10 Serious Warning Signs Your Home Office Chair Is Wrong For You
It’s no joke. If you have a home office chair that isn’t right for you, you can do serious damage to your health.
You’re going to spend hours and hours every week in that chair and that damage builds up, slowly, over time.
So pay attention to these warning signs and replace your home office chair if you have to. Your body can’t afford for you not to.
You Can’t Change The Seat Height
This is, perhaps, the biggest issue of them all, if you don’t have the seat at the right height, you cannot align your neck properly with your screen.
This means you’re likely to strain your neck and possibly, in turn, your back.
And when you read at your desk, the right height for your seat changes, as you’re looking lower in space than when you use your screen.
So, if you can’t change the seat height – you need to buy a new office chair (check our list of the best sustainable home office chairs for ideas).
You Can’t Get Proper Back Support
You’ll know if your chair isn’t delivering the kind of back support you need, at first you’ll feel a little achy at the end of each day but eventually?
You’re going to end up with some serious pain. It’s really best to avoid this if you can.
Choose an office chair (see the different types of home office chair here) that cuts down on back pain and if you want to know why a home office chair can induce back pain we’ve written about that here.
You Can’t Ergonomically Adjust Most Of The Chair
The more you can adjust the form of your chair, the easier it’s going to be on your body. You want an adjustable headrest, armrest, etc. as well as being able to change the height.
You’re going to spend a lot of time every day at your desk and that means any slight injury caused by a chair, over time, will grow and grow.
You Don’t Have Enough Padding
There’s nothing worse than a “thin” office chair. Your chair should be padded enough so that it embraces your body rather than pushes into it.
When you sit down, you should instantly feel cushioned and comfortable rather than though you’re sitting on a hard board. The longer you sit on a poorly padded chair, the less comfy it becomes.
You Can’t Swivel The Chair Body
OK, you can argue the toss on this and suggest that a swivel option is not entirely necessary (and I confess, it’s not something I have on my office chair – I prefer a rigid chair body).
But if you have to pick things up from shelves, or the floor on a regular basis, then you’re going to appreciate that the chair turns rather than you straining your back to get to things.
You Don’t Have A Warranty
The mark of a quality home office chair is in the manufacturer’s confidence in the quality of the chairs that they sell and that’s found in the warranty.
Simply put, the shorter the warranty, the worse the chair is going to be. If it’s a year or less, the chair is going to be poorly made and won’t last long. You deserve better.
Your Chair Doesn’t Support Much Weight
The more weight that a chair will support, the better it has to be built. The best chairs can support up to 500 lbs!
That doesn’t mean you need to be 500 lbs, in fact it’s probably safer not to be, but it does mean that it’s built to last and you can rely on it.
Chairs that support very low weights are a bad idea. And a chair that isn’t designed to support at least your body weight plus, say, 50 lbs should never be used at all.
Your Chair Casters Are Faulty
If your chair has wheels, they need to function properly (we’ve got a guide to cleaning chair casters here, as dirt can interfere with their operation).
If they don’t? You use too much effort moving the chair around and the can do damage to your legs and back over time.
You Don’t Have Functioning Armrests
You can’t rest your elbows efficiently if the chair has no armrests or if they’re broken and while this won’t seem a big deal at first, the effects build up over time.
The most likely consequence of this is a repetitive strain injury caused by trying to position yourself more comfortably all the time.
You Chair Isn’t Built To Stay Grounded
If your chair is rocking backwards and forwards or from side-to-side and you can’t adjust it to make that stop? It’s time to throw it out.
You can’t work comfortably on a constantly shifting platform and it’s going to do you physical damage eventually.
Final Thoughts On Home Office Chair Problems
So, there you have it, ten signs that your home office chair is not good enough.
The good news is that you can fix this either by adjusting your chair or by buying a new chair.
Don’t delay, save your health and make sure your chair is right for you, today.