Ultimate Chair Buying Resource Thread

Herman Miller Aeron: Of all the chairs we tested, this had one of the best lumbar supports. One of the downsides of the Aeron are the arm rests. They aren’t the easiest to adjust and sometimes go out of position.

Herman Miller Embody: probably our favorite chair of all time. From our limited experience with it in the showroom…it’s basically the perfect chair.

Humanscale Freedom: And speaking of user friendly, this chair has, hands-down, the easiest mechanism to adjust arm position of any chair we’ve seen…which we’ve found is typically the most adjusted part of any chair. With the Freedom, the arm rests adjusts up and down with a mere tilt of the wrist. The downside of the Freedom was the seat-pan. As compared to the Aeron, there were noticeable drawbacks to the Freedom seat-pan. For one, although we had the Freedom with the gel seat upgrade, the seat just felt dead and flat, while the Aeron pellicle seat-pan, although not padded, had a springy feel to it. Some users of the Aeron complain that the pellicle feels rough like sandpaper, but we found that the Freedom seat-pan is so smooth, that the sitter’s position has a tendency of sliding forward in the seat. Another negative with the Freedom is the inability to lock the recline function. We felt that often times, locking the chair in the upright position offers better ergonomics than being able to rock backwards at any given time.

We believe that the Freedom was designed specifically for this headrest version. The reason is because of the excellent tilt/recline mechanism of the Freedom. The Freedom has such good recline mode, the sitter has a natural tendency to recline the entire upper body, which includes the head. The shame to this Freedom line is that the normal Freedom can’t be upgraded to the model with headrest. We called Humanscale and were told that this upgrade is completely not doable.

Humanscale Liberty: This is probably the simplest chair of the bunch. Although not “adjustable”, one of our favorite features unique to the Liberty is the auto pivoting back rest. We found this mechanism to be very comfortable as the sitter goes from upright to recline mode. The pivoting back rest follows your body’s movement and contours well to the natural curvature from the bottom of your spine to upper back. We also found the mesh back to have a good amount of lumbar support and resistance…better than the Freedom but not as good as the Aeron. We also thought the padded armrests were more comfortable and durable than the armrests found on the Aeron. One of the biggest drawbacks of the Liberty is definitely the unadjustable armrest. Given the brilliant design of the armrest adjustment on the Freedom, this Liberty armrest is unforgivable.

Steelcase Leap: We loved the this chair, and in our comparisons…it beat out most of the competition. The seat pan cushion has a good amount of padding, and the hydraulic cylinder holding up the chair has a good amount of springiness to it. One of our favorite parts of this chair is the lumbar support. Steelcase included a lumbar control knob that adjusts the amount of lumbar support you need, much like the mechanism found in front car seats. Another much liked feature are the armrests. These armrests are the most adjustable of the bunch, can accommodate a multitude of positions, and we found them very sturdy and comfortable.

Steelcase Think: the Steelcase seat pan cushions seem to be the best out of the bunch. We also liked how the seat pan cushion slopes down towards the front and is forgiving for sitters who lean forward when they sit. It’s a much welcomed design when compared to the Aeron, which has zero flexibility in the front of the seat pan, which cuts off circulation on the legs. The biggest thing we didn’t like about the chair is the mesh backing. It definitely offers much needed breathability and ventilation for long periods of sitting, but the material just felt a bit cheap to us. Also, we weren’t convinced that the many horizontal metal bars running along the back to support the sitter was the most “thoughtful” approach to back support design on a chair. That said, we did like the adjustable lumbar support that’s padded for extra comfort.

The Acuity has no levers and a dual-tread caster that enables the user to float around easily from carpet to hard flooring. And although the seat felt less comfortable to me than Relate, the back on this chair is truly amazing. The more weight I put against it when leaning, the more it adjusted to the particular curve of my body. And it had a feather-like responsiveness, which I found refreshing. Plus, the clever thumb locks on the arms keep them in place so if I push against them to get up out of my chair, they stay put.

