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In Search of the Perfect Computer Chair? 28

Posted by Cliff from the when-you-sit-in-one-place-for-too-long dept.
mantid asks: "Many slashdot readers are certainly sitting at computers for 8, 10, 12, even 24 hours at a time... What are you sitting on? As I get older, I realize the importance of ergonomics more and more. I've been happy with my cheap Herman Miller, but now I'm switching jobs and have to select again. How important is your seating, and what has worked for you? In high school I sat on a stool for hours as I ran a BBS but that just doesn't cut it anymore."
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In Search of the Perfect Computer Chair? More

In Search of the Perfect Computer Chair?

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  • I've got a big red office chair from cartwright which is perfect for long hours of working at the computer. I had gotten it for free from a company which was doing remodeling, but I believe it had cost about ~$700, but I'm sure there's cheaper things out there. The qualities of it which make it suited to such use(abuse?) are the fact that it is well padded, has wheels that roll smoothly, even over wires lying on the ground and that it can lean back which is important for relaxing. I think cloth is prolly more comfortable than leather, especially for extended use, as you don't want your ass to get stuck to your chair after hours of coding.
  • As funny as it was to see a link to "cheap Herman Miller," Aerons [hermanmiller.com] kick ass. It's the official chair of Office Hockey. Strange website, though. Rather than embed a 3d viewer, they give you the object model to run in 3dStudio. That's a new one.

    I hope this won't start as big of a flame-war as vi vs. emacs. AskSlashdot is a strange category: it either gets like 12 posts or 500+.
  • I will second that the Aerons look great and feel even better. The Graphic Arts people where I work have them and I hope they won't notice one of them missing one of these days. I would buy one, but alas, I don't have $750 to blow on a chair.

  • I highly recommend the HumanScale FreedomChair. My whole office has them, and they're great chairs. The back and seat is made of this hard-ish gel stuff (it's better than it sounds) which stays cool regardless of how long you sit. And the fabric is this Neoprene fabric which wicks away moisture. So it's got the cool, non-sweaty Back capabilities of the Aeron, but it's actually soft.

    They're a little more than the Aeron, but if you're looking in that price range an extra $50-$100 isn't going to kill you.

  • The URL is http://www.humanscale.com/home.html [humanscale.com] . I recently visited the Boston office to try out the chair, and loved it; I ordered one for my house and got my employer to order one for work as well. A few interesting bits of information:

    It's actually cheaper to order directly from Humanscale then from a reseler. The standard discount is like 30%.

    The chair without the headrest but with the gel is about $750; with the headrest, it's about $950.

  • No doubt, the Aeron from Herman Miller. EXCELLENT chair that comes in several sizes, and is fully adjustable. I love mine. They go for about $700-750 but worth EVERY penny.

    It's really worth the time to find one to try out.
  • Everyone at bloomberg uses these chairs, and it was worth it, I spent a month sitting in front of my PC, it was great.

    these are the same chairs the slashdot guys have at every expo I've ever seen them at. And if Taco likes it.....
  • The best chair i ever had was one of those weird chairs with no back and a kneepad. They're particularly good for geriatric old farts with fucked backs like me. Unfortunately my middle child broke it by actually kneeling (and bouncing around) on the kneepad for extended periods (he weighed about 15 stone at the time and used to get pretty wired playing revenge at krondor or something) so I'm back to a very second rate chair.

  • Indeed. I had the odd fortune of getting to use an Aeron at my old job, while sitting at a 25 year old table. So while I was nice and comfy from the chair, the edge of the table was digging a rut in my arms while I typed.

    The things are hellaciously adjustable, but not so much that you can never find a comfortable setting. The armrest height is adjustable, and you can swing the arms in or out to suit what you're doing. (Or if you just want to pretend you're on the bridge of the Enterprise.)

    You can limit how far the chair leans back, and it can also lean forward, like when you want to look at something really close on the monitor. When doing this, the chair articulates such that your back is always supported.

    The seat and back of the chair are a funky elastic mesh. It allows air to circulate nicely, which keeps you from overheating, although doesn't do much to filter out farts. The mesh gives a little, but not too much.

    As has been mentioned already, these things ain't cheap. If your employer is willing to cough up the coin for one, go for it. If I had the spare change lying around, I'd buy one myself and bring it to work.
  • askslashdot is a strange category (as you put it) because you get 12 posts if it isn't posted on the front page, and 500+ if it is (actually more like 100+, but still...)
  • I seem to be in the minority, but I have to say I basically hate the Aeron chair. I'm sitting in one right now. I liked it for a couple of days after I bought it, but I'm actively shopping for another one now. I'm considering the Humanscale Freedom.

    My main complaint with the Aeron is the mesh material - I find it uncomfortable and abrasive. I've taken to sitting on a pad to mitigate that. (It's not that I'm heavy, either: 6'3" and 165 pounds.)

    I like having a lumbar support, but the Aeron's digs into my back no matter how I set it up. I also find the adjustments aren't that good: it doesn't allow you to lock the back in a fixed position, only to limit how far back it tilts. The armrest height adjustments are way too inconvenient to adjust the arms as often as I like to, depending on what I'm doing. Finally, it's low-backed and has no headrest, which of course I knew when I bought it, but I'm regretting it now.

    I had an Obus Forme [officeorganix.com] chair for about six years, and I would unquestionably rate it as a better chair than the Aeron in every respect. However, I still didn't consider it the perfect chair. If the Humanscale Freedom doesn't do it for me, I think I'm going to have to look to other planets for a solution - perhaps Cassini will discover a chair-making race on Titan...

