Best Seats in the House
Chairs that work the angles bring bliss to your back.
From Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, February 2004
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Debi Ertel-Hernandez is disappointed with the scene inside a cubicle at Toyota's U.S. headquarters in Torrance, Cal. Co-worker Trina Mai is sitting hunched over in a chair that would look at home on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. The chair dwarfs Mai's petite frame and forces her to slouch because her spine can't meet the backrest for support. Although the chair, Humanscale's Freedom model, costs about $1,200, Mai might as well be perched on a bar stool.
Ertel-Hernandez often sees such mismatches and knows that the backaches and sick days they cause can eat into an employee's productivity. As a senior facilities administrator for Toyota, she applies data from top researchers to help pick the chairs used by about 10,000 Toyota employees. Her experience can guide you to the best seating choice for your home office.
For Mai, Ertel-Hernandez's advice is to switch to the Steelcase Leap chair, which lets the user adjust the seat-pan so that it's snug with the backrest. That way Mai can lean back and still reach her keyboard.
Ertel-Hernandez's favorite chairs take a load off your spine by discouraging hunching, a posture that can cause fatigue and make your vertebrae throb. A well-designed model allows you to lean back about 20 degrees from a bolt-upright position. As a result, the weight on your spine will be three times less than if you were slouching, according to researchers at Cornell University. And a chair that takes pressure off your back will help prevent the posture-related pain that sends two million sufferers to doctors every year.
By contrast, the most common type of office chair -- one with a seat, back and arms that permit only limited adjustment -- could make you squirm uncomfortably. Ertel-Hernandez says, such a chair "isn't a problem if you have a really tight relationship with your chiropractor."
Although she has scoured office stores for less expensive chairs, the models Ertel-Hernandez recommends all cost $600 or more. Cheaper seats, she says, usually come up short in several ways. The backrest is unlikely to match the contours of your spine. When you recline, the seat tilts your body up and away from your desk, placing your hands and arms too far away from your work. In response, you reflexively lean forward. Plus, she estimates that such chairs adjust to fit only one-third to one-half of U.S. adults. In comparison, her favorite chairs are flexible enough to fit a broad range of body types. According to guidelines overseen by the American National Standards Institute, they can be individually adjusted to accommodate at least 90% of U.S. adults.
The chair that suits most people, Ertel-Hernandez finds, is the one she recommended for Trina Mai: Steelcase's Leap chair. When you lean back in the Leap, the seat-pan moves forward, keeping your hands the same distance from your work and removing the temptation to bend forward. The backrest boasts a lumbar support you can slide to precisely the spot where it feels best. The price: $810, which includes an average 30% dealer discount off the list price of $1,160.
Pivot then scoot
Ertel-Hernandez's runner-up pick is the Herman Miller Aeron chair -- which won renown in the dot-com era as the techie's seat of choice. Although the seat doesn't slide forward when you lean back, its armrests pivot a range of 32 degrees, allowing you to move them out of the way so you can scoot in close to your desk. And the Aeron has a lumbar support that adjusts precisely. The Aeron comes in three sizes and retails for $800, but often sells for $750; find dealers at www.hermanmiller.com.
If the Leap and the Aeron are more chair than you want to pay for, Ertel-Hernandez also likes Haworth's Improv H.E. Its lumbar support, which is fixed in the backrest, does not adjust precisely. Says Ertel-Hernandez: "You can't scootch it up a sixteenth of an inch and say, 'Oh, that's the right spot.' " But its armrests pivot 360 degrees so you can move them aside and pull your chair close to your desk when you recline. Although it retails for $883, it is often sold for about $620. Find dealers at www.haworth.com.
If you want a posture-supporting seat with the styling of a high-back executive chair, Ertel-Hernandez suggests the Keilhauer Respons 775 chair. Although the Respons is not as adjustable as other chairs, an optional feature allows the arms to move up and down. The Respons 775, upholstered in leather with adjustable armrests, costs $1,600 after discounts. Less-expensive models upholstered in nylon and other fabrics start at $1,130. Go to www.keilhauer.com for sales locations.--Reporter: Elizabeth Kountze
Our expert, Debi Ertel-Hernandez, is a senior facilities administrator at Toyota, in Torrance, Cal. She's been playing chair matchmaker for workers at various companies for 15 years.