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Archive for the ‘conference room chairs’ Category

After making a flickr account today, I got the idea to take mass amounts of pictures of my workplace so everyone could see how Sitbetter operates and where us Sitbetter employees work everyday. So enjoy this short little picture tour I created and get to know us a little bit better!

Humanscale Diffrient World Ergonomic Task Chair – Tested and Tried and Neocon 2009.

Scheduled Release Date: August 2009.

Estimated MSRP: Starting at $750.00

What we thought:

Elegant and simple.  Humanscale told us that was the goal with the chair, and it seems they have mostly achieved this.  Like true Humanscale fashion, the World Chair, designed by famous Humanscale designer Niels Diffrient, the chair is ridiciously simple to adjust – only height adjustment and a seat slider are available, but for most users, it’s only what is needed.

The Bad:

Before I get into how great of a chair is was, let me go over what I felt was the not so lovely element of the chair – the lumbar.  As with the Liberty, the mesh is very nice, and very conforming, however, it does not provide adequate lumbar support for people with lumbar issues.  It certainly won’t be causing any lumbar pain for non-sufferers, but it won’t be solving any chronic back problems either.  But that is to be expected when a chair, especially a task chair, is designed to fit a large majority of the populace.

The Good:

Despite the lumbar issue for a lower back pain sufferer like myself, I did find the chair overwhelmingly comfortable.  It did fit me right, and I’d be able to sit in it comfortable for 8 hours a day (if I committed to interval periods of back stretches, which is not a bad thing).  The mesh, as previously mentioned, is the Libery mesh, which is comfortable, soft, and springy.  The front egde on the seat takes the waterfall front seat style to a new level – there is no frame on the front edge of the seat, meaning there is absolutely no pressure on the thighs – this is a great thing.  The seat can also be upholstered to match the look of the Liberty, as well.

The backrest pivots, meaning that it has motion within the recline motion itself of the chair.  This essentially means your back will never be in a static position, a key factor in Humanscale’s treatment of ergonomics, and a nice feature indeed.  The armrests are attached to said backrest, so they move with the chair’s recline motion and match the overall style of the frame, which comes with fixed arms, adjustable arms or no arms options.

Speaking of the frame, it comes in black or white, the latter which looks very contemporary yet art deco – stylish and sleek, to say the least.

As an added bonus, the chair weighs a measly 25 punds, and that is a good thing.  It is easily movable and adjustable, and wieghs less using 97% recycable content, meaning it is very green.  Despite its slim profile, the chair can hold users up to 300 lbs – considering most task chairs only rate up to 250 lbs and weigh twice as much, that is also a very good thing!

Grade:

Overall, the chair is a winner.  When judging and reviewing any chair, we take into account the value of said chair, namely, what do you get for what you pay for? After all, that is the most important thing with a chair.  The Humanscale Diffrient World Chair, while not cheap, does represent a great value proposition in the high end seating market.  Compared with other ergonomic office chairs in its class range, the Diffrient world chair looks to be in a world of its own!

The Ray is a new leather conference room chair by Allseating. With a release date of September, we thought we’d take some time to offer a pre-emptive review of the Ray – given that it’s unique and stylish and should come in at a great price point.

The Ray offers a different look for use as a leather managerial chair, leather conference chair, or just a nice home office leather office chair. The arms are modern but retro, and fit with the design of the back nicely. They remind us a little bit of Legos with the indented area under the armrest.

The backrest is a mid-back, and should provide the user with ample back support for any application, except for executive seating, for which users it would not be good. What’s really nice about the Ray is the implementation of a new counter weight mechanism, which as the user leans back the seat slides forward slightly and promotes proper seating postures all the way around.

The seat and back are slightly on the firm side, leading to a comfortable, but not overly cushy seating feeling. Overall, the Ray looks to be a good chair. We tested the demo sample at NEOCON, and the production model looks to be the same – available in black or white leather, the Ray should provide leather office chair buyers a great alternative looking solution for their office space!

The Generation Chair by Knoll – Tested and tried at NeoCon 2009

This is a very unique chair – The first of its kind in terms of backrest motion and malleability.  Not to mention a very good looking little task chair.  But is it a once in a generation chair?  We sat and tested this chair at NeoCon Chicago 2009.  It is one in a new movement towards creating more unique tasking solutions.  The idea in concept is very sound, and the design team hit a home run on the backrest, but there are certain detraction’s that left us a bit disappointed, considering the hype.

To start, let’s put this chair in perspective to what it is, as it cannot be compared to leather office chairs, for example. More reasonable comparisons are the Humanscale Diffrient Task chair and the Herman Miller Setu Chair.  (We’ll be reviewing the Diffrient Task Chair shortly  – the Setu was also tried out, and we’ll have a basic review of that as well…) It is a task chair, meant for, and creating for, working environments.  With that said…

According to Knoll, it is a task chair meant for “collaborations” and fluid work environments.  However, if you sit in your desk typing all day, I hardly think this chair will do you any good.  Why?  The philosophy behind the chair is that we actually spend more time moving in our chair than sitting in it – this should be true, we should be moving, but do we? I mean, how many of us can type effectively in any of the positions shown below?  These people demonstrating the chair are in the act of talking, hanging out, possibly working.  The world will know.  But the basic fact remains that a workplace envornment where 95% of the time these are the ideal sitting positions doesn’t exist.  And you certainly cannot type in any of these positions.  Have you tried typing with your leg over the armrest?  More errors than you can imagine!  Which brings us to the next point regarding the use of the chair in respect to what it capacity the chair could be beneficial in…

As I mentioned before, it is a very good chair to collaborate in.  In spaces where people meet informally, talk a lot together, brainstorm, etc, it is an ideal chair.  You can relax well in the chair.  But I’m not sold on it as a cubicle chair for a variety of reasons…Let’s go into detail about the good, bad, and my lasting thoughts on the chair…

What’s Good about the chair?

