but I have to say i'm impressed with how good it is. I probably wouldnt give more than $250 for it though.
I've had mine for 3 months now. I'm 6'1" 215lbs. Its showing no signs of wearing out yet. I dont sit in it every day for extended periods like you probably would but I do game in it on the weekends for extended periods, 6-8 hours maybe sometimes more. Perhaps thats why I got it so cheap but I have 0 complaints.
Another idea I've thrown around is taking the base from a cheaper chair I had and putting a car seat from ebay on the mount. It might sit a little high and wont have arm rests but I use my desk to lay my forearms on. If I could get the factory seat from my civic si in a computer chair that would be awesome.
So I have been looking at that too........with a slight twist.
I ended up going into a high end out door patio furniture store and they had an amazing lounge chair. It was 1200 bucks, and I would have paid for it in cash right then and there. It had recline, tilt, swivel, and pretty much everything other than height adjust which makes it totally useless for an office chair.
I think they key was that the cushions were at least 6 inches thick. So rather than having fancy lumbar support and all these weird settings, they just kept it simple and let the cushion conform to your body.
Office depot does have a office chair that has the tilt and everything else that I want for 100 bucks. I am really considering getting that, ripping it apart, strengthening the mechanisms and then just build a chair with some super thick latex foam.
I have one that around that price that the butt is completely gone. I thought about kinda doing the same but with those memory foam mattress toppers. Cutting to shape pieces of the seat for layers of memory foam and stuffing that in the seat, then staple it all back up like thats the way it was meant to be.
Yeah, and from what my research shows, these latex mattresses last a ridiculously long time and are much softer than memory foam.
The problem I am running into is the math. I like the cushions from the other place. They sell replacement cushions for 500 bucks.
That sounds like a crazy amount and it is, until you start looking at mattress toppers. I am finding that I would roughly need 10 square feet of foam to cover the chair and have it fit my dimensions. The depth needs to be 6 inches for the back and 10 inches for the bottom.
Unless my math is way off, that means I should be able to get a 3 inch thick queen topper and have it all work. The problem is that a 3 inch queen topper is 300 bucks+ with no fabric or anything like that. So that puts me very close to those cushions.