****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
This is a bit long, but maybe will help someone.The chair is great. I have been looking for a chair for several months, and finally settled on this one. My only hang-up was that I really wanted genuine leather, which this chair is not. The chairs with genuine leather are either (a) priced well over $1k, or (b) are cheap junk. This chair replaces my old, genuine leather chair, that was less than 3 years old. Unfortunately, it fell into the "cheap junk" category, as I came to find out. I had ordered that chair, just based on the leather...and in fact that is the ONLY part of the chair that held up. I replaced the base when it broke, replaced the hydraulic lift when it broke, and had to re-work the arm rests so they would stop falling off. The sides and back were also deteriorating...so quite literally, the ONLY "good" part of that chair was the actual leather itself.So, apologies for the back story, but that leads me into the review of this chair. In putting it together, I could easily see that this chair is hands down much more well-made than my old one. The base of the old one appeared to be a cast metal or some kind. Problem with cast metals are that they tend to be brittle...which is exactly what happened to me…one of the legs broke off with no warning. This chair's base is welded steel...I'm pretty confident it's not going anywhere. Second is the comfort. Lesson learned from the old chair is that if it appears to be thin padding, it definitely is. After a year or so, I had to add more fill to the old chair to keep it from being so "flat.” It was filled with some sort of cubed foam. This chair has the spring-cushion seat, and bolstered back with lumbar support. It is very comfortable, and the padding is 2, maybe 3 times thicker than the old chair. While the covering of this chair is not genuine leather, it does have a very good feel, looks to be of high quality, and is breathable - which would have been my biggest complaint had it not been. The arm rests are generous in size, and fit comfortably under the desk without hitting. I probably could have done without the footrest, but suppose it may be nice to have at some point. The tilt features work very well...plenty of firm resistance, but not so much to force you up straight, or be horizontal with a simple lean back...the tension is just right. Putting the chair together was easy...took me maybe 30 minutes, and half of that was easily spent just unpacking all the parts, as they were well protected in the box. I would agree with what some others have said about needing a second set of hands with getting the back on. I managed okay, just me, but probably should have had my wife come help...but you know, men can do it all on their own...So, all in all, I'm very happy with this chair, thus far. Hopefully it will withstand the test of time...if I can even get three years out of it, that's okay...I feel a lot better about getting a $2-300 chair every 3 years, than I do about spending $700+ each time. Some photos for reference...you can see how thick the padding is, compared to the other chair.
