How To Choose The Correct Office Chair
Posted by Oze Parrot on November 1st, 2005
The first consideration in choosing an office chair is to select a suitable chair within your budget range.
Office Chair
If your budget is limited, the ergonomic, state of the art chairs costing well over a thousand dollars may be out of your range. No matter how limited your budget may be, you should purchase the best type of chair that you can afford, which is not necessarily the most expensive.
How often and for what periods of time that you will be using the chair are more important considerations than the price in determining which chair to purchase.
How many options you need depends on a number of factors including:
How many people will be using the chair?
How much time will they be spending in the chair?
What tasks will they be performing while seated in the chair?
If only one person will be using the chair, finding a chair that fits that person is more important than chair adjustment features. If you intend to sit for only a few minutes a day in the chair, the comfort feature of the chair becomes less important.
Fitting a chair to an individual requires several steps.
The height of the chair should allow the person to sit with both feet flat on the floor or, if the chair needs to be higher, a suitable foot rest can be used to ensure the correct posture.
With both feet on the floor, you should be able to easily insert a finger under the front of your thighs. If it is difficult to get the finger under the leg, the chair is too high. If the finger fits under the leg without touching the leg, it is too low.
You should be able to see space between your calf and the edge of the chair. (Rule of thumb is that you should be able to place your fist between the chair and your calf. If your calf touches the chair, it could cause circulation problems from the pressure of the edge of the seat against your legs.
If this is the case then the seat is too deep, if there is too much room then the seat is not deep enough.
Some chairs allow adjustment of the backrest to change the depth of the seat.
The armrests should be at a height which will take the weight of the arms, without raising the shoulder and without interfering with the desk top.
The width of the chair should allow space on both sides when seated, an inch or two is enough, but ideally it should not be much more.
The height of the chair relative to the work surface where it will be used is also important. Ideally, with the elbows bent at 90 degrees, and the palm turned down, the hands should rest on the work surface.
Other adjustments available on some chairs include angle of the back rest, tilt of the seat, how far the chair will lean back, lumbar support. You will also want the chair adjustments readily accessible and easy to operate.
You will then need to consider upholstery options.
The most common choices are leather, vinyl, fabric, and mesh. Leather and vinyl are easier to clean, but can tend to make you feel hotter as they tend not to dissipate heat as well as mesh or fabric; but fabric and mesh are more difficult to clean and are more likely to show stains.
The manufacturer should offer a warranty, as well as instructions about care and cleaning. Following the manufacturers instructions will help the chair last many years.
A final consideration is comfort. Is the chair comfortable to sit in?
Does it allow you to perform the necessary tasks while seated?
More information can be found at our website at: Chair Hunter
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