Office Chair

[ddrueding]

The ones designed for this purpose (IIRC) are a pergo material with a really hard coating. I too have destroyed oak flooring with a rolling chair; it's not the chair, as much as the grit that accumulates and is rolled into/around the surface.

 

[ddrueding]

Just ordered one of these in 96"x60" with beveled edges; $280 after tax (for a piece of plastic!). 1/4" thick ought to be enough; they have a 5/16" thick one, but it is far from transparent.

 

[ddrueding]

I've been having a lot of back problems lately. I've been working from home more and spending even more time at my desk. I finally broke down and bought a Herman Miller Aeron. I used to have one at a former job, and loved it. I think I'll be able to reduce the amount of fatigue in my back and shoulders by making adjustments during the day.

 

[e_dawg]

Hope it works for you dd. I bought one for home to address my back pain, but it didn't help. I am still using it now because I haven't found anything that's noticeably better and I would lose a bunch of money if I wanted to sell it now.

We have Steelcase Leap chairs at work which are high end chairs too, and it may be slightly better than the HM Aeron for my back, but not ideal either.

One of these days, someone will come out with the perfect chair for my back. I just hope it's well within my lifetime

 

[e_dawg]

One thing I like about the Aeron is the mesh poly fabric bottom and seatback. While not ideal because the poly weave basically reflects moisture back at your skin, it is ventilated and will not trap heat the way a regular fabric + foam seat cushion will on most chairs.

 

[timwhit]

As I mentioned in the third post of this thread, the Aeron hurt my back much more than most cheapo chairs. I'm still pretty happy with what I got.

The only drawback and it's a minor one is if I eat in the chair a lot of crumbs fall through and it's a pain to clean up. I will still have to see how it holds up over the long term, but I'm happy overall.

 

[ddrueding]

Aeron just arrived. Assembly was easy. I got all the options, including the new adjustable lumbar support (that my old one didn't have) and the large-diameter wheels that roll through thick carpet quite easily.

I've only spent about 20 minutes in it so far, and I need to drive south and pick up some checks, but I'll have a better report in a day or two.

 

[e_dawg]

The PostureFit adjustable lumbar feature is what makes the Aeron, IMO. It's one of the few ergo chairs that actually allow the lumbar support to be positioned low enough on the back (more like a lumbro-sacral support, really) to be anatomically useful.

Most lumbar supports just fill in the curve of your back above the waist to the middle of your back, but the chair usually curves away from you below your waist and leaves a "black hole of support" from below your waist to your tailbone, allowing your pelvis to rotate and put pressure on your discs. The Aeron PostureFit is one of the few chairs to correct that stupid design flaw most chairs are afflicted with.

The one ergo/anatomic flaw of the Aeron IMO is the design of the seat bottom. It's designed a bit like a speed bump with the crest closer to the front going laterally across the chair and tapering down towards the front and back. I feel the rise is bit too extreme, encouraging the thighs to tilt upwards a bit and have the knees higher relative to the hips and closing the hip angle (should not be less than 120 degrees). If you have a high foot rest and use it, it's will minimize the strain of having your knees so high, but not too many people use foot rests.

 

[ddrueding]

I don't use footrests because my position is constantly changing, my desk it 8' long. The seat bottom would be slightly too high in front, if it weren't for the tilt forward feature, which (when combined with the lumbar support) puts the back nicely vertical and supported at the same time.