Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Best office chair for home office work?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 140 posts

Re: Ask HN: Best office chair for home office work?

#121

Post by nextos »

copperx wrote: post #117
ken wrote: post #112

The best chair I ever used was a kneeling chair. It encourages proper posture in a way that no other chair I've seen does. Beware, there's a huge spectrum of quality for this (or any other) type of chair. Kneeling chairs were also some of the worst chairs I've ever sat on. "Kneeling" is one feature which chair designers can use to make a great chair, but it's not a magic feature that makes any chair design great.

That leads me to ask ... what's the best kneeling chair that you've used?

Varier Balans is very good.

Re: Ask HN: Best office chair for home office work?

#122

Post by acconrad »

pizza234 wrote: post #99

I'll go against the conventional wisdom and stress on not trusting recommendations; instead, test chairs on your on as much as you can. Bodies vary too wildly to work on the basis of other people's experience. Also, the price is not an indicator of quality at all . I have experience with a "famous high-priced high-recommended" model mentioned here, and the experience was bad (sadly, the first 10 minutes of testing fe…

> test chairs on your on as much as you can

This is the correct answer. I spent 8 hours researching, trying out (i.e. testing) 25-30 chairs since for over a year I worked completely remote from my home office. You really need to sit in them for a good 15-20 min before you can get a real sense of what is comfortable and what will cause your body issues (and every body is different).

In the end I chose a used Herman Miller Embody off of Craigslist. It was about 75% off, in like-new condition, and fit my body perfectly. The only way I came to that conclusion was from trying out so many chairs and feeling what was nice and what wasn't.

In addition, I'd also stress ergonomics and good posture in addition to comfort. Comfort can't be the only signal or else you could get a chair that rewards bad posture and make you feel good now, but way worse after years of poor posture.

Re: Ask HN: Best office chair for home office work?

#123

Post by duxup »

pizza234 wrote: post #99

I'll go against the conventional wisdom and stress on not trusting recommendations; instead, test chairs on your on as much as you can. Bodies vary too wildly to work on the basis of other people's experience. Also, the price is not an indicator of quality at all . I have experience with a "famous high-priced high-recommended" model mentioned here, and the experience was bad (sadly, the first 10 minutes of testing fe…

Chairs are like shoes, it depends on how you fit, so it is very personal, hard to know until you try it.

Re: Ask HN: Best office chair for home office work?

#124

Post by sorum »

o-__-o wrote: post #120
sorum wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can also second that: a 2nd hand Herman Miller Aeron that you've tested before making the purchase; one of the damn best investments you can make. Have had mine for 6+ years now and it's outlived pretty much everything in my home office, save for a Dell U2713HM, which is still such a nice allrounder (27" 1440p IPS).

I would recommend the Dell P2415Q as a great allround monitor today. IPS panel, 4k, and displayport daisy-chaining support.

Oooh, at $429 from Dell, that's a nice 27" 4K at a nice price.

Re: Ask HN: Best office chair for home office work?

#125

Post by isignal »

pizza234 wrote: post #99

I'll go against the conventional wisdom and stress on not trusting recommendations; instead, test chairs on your on as much as you can. Bodies vary too wildly to work on the basis of other people's experience. Also, the price is not an indicator of quality at all . I have experience with a "famous high-priced high-recommended" model mentioned here, and the experience was bad (sadly, the first 10 minutes of testing fe…

If you have any kind of actual pain from your current typing setup, this is the only answer that makes sense. Forget the marketing surrounding expensive chairs - there isn't really as much science as they claim.

If you don't have any pain from sitting/typing and are just looking to buy a "good" chair, I would suggest

(a) spending money instead on a sit stand desk that allows you to change posture during the day (changing posture frequently is more important than sitting in one ideal posture for long periods).

(b) if you can spend money, get a chair that was some adjustable knobs - height, tension in the back, lock to stop rotation and removable arms maybe. Try local second hand office furniture shops and try out different options. If you buy a second hand chair you don't like, you can usually sell it again without a big loss and keep looking for better options.

Re: Ask HN: Best office chair for home office work?

#127

Post by Qub3d »

narak wrote: post #13
electricslpnsld wrote: post #6

The Steelcase Leap is my personal favorite office chair of all time, but it retails for around $1,000.00. You can sometimes find them for cheaper if a company gets liquidated and is offloading their old equipment.

I regularly find refurbished liquidated Steelcase Leap v2 chairs in the Bay Area for between $250-350. Find a set of gel wheels on Amazon for $25 to replace the plastic casters and you've got a great chair. There's actually a used chair store right next to YC HQ in Mountain View. That said, these days I slightly prefer the much cheaper Ikea Markus with the arm rests removed and angled at approx 135 deg.

+1 for Markus. I bought it as a chair to tide me over my senior year of college. Still using it right now.

Re: Ask HN: Best office chair for home office work?

#129

Post by ktsmith »

awinder wrote: post #56

I have owned / used extensively pretty much what I would say are all the chairs you would want to sit in if you want to maintain back and neck / mitigate back pain: 1. Steelcase leap: my first not-crap chair, bought from an office closing used for like $300, great chair. 2. Steelcase Gesture: decided I wanted to “upgrade” after bringing steelcase to office. Went with a sale online and actually didn’t like it much and…

I use the Steelcase Gesture and I would definitely try before buying. The single thing most of my guests dislike is the tilt of the seat. If I had to do it again I'd probably go with another Leap or the Humanscale Freedom.

Re: Ask HN: Best office chair for home office work?

#130

Post by jimmahoney »

propter_hoc wrote: post #11

I'm personally a big fan of the Ikea Markus. Have tried much more expensive chairs and for some reason I prefer it.

I have the Ikea Markus at home and it's been fine, especially for a $200 chair. I use a Herman-Miller Aeron in my work office that I got when I was having back problems, and like it a lot ... but I've found the Markus to be a good solution given the cost disparity. I don't feel like I need to spend $1000 for my home office.
Post reply on HN