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Ask HN: Good Aeron knock-off/alternative?

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Re: Ask HN: Good Aeron knock-off/alternative?

#21

Post by MartinCron »

stonemetal wrote: post #6
AgentIcarus wrote: post #4

One that was recommended to me on here before (and I ended up buying - thanks HN!) was the Markus from Ikea - http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20103101 It's a lovely chair for working in, very comfortable and with a decent head / neck support.

How long have you had yours? I have a chair from Ikea that was great for about 1.5 years then deteriorated rather quickly.

I have a love hate relationship with Ikea. The rule I've worked out is "buy nothing with moving parts" which would rule out office chairs.

Re: Ask HN: Good Aeron knock-off/alternative?

#22

Post by Tangurena »

I am obese [1]. When I sit in one of those cheapy ($150 or so) office chairs from the office stores, I find that the gas cylinders last about 6 months before my fat a@@ squeezes the gas out of them. Since they're cheap imports, the only way to get a replacement gas cylinder is to buy a new chair. So I was spending $250-350/year on office chairs at home.

I've had my Aeron for 4 years now. No new cylinders. So the $800 I spent more than paid for itself. If I had stayed using office chairs, I'd have spent more than $1k on them.

Notes:

1 - Getting run over by a car, and being unable to be as physically active as I used to be didn't help.

Re: Ask HN: Good Aeron knock-off/alternative?

#24

Post by [deleted] »

mlLK wrote: post #14
mechanical_fish wrote: post #3

If you have tried the Aeron and it is working for you then my advice is... buy an Aeron. Why are you trying to save nickels and dimes on a problem that is interfering with your work? You will spend more time searching and auditioning an alternative chair -- which will end up costing plenty, itself -- than the money you save will be worth. My Aeron is nearly ten years old. A new Aeron costs $850 up front from Amazon;…

I hate to admit this, but I think you're right. My Dad was originally going to get me a new chair for my birthday, but when he showed me what he wanted to get me, I reluctantly declined and tried describing to him I don't him or myself to waste more money on another office chair that is only going to cause me more problems. I doubt he's gonna shuck $850, let alone $425, for an office chair, so I guess I'm gonna have…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Good Aeron knock-off/alternative?

#25

Post by noodle »

mlLK wrote: post #14
mechanical_fish wrote: post #3

If you have tried the Aeron and it is working for you then my advice is... buy an Aeron. Why are you trying to save nickels and dimes on a problem that is interfering with your work? You will spend more time searching and auditioning an alternative chair -- which will end up costing plenty, itself -- than the money you save will be worth. My Aeron is nearly ten years old. A new Aeron costs $850 up front from Amazon;…

I hate to admit this, but I think you're right. My Dad was originally going to get me a new chair for my birthday, but when he showed me what he wanted to get me, I reluctantly declined and tried describing to him I don't him or myself to waste more money on another office chair that is only going to cause me more problems. I doubt he's gonna shuck $850, let alone $425, for an office chair, so I guess I'm gonna have…

after doing some craigslist shopping, it looks like the standard used price is around $500, just fyi.

although just to give you a contrarian opinion, i've owned my shitty $100 home office chair for almost 10 years, and i still love it. in the end, though, its just about what works best for you. if the aeron works for you, get it.

Re: Ask HN: Good Aeron knock-off/alternative?

#27

Post by mlLK »

EvanK wrote: post #16

Not exactly what you're asking, but I took a chance on replacing my chair entirely with an inflatable exercise ball, and I'm quite happy with the result. It took a week or so to get used to, but my balance has somewhat improved and my lowe back actually seems a little stronger. I'm also putting the money I saved on a chair into buying an adjustable height desk so I can stand & work when I get tired of bouncing on sai…

What kind of desks are you looking into?

Re: Ask HN: Good Aeron knock-off/alternative?

#29

Post by SkyMarshal »

Previously on HN:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=585693

Ergohuman is the closest I can find to the Aeron, but I haven't tried one yet. They're also pretty close to Aeron in price, around $600:

http://ergohuman.com/index.html

Realspace Pro 9000 is close too:

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/690690/Realspace-PRO-9...

A Slate article looking for the 'best desk chair':

http://www.slate.com/id/2131646/

Some others worth looking at:

Herman Miller Ecua XR:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/ProductGroup.aspx?Prodid=113004...

Humanscale Liberty:

http://www.thehumansolution.com/liberty.html

Hayworth Zody:

http://www.geek.com/articles/gadgets/review-haworth-zody-cha...

Realspace BT2:

http://www.officedepot.com/a/products/392830/Realspace-BT2-B... (I randomly found this one in Office Depot recently, and liked how it felt so much I bookmarked its page. I'm not Big & Tall, just average, but this chair's posture & lumbar support felt great)

Here's a fake Aeron:

http://www.coolchairz.com/solid-metal-mesh-chair--metallic-t...

Lots more at http://www.ergodepot.com/

Even a TED Talk on sitting:

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/niels_diffrient_rethinks_...

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