Investing in a Quality Programming Chair

I’ve owned the Ergohuman Mesh Chair for about 2 years now. Sit on the thing between 4 and 10 hours a day depending on projects I have going on and so far very little complaints. It has adjustments for every major part and I really like the multiple height/angle adjustments on the arms . Picked it up online for about $500 and don’t regret it. It’s definitely a major improvement over basic office chairs.

I too have a chair that is about 20+ years of age, at least. It might even be 25 years… it was handed down to me as I just simply love it and couldn’t imagine throwing it away… however, last week it finally broke, and it’s to the point that it’s not worth fixing. Heck, it’s been reupholstered twice in it’s lifetime. Thanks for pointing these chairs out… however, $1k for a chair is insane… but I could see $500 or maybe a little over. But now I know what to look out for in the next few weeks as it’s time to finally upgrade.

Cheers

Steelcase Leap Chair here. I bought used one’s from the Dayton’s furniture store, years ago, as I was entering my computer science program in college. It was a good instinct.

Joe: it sucks being non-standard. I’m 5’0, which my chair handles O.K., but I ended up spending $2K on a desk with an adjustable height working area. Although on the plus side for you, eventually 6’5 will be in the range we build things for. Things are trending badly for us shorties!

The worst is that I have a horrible hand-me-down desk at work, which they screwed a keyboard tray on, and a cheap warehouse office supply store chair. They’re going to cripple me.

boost your worksurface height, make your display eye-height, and sit in a humanscale freedom…lean it way back (distribute your weight along the length of your back). it’s the best, from my perspective - as an aeron-, think-, mirra-, and freedom-sitter.

Alright. I appreciate the comfort of a good chair. I really really do. Don’t get me wrong here. I even have a nice chair myself, but something about this article just sets the wtf thing off in my brain. Seriously, go work in a hot factory on your feet doing 50 to 60 hour weeks in the summer for two months and then come back and tell me about your chair. Now don’t get me wrong. I have a really nice chair. I’m not saying you don’t deserve a nice chair if you want one. But this is written like you’re just too good for that $100 chair. It all came off a little elitist to me I suppose. It’s probably this line. You can’t expect to get a decent chair for less than $500. Seriously? Last time my chair broke at home, out to the deck I went to get the closest hardest plastic deck chair you ever seen and didn’t complain. It didn’t occur to me for a second that it may not be good enough for me. I had a project to finish and would have sat on a bed of hot coals if I had to. Sorry, my family members were mostly factory workers until they did permanent damage to their bodies, and the only thing that happened then was they got a nice letter from the insurance companies saying they’re not covered for that. Then they went to work the next day anyway, everyday until their seventies. I also worked in these God forsaken places while I was in high school, where if you even picture a chair in your mind you’ll be fired unless you’re actually assembling chairs. So, you may see it as a $400 chair isn’t good enough for you, but I guess I simply appreciate the fact that I have a job where I actually can sit down instead of worrying about getting my fingers cut off in a machine that some idiot forgot to replace the guard on that day. Nothing against anyone though. I understand what you’re really saying, but that thing just click in my head. Which means it’s probably a good post. At least it provoked thought. I’ll give it that.

That mesh looks really uncomfortable for programming in the nude.

What?

Someone had to say it. Best benefit of working from home.

I had and Aeron for a bit. Didn’t like it that much except for one benefit:

when I would pass gas, the odor would pass thru the seat and not linger. this is not true of a standard chair where the offensive smell would soak in and offend those who stopped by for a chat sometime later.

Programming chair? What egotistical nonsense. Anyone who works in an office would want a good chair.

Programmers != special.

I prefer the wood one! by the way I always put my head in the desk, I mean on my hand !:
I don’t know how to explain it, may i need a photo ?

I recently bought one of those ‘ergonomic’ sitting balls, and honestly, they are one of the best things, for me, to sit on.

You know Jeff, I really don’t like the way you’re taking this blog. You’re starting to recycle topics every couple of days, and it’s starting to get rather boring. Why can’t you come up with a new topic each time?

