Before I continue investigating and writing about all kinds of models and brands, I decided to share my search criteria for my next high backed office chair.
First of all, I feel I need a chair with a high back. I’m not even sure why and whether it is good for you. However I feel that with my current chair (a 10 year old one from Ikea) I cannot comfortably lean back, because there is just not enough support, which makes me slide down up to the point where I’m sitting at the very tip… and I’m sure that can’t be good.
This brings me to the second requirement: I need to be able to lean back comfortably when I want to. I think most chairs now have these mechanisms. My research does bring me a further demand for this: the ability to lean back (and have the chair move with you) has to be adjustable to your own weight. Furthermore, I really do want the thing to be fixable. I really hate chairs that I can’t fix into position when I really want to.
Besides being durable for the obvious reason that they are expensive and I don’t want to buy another next year… I also need it to be absolutely free of squeaking. My current chair makes noises when I move, which makes you so very aware of sitting on it.
Finally, as I’m probably going to spend a lot of money on this, I must be able to test it somewhere. I know the really expensive ones all have some sort of program where you can get one for a week in your own office. However, I can’t have 10 chairs come over… so I’d like to be able to go to a showroom as well to see if it is worth considering in the first place.
Then there are some things I have not decided on:
Arm rests; I hated the ones on my current chair so much that I removed them. However, almost all articles about RSI prevention tell you that they are important. I do know that, if I get them… they really need to be adjustable in a way that they do not collide with my desk and close to my body. (I’m not that wide of a person, so if they are really next to the chair, they are probably to far out)
Head rest; It does look comfortable in the pictures, however I wonder if it doesn’t limit your freedom of movement or make you sit in an unnatural position. On the other hand, when you lean back, keeping your head up to watch the screen probably strains your muscles.
Material; There are four basic choices: office fabric (you know the stuff), leather, a mesh or some kind of plastic. The mesh stuff (like the Aeron) does look cool but it is also really firm, I’m not sure if I can get used to that. This is probably the most difficult thing to evaluate, because it will take some time to get used to and you will know only after a couple of months.
Budget I decided to first look at what is really the best quality possible and after that see if there might be cheaper alternatives that provide a similar experience. Therefore I will include anything from $150 to $1500 in my search that matches the few essentials mentioned above.
Because I have not decided on these four properties, I will do more research into this and will probably post something more detailed about it later on.
