We spent a month testing 11 top-rated office chairs to find the best one

(CNN) —  

It’s changing into increasingly clear that remote work may develop into the contemporary normal, so in the event you haven’t already, now is a factual time to take into consideration upgrading your place office. Whether you’re attempting to punch up an present setup or make a temporary situation feel more permanent, one key upgrade you may level-headed make is swapping out that eating room chair for an actual office chair that gained’t wreak havoc to your back.

In an effort to glimpse which office chairs are actually comfortable, we spent more than a month testing 11 varied alternate solutions varying in tag, characteristic and fashion. We compared important features, love back and lumbar enhance, and dug into whether dearer alternate solutions are really price the extra money. In the slay, two chairs sat comfortably at the top for us:

The Steelcase Series 1 scored among the very best overall, standing out as one of the most customizable, excessive-quality, comfortable office chairs on the market. At $415 (now down to $319.99 for Black Friday, the Steelcase Series 1 beat out most of its pricier competitors across testing categories, scoring less than a single level decrease than our very best-rated chair, the $1,036 Steelcase Leap, easily making it the best bang for the buck and a clear winner for our best office chair overall.

The Alera Elusion Series Multifunction Chair, priced at $174, emerged as our best finances catch, standing up to (and in some cases far surpassing) office chairs that retail for more than five times its tag level, particularly in the comfort and adjustability categories.

Best overall office chair: Steelcase Series 1 (starting at $352.99; amazon.com)

PHOTO: Hayley Saltzman/CNN

PHOTO: Hayley Saltzman/CNN

On its web page, Steelcase proffers a factual deal of information about what makes a quality office chair. The basics: It may level-headed “flex with you — helping you change postures whereas you sit; match the natural contour of your back; transfer as you achieve,” whereas also allowing your arms to stay straight to your desk and your eyes stage along with your display whereas you recline. After spending nine workdays testing three varied Steelcase fashions, we feel safe in saying Steelcase is aware of what it’s talking about.

While all three of the Steelcase chairs obtained excessive scores in our testing pool, the Series 1, Steelcase’s most affordable choice, blends exceptional comfort and value better than any chair we tested.

At first glance, the chair’s aesthetic is unassuming, with easy, clean strains and a compact dimension. When compared with the other products we tested, which on occasion had sharp angles, oddly elongated backrests and unnecessarily large armrests, we chanced on the Series 1 to be one of the better-having a glance office chairs in our pool.

Nonetheless when talking about chairs, it’s more important that they’re easy to your back than to your eyes. We’re happy to account that with the Series 1, Steelcase marries characteristic to that beautiful create. After three days of sitting in the chair, we felt the seat had the glorious balance of cushiness and firmness. While we were initially concerned that the thick, plastic lumbar adjustment would feel stiff, it wasn’t an roar. The mesh backrest was both flexible and supportive at some stage in the testing period. The backrest, which has what Steelcase refers to as “Integrated Liveback Technology,” may not glance as structured as some of the heavily padded backrests on the market, nevertheless it outperformed the cushioned backrests because it strikes with you as you work and shift positions.

As we learned at some stage in the chair testing course of, backrest and seat comfort are negligible if a chair doesn’t allow you to customize it to match your particular physique. Right here’s where the Series 1 really shines. While some of the other office chairs we tested merely offer adjustable seat heights and backrest angles, nearly each aspect of the Series 1 can be adjusted. And as an added bonus, it’s actually easy to make each adjustment with minimal guidance: While several other adjustable fashions require diagrams, movies and guides for unbiased correct setup, the Series 1 generally strikes and conforms with the physique in a very intuitive way.

The arm height adjusts interior a 5-lunge range to merit encourage better back and shoulder fatigue; the arm width adjusts 4 inches overall; arm depth can retract 2 inches to allow the user to regain closer to the work surface and into tight corners; seat depth adjusts interior a two-and-a-quarter-lunge range to accommodate varied leg lengths; lumbar height adjusts over two and a quarter inches; the arm caps pivot independently 40 degrees inward and 40 degrees outward looking out to your preference; and the seat height adjusts interior a 5-lunge range. If that checklist doesn’t mean distinguished to you, right here’s the bottom line: This chair is extremely adaptable.