There’s plenty to like.  It’s a nice looking chair – modern, sleek lines, and a nice selection of colors for the back and the seat.  It is VERY green, recycled and recyclable.  It is not an eyesore, and only complements modern work environments. The backrest is the real success story regarding the chair.  It is a mid back, meaning, for 99% of the population, the backrest is not going to provide support above the shoulders, and for most won’t reach the should height.  But with this chair, that’s ok.  The flexing back material (seemingly made of a rubber composite) has no frame on the back, which allows for flexing in a wide range of motion, particularly nice for stretching or turning around, (albeit you could just swivel around) and talking to co-workers rather easily.  The backrest is also comfortable, not a hard plastic, and molds well to your back shape.

Add in the optional lumbar support and you get sufficient lower back support. Won’t relieve back pain, but won’t cause it either.  Essentially, the motion the backrest allows is good – I’m just a little skeptical about how much we would use it, and the price vs. functionality that an innovative feature like this commands.

And the not so good?

Unfortunately, there is one area where the Generation Chair takes a step back to the previous generation.  It was uncomfortable enough to spoil the uniqueness and comfort of the Back – the Seat.  It seems in designing and implementing the back, Knoll forgot that the seat is where our all day pressure is.  It really was not comfortable for me, right off the bat.  The seat has a thin foam cushion which is upholstered on what seemed to be a plastic seat pan – not solid plastic, but plastic strips.  I could feel those within 5 minutes of sitting on it. Not ideal.

The foam itself is not soft, rather firm, but even so, the thinness of it was quite surprising.  The seat does have a seat slider, but in using it, I encountered another issue.  I adjusted the seat pan a bit forward (I am 5′7″, 145 lbs.) but not much.  After re-sitting on the adjusted seat, I felt towards the back of the seat two hard pressure points.   It felt like two little blocks of wood on my buttocks.  Not comfortable at all.  I sat in another Generation (the showroom at Neocon must’ve had over 50 Generations) and felt the same issue.  So I asked my brother to give it a whirl.  He is 5′11″, 195 lbs, and he immediately remarked, “What is that?!”.  It was disappointing, to say the least, to have experienced this.  We sit on the seat of the chair on average 8 hours a day, and are not always leaning against the back.  This is why the seat is THE most critical part of the chair, and the easiest to make comfortable.  Knoll simply forgot how to on this chair, and the chair lost all long term comfort value for us.  From being a nice innovative task chair, the way the seat felt immediately moved it into the “1-2 hour meeting chair mode”.

Update: Knoll apparently offers a thicker seat cushion at no extra charge.  I would recommend this.  I don’t know how it feels, since we weren’t told at the showroom which ones had it, but I can imagine with the thicker cushion it would be much better.  If the thick cushion makes it so you don’t feel the plastic straps, then it would be a much better task chair – it would be worth the price at that point.

What’s the price?

We don’t know the price – the chair doesn’t release until July 15th, but were told at NeoCon by Knoll representatives that the chair will be retailing from $750 to upwards of $1000.00 USD, depending on the options selected, such as arms, leathers, lumbar support, etc.

Grade:

For a task chair, to sit in 8 hours a day and hash out emails, etc, it is not the ideal chair.  The seat will kill you and really be painful after 4 hours, especially if you are heavier.  Combine that with the estimated price, and the chair becomes, in our opinion, overrated.  As a conference, meeting room chair for informal settings, for a modern workspace where employees don’t have to sit 8 hours a day, it could be a nice chair.  It would look nice anywhere, but unfortunately, it doesn’t feel nice everywhere.  And you need that in a chair, we think. Thus the 3 – a pricey, sub-par chair with a great and unique backrest.

Update: It would get 4-5 “chairs” if you got the chair with the upgraded seat cushion, which would minimalize the seat cushion issue.  But I don’t know for sure whether 4 or 5, since I’ve only sat on it with the thin seat cushion.  If anyone has one with a thick cushion, let us know what your value assessment of the chair is!

This Highback Executive Leather Office Chair, the BOS-B7301, has been a staple around our store for years!

It’s a simple chair, not the most beautiful leather office chair out there, but it’s a good, solid, dependable chair with good features, and better yet, a good price!

Let’s see- the polyurethane infused leather is very comfortable, it’s not like the cheap leather chairs from years back, it’s smooth and comfortable, like the more expensive chairs!  The padding is thick, it feels comfortable sitting in it, and with the built-in lumbar support, there’s a bit of back support as well!

Unlike almost all the ‘cheap’ leather office chairs out there, the mechanism on this one feels sturdy and solid, there’s not a lot of rickety play in it!

The Polyurethane arms will last forever (just be careful about shoving them under a desk or table, they can scratch!), and the 5 star base provides a very stable platform.

This leather office chair also has a tilt mechanism, which allows you to tilt back (remember to loosen the spring adjustment- it’s all the way tight when shipped!) and you can lock it in the upright position.
All in all, this is really a good leather office chair- solid and dependable- at a very good price!