Vent: My cheap desk chair finally gave out after 14 months

I was right in the middle of a big editing project last Tuesday when the gas cylinder on my $90 office chair just dropped me to the floor with a loud hiss. Turns out the piston seal blew out and there's no way to fix it because the whole thing is sealed plastic junk. Anyone found a decent ergonomic chair under $300 that actually lasts more than a year?

3 comments

3 Comments

david92012d ago

Fourteen months out of a $90 chair is actually pretty solid value if you think about it - that works out to like six bucks a month for something to sit on. You can always buy the same chair again for another year and still spend way less than jumping into a premium ergonomic model right now. Chairs under $300 with long warranties usually cut corners somewhere else, so you might actually get more problems dealing with a complicated return process than just replacing a simple cheap chair.

the_robin12d ago

I grabbed a $80 office chair from a local store almost two years ago and it's still going strong. The seat padding flattened out after about a year but I just threw a memory foam cushion on top for like $15 and it feels better than new. Honestly the whole "buy it for life" thing is overrated when cheap chairs with a few cheap upgrades can last just as long.

xenam8411d ago

@david920 I hear you on the math part, but sitting on a ticking time bomb isn't great when you're in the zone. Get a refurbished Steelcase or Herman Miller from a local office supply liquidator. I snagged a Leap V2 for $250 and it's been solid for three years now. Check Facebook Marketplace too, people dump good chairs when their company moves.