At $415, this chair is less than half the tag of several others we tested, but affords more comfort and flexibility than accurate about each chair we tested at any tag level, making it a clear winner in an expensive market.

Best finances accumulate: Alera Elusion Series Mesh Multifunction Chair ($176.13; amazon.com or $147.99, originally $179.99; walmart.com)

PHOTO: Hayley Saltzman/CNN

PHOTO: Hayley Saltzman/CNN

The $415 Steelcase Series 1 may supply the best bang for your buck, nevertheless it’s level-headed a fairly hefty $415 purchase. While the majority of sub-$300 chairs we tested were more akin to a stack of cinder blocks than excessive-slay office chairs, the Alera Elusion Series Mesh Multifunction Chair flaunts very unbiased correct comfort and adjustability (it ranked third in that blended category, bested handiest by our best overall and the Steelcase Leap Chair) with a very reasonable $147.99 tag tag.

The Elusion was one of the comfiest chairs we tested. Its thick, cushioned seat stood up to dearer chairs, and the breathable mesh back was one of its best features.

While some of the adjustments on this chair are easier to make than others (though none of them as seamlessly as with the Series 1), the Elusion does offer all of the customizations you want in a chair. All thru the testing course of, it became clear that height- and width-adjustable arms are key, and right here’s another area where the Elusion succeeded. While the Elusion’s armrests are very adjustable, they’re now not as easy to adjust as the Steelcase armrests. To adjust the armrest width on the Elusion, you have to reach beneath the seat and flip a knob till you reach your required place. The buttons for armrest height also feel a bit stiffer and harder to adjust than the mechanisms on any of the Steelcase chairs, but with a little bit of pressure, it’s easy ample to transfer them. While the Elusion wasn’t the most adjustable product we tried (particularly with regard to armrest angle, which was now not adjustable), both the height and the width of the armrests were ultimately more adjustable than the armrests on some of the distinguished pricier competitors.

One of the least desirable aspects of this chair is its assembly course of. Of all the chairs we had to assemble, the Elusion took the longest: a cumbersome 43 minutes (after unboxing) to regain the chair place up, now not together with adjustments. Given the choice of chairs that arrive totally assembled, you achieve have to commit a little bit of elbow grease to save some money with the Elusion. The directions were extremely vague and we wasted a factual amount of time attempting to attach the armrests. Nonetheless given that the assembly is accurate a one-time peril that leads to a very comfortable chair, it was now not a dealbreaker, especially at this attractive tag level

While the Alera Elusion clearly has some limitations to its stage of adjustability (most notably in the armrest angle and backrest height categories), its overall comfort stage makes it one of the best alternate solutions for its tag tag, even after taking into account the somewhat lengthy assembly course of.

The testing course of for these office chairs lasted nearly two months. We unboxed and assembled each chair, paying special attention to the amount of time each unboxing and constructing course of took. For the chairs that required assembly, we logged the amount of time it took to save each chair together. Once each chair was totally built, we reviewed all of the adjustment materials integrated and adjusted the chair to the unbiased correct specifications as distinguished as that you can imagine.

Once the chairs were successfully assembled and adjusted, we sat in each chair for 3 consecutive 9-hour workdays in the exact same office setup and stipulations each day. We carefully famed how each chair carried out in varied positions accommodating various tasks at some stage in the workday (typing, writing, phone calls and video meetings). We also logged the overall comfort stage after several days of sitting and working in each chair. Overall, we evaluated based on what may be the most important to the user: comfort and adjustability, execute and length of the warranty.

To resolve the most accurate overall scores for each of these three larger categories, we broke the testing into 10 sub-categories:

Comfort and Adjustability

Obtain

Warranty

We certain a maximum choice of aspects each product may regain for each category and subcategory test listed above, together with a increased choice of overall aspects for the features we identified as being most important to the overall office chair user expertise.

Comfort and adjustability had a maximum of 80 aspects.

Ikea Markus Chair ($229; ikea.com)

While this was one of the most affordable chairs in our testing pool, it was also one of the least comfortable chairs we tried. It’s level-headed better than a eating room chair, but its thinly cushioned seat was uncomfortable after two days, the armrests were extremely skinny and rubbery, and the lack of adjustability was a major roar. Additionally, we chanced on the backrest to be unnecessarily tall, and given the chair’s lack of adjustability, it accurate didn’t feel love a match.

