Tips on Office Chairs Choice for Home & Workplace

What type of the office chair is at your home office or in your workplace? Is it soft bean bags, wooden chair, plastic chair or ergonomic chair? Whatever type of office chairs we are using, here are some tips about the right chair choice.

For office chairs, there are actually various testing requirements, which are conducted to check out the strength, stability and durability of the chairs. Among all the various testings, the weight tolerance of the chair is usually the most important one. Most of the quality chairs have to bear a tolerance of at least 110kg. Usually, the office chair has to be approved for use of up to 8 hours or even more. There are actually some chairs in the market for occasional use which might only bear a weight tolerance of 70kg.

We have probably known that the office chairs that we use five days a week for eight hours each day will be in good condition for many years. The office chairs usually offer a guarantee, say, a five year guarantee. Usually, a bit more expensive office chair with longer time of use guarantee can save us money in the long run. Now, a lot of chair manufacturer may offer separate guarantees, say, 5 years on mechanism, armrests and 2 years on fabric or castors. When we buy the chairs, we need to balance the cost against the guarantee.

Office chairs are diversified over the past years, with ergonomics as the most obvious trend. Ergonomic office chairs have a lot of new features in tilt mechanism, adjustment of height, angle or headrest, lumbar support, etc. We can adjust the backrest till the chair just well support our lower back. We can adjust the height of the chair based on our individual height until our feet can just rest flat on the floor. For an ergonomic chair, its depth can be adjusted to just accommodate our leg length. Whether we work at home or workplace, we need to sit on the chair with armrest which can be adjusted well to allow our forearms to rest comfortably while we sit at a desk.

Are you ever aware that office chairs have hours usage guidelines? If we use the home office chair just for checking email a few times a day or just paying some bills, we may choose the chairs with hours usage of 3 hours. But if we work an average 8 hour each day, a chair with 8 or more hours usage guideline is necessary.

Now office chairs come in various styles, sizes and shapes. If you do not like the common black leather ergonomic chairs, try to get a colored one for a change in the workplace. But as for the size, the choice may not be easy because the size of chair has much to do with comfort. The general standard of chair width is 500-520mm. But if you are the one with a very slight frame, get a chair with seat width of 460 or 480mm. If you need a more generous seat, get the one with width of 590mm.