The Zody chair‘s gel seat cushion felt like it was made for my butt. Even the back is flexible so I could turn and reach comfortably - and the chair felt like it was flexing with me.

The Embody chair has a wide base (potentially a bit too wide) that’s supportive for folks who are doing task-based work in non-traditional positions. That means I can easily sit cross-legged, and with the narrow back with a “skeleton” like structure, I can turn and pivot to reach things without issue. When increasing the back tension, it literally feels like my particular spine is being held at the exact pressure points I most need additional support. And the arms adjust inward and diagonally to perfectly support my frame. That said, it leans back so elegantly and has a high, supportive back (for my head) that I fear I might fall asleep from the incredible comfort it promotes.

And, literally as soon as I sat in the Think chair, I was in love. It was the most intuitive, light, and easy chair I sat in. It’s the unequivocal winner for its adjustments alone.

Haworth Very and Zody: Both of these chairs were essentially the same thing. The Zody had armrests you could move in and out. Both chairs were very comfortable and my spine was kept pretty straight once you adjusted the lumbar support properly. At the softest setting, I felt my spine going into the C shape. However, the construction looked a bit flimsy. The lumbar support structure looked like some plastic assembly and it was floppy and seemed prone to breakage.

Herman Miller Aeron: Its hard plastic shell around the seat makes every non-standard sitting position uncomfortable. Otherwise, this chair is pretty dang comfortable.

Herman Miller Embody: I found the Backfit adjustment incredibly unintuitive. I could feel the back rest shifting, but I couldn’t feel where it was shifting to and consequently couldn’t adjust it. Nevertheless, it was incredibly comfortable.

Herman Miller Mirra: It’s a little wide for me and I was unable to adjust the arms inward (now that I watched the video, apparently you can but this feature is clearly undiscoverable), but otherwise this chair was one of my favorite chairs of the day. The lumbar support is very adjustable and very nice.

Humanscale Freedom: The headrest on this chair was incredibly uncomfortable. However, there is a version without the headrest. As I reclined, I didn’t feel the lumbar support move with my back.

Humanscale Liberty: You can’t adjust the width on these arms. I also didn’t feel any lumbar support at all.

Steelcase Leap: This chair was incredibly comfortable. Upon reclining, the lumbar support stayed put in relation to my back and thus supported my back through the entire recline. This was probably my favorite chair.

Steelcase Think: It feels a little shoddy, especially for its price. The back support is a series of steel rails, which I don’t think are terribly effective. The lumbar support has a tendency to get stuck in the rails so you have to untangle it almost every time you adjust it.

It provides amazing support to your lower back, and makes sitting up straight actually really comfortable. After using the chair for over 4 months, I've noticed my posture has been noticeably better.

The step up from a $50 office chair to the Ergohuman V1 has been amazing to me. I feel extremely comfortable when at my computer, it is adjustable to suit my body, and my posture has improved considerably. If you're looking for a new chair, I'd recommend saving up a little bit more money and purchasing something like this chair. Anyone who browses Teamliquid no doubt spends a lot of time at their computers. If you do a tonne of cycling, you buy a nice bike; if you play a lot of guitar, you buy a high-quality one; if you do a lot of sitting, you should probably buy a good chair.

Conclusion: the Embody does everything you'd expect a chair to do exceptionally well. On top of that, it gives you an experience sort of like lying in a hammock and moves with you to such a degree that you are able to forget it's there—for the most part—and just focus on getting things done. That, in my opinion, is its best feature. Every chair has flaws, but Embody has few. I don't want to give it back, and that tells me more than any analysis ever could.

