Anyone have a good chair recommendation that doesn't cost $500? The stool concept struck me as a great idea, until I saw the price. (Maybe I should be in chairs?)
Here's the thing. Don't be put off by the expensive price of ergonomic chairs. I bought my Aeron chair in 2002 and have used it every day since. It's made a huge difference in my back and neck.
The chair cost be around $700 at the time, so that's <$100 per year or <$0.50 per day.
Also the chair came with a 12 year warranty. A couple months ago the pneumatic cylinder went out. I called a local Aeron deal and since I bought the chair from a authorized dealer, they sent somebody to my house and fixed it for free.
Yes. If you have the money, and you've already been to the dentist [1], spend the money on a chair. Either you will (god forbid) not live to be forty years old -- in which case you won't miss the money -- or your forty-year-old self will thank you. So will your fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty and ninety-year-old selves.
(This is not to say, by the way, that you might not experience chair-related pain in your thirties, or even earlier. But the odds do seem to go up in middle age.)
My only concern -- highlighted in the article -- is that my Aeron isn't enough. I'm amused to find that experts think the thing is too low -- it is too low. But maybe that was partly because my pneumatic cylinder was about to go out -- mine just went. Fortunately my chair is also under warranty!
I'll look into these wacky standing chairs.
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[1] Slightly off topic, but: I wish, when I was in my twenties, poorly paid, and absent-minded, I'd gotten email every six months saying "the dental checkup you're about to skip will eventually cost you something like $10k or $15k in root canals and crowns. Or, alternatively, you could lose your teeth and spend forty years cursing your bridgework and dentures."
I regularly see gently used Aeron chairs on CL bay area for $400-450. Those of us who spend significant computer time every day really need to take care of our bodies. Prevention is much easier than repair. Consider upgrading your work environment before upgrading your box or getting an iPad...
And to the parent: If you like your Aeron, you should seriously consider the Embody - lots of time and money went into making it a significant upgrade worthy (imho) of the premium price.
"Also the chair came with a 12 year warranty. A couple months ago the pneumatic cylinder went out. I called a local Aeron deal and since I bought the chair from a authorized dealer, they sent somebody to my house and fixed it for free."
The seat pan on my Dad's chair (which he bought around 1997) broke a couple of times, at which point they simply replaced the entire chair.
I took my cheap office chair and remove the back and the arms. It forces me to sit straight. I usually have these extreme back muscle pains. I still need another 2 weeks to really tell if it helps.
Comments
Anyone have a good chair recommendation that doesn't cost $500? The stool concept struck me as a great idea, until I saw the price. (Maybe I should be in chairs?)
Here's the thing. Don't be put off by the expensive price of ergonomic chairs. I bought my Aeron chair in 2002 and have used it every day since. It's made a huge difference in my back and neck.
The chair cost be around $700 at the time, so that's <$100 per year or <$0.50 per day.
Also the chair came with a 12 year warranty. A couple months ago the pneumatic cylinder went out. I called a local Aeron deal and since I bought the chair from a authorized dealer, they sent somebody to my house and fixed it for free.
Yes. If you have the money, and you've already been to the dentist [1], spend the money on a chair. Either you will (god forbid) not live to be forty years old -- in which case you won't miss the money -- or your forty-year-old self will thank you. So will your fifty, sixty, seventy, eighty and ninety-year-old selves.
(This is not to say, by the way, that you might not experience chair-related pain in your thirties, or even earlier. But the odds do seem to go up in middle age.)
My only concern -- highlighted in the article -- is that my Aeron isn't enough. I'm amused to find that experts think the thing is too low -- it is too low. But maybe that was partly because my pneumatic cylinder was about to go out -- mine just went. Fortunately my chair is also under warranty!
I'll look into these wacky standing chairs.
---
[1] Slightly off topic, but: I wish, when I was in my twenties, poorly paid, and absent-minded, I'd gotten email every six months saying "the dental checkup you're about to skip will eventually cost you something like $10k or $15k in root canals and crowns. Or, alternatively, you could lose your teeth and spend forty years cursing your bridgework and dentures."
I regularly see gently used Aeron chairs on CL bay area for $400-450. Those of us who spend significant computer time every day really need to take care of our bodies. Prevention is much easier than repair. Consider upgrading your work environment before upgrading your box or getting an iPad...
And to the parent: If you like your Aeron, you should seriously consider the Embody - lots of time and money went into making it a significant upgrade worthy (imho) of the premium price.
"Also the chair came with a 12 year warranty. A couple months ago the pneumatic cylinder went out. I called a local Aeron deal and since I bought the chair from a authorized dealer, they sent somebody to my house and fixed it for free."
The seat pan on my Dad's chair (which he bought around 1997) broke a couple of times, at which point they simply replaced the entire chair.
He's been using it without complaint ever since.
This came up on HN a while back: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=585693 .
The short answer: no. Chairs appear to be one of these products in which you get what you pay for.
I took my cheap office chair and remove the back and the arms. It forces me to sit straight. I usually have these extreme back muscle pains. I still need another 2 weeks to really tell if it helps.