Herman Miller Aeron Chair ($1,395; amazon.com)

This was one of the most aesthetically pleasing chairs we tried, and it obtained a excessive rating for comfort and execute across the board. The main downsides right here were the steep tag tag and relative lack of adjustability.

Hon Ignition 2.0 Chair ($309; amazon.com)

While this chair obtained a relatively excessive rating for adjustability, it lacked ample lumbar enhance and had an uncomfortable backrest. Although the backrest angle is adjustable, it was one of our decrease-scoring chairs in terms of ease of recline. While you happen to love to be able to comfortably shift back and forth between sitting correct and leaning back, this may not be the best chair for you.

Steelcase Gesture Chair ($970.38, originally $1,036; amazon.com)

Steelcase chairs were some of our favorite products we tested. The Steelcase Gesture obtained a glorious rating in terms of execute, ease of assembly, and quality of materials. Its lifetime warranty also gave it excessive marks, nonetheless, it simply wasn’t as comfortable as the other Steelcase chairs we tested. While you happen to love a very structured, supportive backrest, this is perhaps a factual choice for you. While you happen to favor a more flexible, mesh back (and a decrease tag tag), slump with the Steelcase Series 1.

Steelcase Leap Chair ($823.15, originally $978; amazon.com)

As beforehand mentioned, this Steelcase chair was actually the very best-rated chair in our testing pool, and it remained exceptionally comfortable even after three days of train. Nonetheless, regardless of it being more than twice the tag as the Series 1, the handiest areas the Leap Chair beat it was in backrest and armrest comfort. Ultimately, product value is a key factor in our product recommendation course of, and the Leap’s distinguished increased tag tag kept it from being our quantity one catch.

AmazonBasics Excessive-Back, Leather Executive Chair (starting at $135.39; amazon.com)

The best factor we can say about this chair is that it has very comfortable armrests. That aside, the lack of adjustability for the armrests (and for almost each other aspect of the chair) made it one of our least favorite products. This chair also obtained low marks in terms of execute — it started squeaking on day one, and after three days of train, several of the screws fell out of the chair. Despite the fact that we concede this is perhaps due to user error in the course of setup, nothing love this happened any other chair we assembled, so discouraged quality and assembly directions are at least partly to blame.

Humanscale Freedom Chair ($935.20, originally $1,549 ; wayfair.com)

This chair felt comfortable and cushioned without relying on thick, heavy padding. The overall aesthetic is spectacular, plus the seat depth and backrest height were more adjustable than many of the products we tried. Unfortunately, the fact that the armrest width and angle didn’t adjust as distinguished as we would have favored made this chair relatively uncomfortable after three days. The default width for the armrests was far too large for our personal comfort stage, even at its most narrow place. While you happen to don’t mind large-place armrests and you’re procuring for a chair with a quality execute, right here’s a solid choice.

Humanscale Diffrient World Task Chair ($583.20, originally $898; wayfair.com)

This was another excessive-scoring chair. The mesh moved with us very easily, and overall it felt extremely supportive but gentle. This chair obtained a glorious rating for seat comfort and backrest comfort, and we were impressed to reveal that its “tri-panel backrest” also equipped exceptional lumbar enhance. Its ease of recline was also seamless — allowing for a supportive backrest no matter how distinguished you catch out to lean back. The seat depth and backrest height are both adjustable, which is a plus, but the armrests can handiest be adjusted up or down. While you happen to own you’ll want to adjust the width and/or angle of the armrests to your chair, you may probably want to slump for a Steelcase product instead. Ultimately, regardless of its excessive rating, the armrest roar, blended with the fact that this chair normally charges almost twice as distinguished as the Series 1, were the two main reasons the Diffrient World Task Chair didn’t stable a top state on our checklist.

Sihoo Office Chair ($209.99, originally $239.99; amazon.com)

For almost each testing category, our notes on this chair contained some version of “now not great, but now not awful.” Overall, that’s how we’d have to summarize this chair, too. This chair obtained very low marks for its one-year warranty, and average scores for execute, comfort and adjustability. The seat and backrest are stunning comfortable and the chair adjusts in all of the main ways you’d seek information from it too, but the armrests are large-place and contain strange divots, making them some of the least comfortable ones we tried.

Indicate: The prices above mirror the retailer’s listed tag at the time of publication.

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