I do have a couple of things - you may call them complaints - about the Aeron. Herman Miller has improved on these issues with the Mirra and Embody Chairs, both of which have been introduced since the Aeron Chair. The first issue pertains to the Aeron Chair's back frame. The perimeter of the back is made of hard plastic, so the back feels soft and giving as you move up the Pellicle back. ... that is, until you hit the rigid frame. For this reason, it's important to get the size that fits you right. Aeron comes in 3 sizes to fit the vast majority of the population. If you get a size A and you need a size B, your shoulder blades will hit the frame and make you unhappy. The rigid frame also prevents you from twisting free-spiritedly (quite the adverb) in the chair - something you come to expect once you've sat in the Embody Chair and, to a lesser extent, the Mirra Chair.

The second issue I have is with the tension mechanism for the recline. Maybe I'm just lazy and like to lean back in my chair too much, but I think the Aeron Chair is a little bit too serious about keeping you upright in a traditional tasking posture. You can recline, but you kind of have to work for it. Otherwise Aeron will tilt you forward again.

My Mirra gripes: 1) when I plop down on the chair there is no bounce. Its like plopping down on a dining chair. Well ...a dining chair with a really comfy seat made of a suspended elastomeric material. No matter what position the pneumatic cylinder is in, high or low, the chair is not designed to spring up and down when you sit. 2) the arms could adjust a little higher for peeps like me who use them as a pseudo keyboard tray. 3) You can't pimp out the chair with leather armpads and a shiny polished aluminum or titanium base. But, the base is as least made of metal and not plastic.

The shape of the back support is interesting, and feels great, nice to have the additional height adjustable lumbar support piece as well… Ooooh and for the record, while i still LOVE the look and feel of the Think chair, the Steelcase Leap is definitely more supportive of my overworked little body

]I use a keyboard and monitor at my desk (as opposed to a laptop), and I like to move around depending on what I need to be closer to — my phone or my giant pile of mess on the other side of my desk. The point is that I constantly reposition my keyboard, which requires me to constantly reposition my arms; being able to move the Leap Chair's arms in three dimensions keeps me comfortable, and probably does good things for my shoulders and spine too.

Leap Chair is equipped with a breathable polyester-blend fabric that makes your sweat glands go into a coma. When I switched to the Leap Chair, one concern I had was that the fabric wouldn't breathe like the Bungie Chair; fortunately, Leap proved up to the task. The texture of the back and seat feels slightly soft yet rough; not rough in a bad way, simply not smooth like leather. Anyway, something about this texture breathes very well and has made the temperature between me and the chair a non-factor.

I immediately noticed the very cushioned and comfortable seat. I also noticed how comfortable it was when I leaned back. You see, I ruptured a disk in my back a few years ago so there aren't too many chairs that are truly comfortable. So I need a chair that has great lumbar support and helps my back relax while sitting. The Think chair does have a great lumbar support which really helps my posture while sitting, not one of my strong points.

I found that the frame bars, since they're independent and not connected at the top, flex quite a bit. The result is that when I turn in the chair and move around, the back is not stiff from side to side, but twists with me quite comfortably.

Now that you know more than you need to about my sitting habits, the simplest thing is to understand that these armrests offer great flexibility with ease. To move them from one configuration to the next, all I do is drag them with my elbow (!!!). They are my favorite feature on the Think because of the ease and flexibility.

There are only three adjustments on this chair - backrest angle, seat height, and armrest height. It lacks the customization for seat depth and seat angle. For my height (5'11), the seat depth is perfect. When sitting properly, I can fit 3 fingers between my back of my legs and the front of the seat. The seat has a slight backwards angle of about 4 degrees. Although sitting back is very comfortable, leaning forward is a bit difficult.

This chair comes with two cusions - one for your neck and one for your lumbar. The neck one feels like a pillow, while the lumbar one is foam. These cushions really suck. I tried positioning them in various ways, and they just really don't fit well. They are too big and just get in the way.

If you want a high end chair, you will have to pay at least $500. The DX Racer Fastback is only $279. Other chairs I have used include the Herman Miller Aeron and the Steelcase Leap. The Fastback is noticeably inferior in both build quality and comfort, but it's definitely not bad.