Bill, if you were reading my blog OVER THREE YEARS AGO when I wrote that original chair article, my hat is off to you.

I suspect that many people are new to this blog since then – and I had some significant updates to make to the topic.

I looked through most of the chairs online. I went to a store in San Diego called Healthy Back. I tried many of the so-called more mainstream chairs. For the price, and for the quality of product, i think the Ergohuman Mesh Chair in leather is the best choice to make.

My father was having lower back, and sciatica problems with his cheapo $200 chair he bought at costco. We paid roughly $515 or so for it from the manufacturer. According to him, it’s the best chair he’s ever owned, or had the pleasure to sit on considering he used to work for Diamler Benz with a 6+ figure salary.

You should try any chair you’re considering out for a week or so. Any good retailer will give you a loaner.

I went through this whole exercise about 3 months ago. I ended up only getting to try the Mirra and the Freedom for extended periods. The Mirra won out for me, particularly because of the locking forward tilt…

I also bought a newish one on eBay, rather than going through a retailer. The chair manufacturers’ price fixing and policies on resale left me with a bitter taste, so I bought one from an unauthorized dealer and went without the long term warranty. It saved me about $300.

I’m sitting on a 30+ year old chair (older than me) that my parents bought… I’ve sat on it practically ever since I’ve used a computer, so I know…

I agree - choice of furniture is something so subjective that one can’t really be defined by a science as mundane as ergonomics. But there are some things that are not so mundane, and have to do with the basic human physiology. As long as these are satisfied, I don’t think ergonomics is really much of a problem.

Speaking of which, when did we get to think of 30 year old objects as old? I mean, in relative terms, they’re practically new born. Our computers last a maximum of 5 years and the rest of our stuff, as Jeff so wonderfully demonstrates, 10 years is considered old. Now, I’m in no way aged or decrepit, but 5 years is ridiculously young, and 10 years is barely into early middle age, even considering turn-of-the-last-century times. I mean, it’s just strange.

Hey Jeff, I wish the big corporates would see sense. We’re stuck in the typical office chairs and to be honest they’re nothing short of useless. How come I can provide one of these for at home, but the co i work for can’t? Perhaps i’m just not that good an investment :wink:

also, @Bill no need to whine if you don’t like it, just don’t read it.

Cheers,
Rob

I bought a higher-end chair a couple years back and made several trips across Seattle to try them out. I tried the Herman Miller and HumanScale chairs. I couldn’t find a place to try the Steelcase chair, unfortunately. But the one I really liked and ended up getting was the Knoll Life chair, which wasn’t mentioned in your article.

http://www.knoll.com/products/product.jsp?=1prod_id=188

Great post, Jeff. I think I’ll reconsider where I sit on for almost 9 hours a day from now on. Being a grad student with an on-campus job does not help though (from a financial standpoint). But I’ll definitely make a good chair my first to-buy item as soon as a decent paycheck arrives.

Whenever I see one of those kneeling chairs it is off in some corner gathering dust. A lot of people try them but nobody seems to use them for long.

At the office we have two kinds of chairs: $5 stackable plastic lawn chairs and Aerons. The Aerons are definitely the nicer of the two, and yes, I’m glad the company makes sure that the chairs we spend most of the day in are Good Chairs. I’ve used them for years now and the mesh is nice on hot days. But I’m not entirely convinced that they’re worth ten times as much as $80 chairs. I guess the fact that they hold up well over time (did you say 12 year warranty?) is worth something.

(There are also some futons.)

I’m a little concerned, though, about the folks reading this and making comments about their back pain and if-only-they-had-the-expensive-chair. The chair and gravity influence your back, but your musculature and the way you use your body plays at least as large a role.

So I suggest that for every dollar you put in to the chair, put at least one in to taking care of your body. Go spend $800 on yoga classes or gyrotonics or feldenkrais or Alexander Technique lessons. Or even massage. No, that sort of money isn’t enough to buy you twelve years of massage, but I’m pretty sure that you’ll be at least as satisfied with your purchase as Jeff is with his chair.