  • This was posted on Slashdot a few weeks ago... For multiple thousands of dollars you can get a fully wired climate controlled rotating workspace.
    http://www.poetictech.com/aura/index.html

    For those that want something more entertaining... you might try the Aurora chair. Probably really expensive though...
    http://www.scifi.com/farscape/notes/aurorachair. html
  • They can also be found if you search for "birth ball". Among many other things, they're apparently quite popular with midwives and Doulas for labour (birthing) assistance.

    The one my wife has is a 75cm ball, and they are available from 45cm all the way up to 85cm in 10cm increments. We got ours through a local pharmacy/medical supply store. Check the box to see which size fits your body frame.

    The reasoning behind using one of these balls along the same lines as those backless kneeling-type chairs: it forces you to sit upright. But as an added bonus, because it's a ball, it also forces you to put your feet out in front of you and flat on the floor. (You can try balancing with one leg, but I didn't fare very well. YMMV.)

    Warning: wear pants, or buy a ball cover. The type of plastic ours is made with seems to really like leg hair. Ouch.

  • I have to agree. We have them here where I'm at now and it's great. My two favorite things are 1.) the way it leans forward if you want to hunch. It's almost more comfy than leaning back. b.) The meshy stuff. It breathes great, and keeps you from getting a sweaty sack if you're sitting in it for 16 hours. Plus if you crank the armrests all the way up and angle them in, it's perfect for typing. And looks like something that could get you chicks, in that idealized geek world where things like this get you chicks.
    --
  • I don't like office chairs. No doubt due to unforgivable mistakes in my upbringing, I cannot stay in a reasonable position in a chair for more than a short time. I inevitably end up slouched, or with foot/feet on the chair, or at an angle to the keyboard, or leaning on an arm-rest (which really makes my shoulders sore!). This is ok for lounging, but awful for working. I admit I haven't used an expensive chair, but I have sampled a few, and I think they're still incompatible with my fidgeting.

    I just bought a Stokke Variable [stokke.com]. It's one of the half-kneeling breed, but with runners beneath (like a rocking chair). The kneeling posture makes it easier to sit straight, and the rocking satisfies my need to squirm a bit without putting me in an awkward position. Basically, it allows sitting to be an active endeavor, which strikes me as healthier than finding a single perfect pose (the Stokke web page goes into this at more length, eg "Some Thoughs about Sitting in General [stokke.com]).

    I must warn that I have only had the Variable for about a week, so I can't be sure I will like it in the long term (my cow-orker does, though). Also, it's nearly impossible to get Stokke furniture in the US. (There's a store in MA where I live and apparantly another in NM; the Stokke site itself has no information on US distributers.)

  • My assgrove on my leather executive chair i got from staples. it was worth the $200 i got with gift cards
  • Office max has a samsonite executive leather chair going for 400 bucks. Its high back, very comfortable, and made for the taller, bigger, executive (thats me!). Also designed to improve circulation, which is allways a plus.
  • Get an Aeron specifically for your height and weight (three main sizes istr). Lovely.
  • I like my Hermann Miller Aeron chair ok, but it's not the perfect chair for me. I like to sit cross-legged (aka "Indian Style"). An ergonomic specialist would probably find it horrible but I think it's comfy. I wear sandles to work and fold my toes up behind my knees to keep them warm. The perfect chair for me would be a big leather executive number, with no armrests and a flat seat. Cupped seat areas just make it hard to cross my legs on top of them.
  • Aeron chairs seem to be fairly state of the art in a standard office chair. It does, as someone mentioned create problems for me when I want to sit cross legged, both feet on chair. I also always seem to adjust the armrests just so that they hit my keyboard tray, so when I want to move into the monitor closely, I can't. However. All that aside, by far the most comfortable is a non-standard chair -- a 90 degree/zero-G recliner.
    It won't work with a standard monitor with you sitting nose to monitor, but it can work create with a laptop. I could also see it with a keyboard/touchpad combination and a supported LCD. I'm missing a few discs in my lower back, so it's just not stable in a sitting or standing position. But in the recliner, I can get into a fully supported position that is heaven on my back. The only draw back I've run into is the heat of a laptop, but with correct equipment support, like a supported LCD and keyboard/touch pad combo, that would be history. Oh -- another problem: you don't want to get up.

    As far as cost -- think of your chair as part of your professional equipment. If you are a software professional who spends a good portion of their life in a chair -- something that supports and is good for your body is essential to your long term health.

    -l
  • >I read /. for the same reason I go to the zoo.

    To look at the monkeys?

    hypo
  • excellent troll. A+
  • After having sat in "standard" office chairs for several years, I started a new job with the opportunity to get a new chair. After several weeks of looking around and trying many chairs (aeron included) I settled on the Steelcase Leap [steelcase.com]. Now, 10 months later, it's still an incredibly comfortable chair. Newer than the Aeron, a lotta research has gone into it and it shows.

    Besides it was designed by IDEO [ideo.com] so it looks really cool as well. Since having it, 5-6 people have sat in it and then gone out and bought their own.

    .jonah

  • I also find the adjustments aren't that good: it doesn't allow you to lock the back in a fixed position, only to limit how far back it tilts.

    Mine locks back in the fixed position just fine.
  • Mine locks back in the fixed position just fine.

    I'm guessing you're referring to when it's completely upright or tilted forward, in which case the Aeron's "tilt limiter" has the effect of locking the back in the upright position. That's not what I'm talking about.

    I want to be able to tilt the back backwards to the angle I want, and then lock the back in that position so that if I lean forward briefly or shift position, the back doesn't tilt forward with me. Since the tilt limiter only limits backward tilt, not forward tilt, it doesn't allow this.

  • I live in Massachusetts. Where can I get a look at a Stokke chair?

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