I've had positively no luck in the big box office supplies stores. At best, my budget gets me an uncomfortable chair designed for 0-3 hours of use. On Tuesday, actually, I went to the local Staples and bought one of their Situations High-Back Executive Chair (SKU 574345). It's been less than a week, and I can't wait to take it back; my bottom aches from just an hour's worth of sitting.
I've been looking on the Internet for 1) chairs that have gotten good reviews, or 2) some source that has a quick-and-dirty comfort/value verdict on the range of products out there. Epinions.com and Amazon.com are of little help, I don't think this is a subject Consumer Reports has tackled just yet, and the best source I found on the UseNet was a topic from 1999. Should it be this hard to find out what other people think about their chairs?
Anyone who spends their time working, surfing, reading, or whatever in their office chairs care to testify as to its quality or lack thereof? What did you buy? When did you buy it? How much time do you spend in it? What are the range of activities you perform in it? How does your body feel after one hour, two hours, etc. If you had the choice to make again, are there features you'd look for or go without? Also, if you know what features/characteristics of a chair are conducive to long term comfort (particularly for a 6'2" 200 lbs. guy) please clue me in. For example, are the features of something like a Herman Miller Aeron task chair really worth all the hype?
I probably should add that I've done some shopping around, but I don't really know where to go. Are there any retailers, brick-and-morter or online, that are worth dealing with and really know what they're talking about? After poking around online for the past week, I've found some chairs that looked nice, but had no user comments or reviews associated with them. There's really no opportunity to "test sit" them, and I don't have the cash or time to order them all and send back all but the one I like best. Any thoughts on the chairs, the URLs of which are below?
http://www.basyxoffice.com/basyx/SpecPage.do?id=112
http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=355033
http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=677592
http://www.officedepot.com/ddSKU.do?level=SK&id=677416
http://www.bizchair.com/w29-gg.html
http://www.bizchair.com/wd5730.html
http://www.bizchair.com/m27-gg.html
http://www.bizchair.com/higbacleatex.html
http://www.bizchair.com/higbacleatex1.html
http://www.bizchair.com/gg980v.html (don't about vinyl, though)
http://www.bizchair.com/tex229-os.html (ditto)
http://www.bizchair.com/marwasleatex.html
http://www.bizchair.com/exleatofchai.html
My backside and I thank you in advance for your feedback. ;)
I am in the same boat, I went to a few stores to try them out. Thats the only way IMHO
We had good luck at the local office supply store. The catalog listed a lot more than they had in stock there but they ordered it for us. Catalogs list out the special features of each, like lumbar support, high back, tilt seat, tension locks, etc. We paid $400 for a $600 chair HON Model 2191 Executive Highback. I have a bad back and neck from a car wreck and the wife has a replacement hip - we needed a good chair and this fit the bill.