Aeron Chair
It's the most well-known ergonomic office chair ever made. With good reason. The first to replace upholstery with the breathable, form-fitting Pellicle suspension that adapts to virtually every body and keeps you cool and focused.It's also $869!
I don't care if this is the greatest damn chair in the charted universe; for over 850 bucks it had better give me sweet, sweet lovin' and then mow my lawn...
That is all.
21 comments:
Actually, Jay, with respect, you're wrong about this one. I agree it's a very expensive chair - but for someone like me, it's worth every cent.
I suffered a disabling injury in 2004 that's left me with a fused lower spine and permanent nerve damage in my left leg. I've had precisely six hours pain-free since my injury (when the docs injected my spine with a cortisone compound to reduce inflammation, which anesthetized everything below the site!)
On my doctor's advice, I bought one of these Aeron chairs three years ago. It's been a blessing, and I've never regretted it. Where 'normal' chairs mean I have to get up two to three times an hour to stretch and ease the pain, this lets me sit for much longer, and much more comfortably.
Aeron chairs actually live up to the pricetag (and you can get them gently used online for a significant discount). i miss having one, to be honest...at my previous job, they bought the whole office a grip of them.
I got an Aeron chair free--when I stayed to finish cleaning up the IT part of the GM plant I used to work at, we were allowed to take quite a lot of stuff home, and an Aeron chair was one of my choices. If it wears out, I will at least consider getting a new one, even at full retail. Isn't likely to wear out anytime soon--it survived a decade in a non-management office at a GM assembly plant with almost no sign of wear.
How much per day would you pay for the most comfortable desk chair?
Well, then, I dutifully stand corrected.
I guess I've been fortunate, in that none of the ways I've injured myself (or others have injured me) have resulted in the need for a nine hundred dollar chair.
I'll join the crowd and say they are actually worth it.
We use our chairs HARD at work. They are literally occupied 24/7/365. We'd had standard upholstered office chairs for my first few years here, and they begin to stink quite quickly and wear out almost as fast. We were replacing the backs, seats, and arms about once a year, to the tune of $150/chair.
Three years ago we switched to Aerons, and have not replaced a part yet - and they don't stink.
Yes, they're expensive, but they actually are worth it.
In regards to the chair giving you lovin' and lawn care....
Un-bolt it from the caster base and replace the factory seat of a lawn tractor with it. If vibration is your thing you might just have success...
These chairs are often used in places where the IT staff are expected to stay during emergencies. They're in the chair for as much as 18 hours a day for up to a week or longer at a time... and they're able to do it.
Yeah, it's expensive. But it's like a new Mercedes versus a 10 year old VW Rabbit. Both will get you there, the Rabbit does it cheaper, but the safety, comfort, and durability will be higher in a Mercedes.
Several moons ago, I worked in a high end furniture store where they sold Ekornes recliners. These retail for $1,000 to $2,500 depending on model, leather, etc - and I always scoffed that people who bought them had more money than brains...until I sat in one for an extended period of time during a sales meeting and was just astounded by the comfort. $900 seems to be a lot of money for an office chair, but for someone like Violent Indifference who could log 10-12 hours at his desk without blinking...these types of office chairs are a necessity.
But the idea of putting one on your lawn mower amuses me. Like those bar stool racers.
If you spend 8+ hours a day with your butt in a chair then $800 for one isn't unreasonable if it really IS that comfortable. A cheap chair will cause backaches and contribute to RSI.
I happen to know that federal employees at a particular agency, were offered their choice of 3 different aeron chairs. The cheapest was $500 bucks. Everyone picked the $2000 chair.
Managers got 2 aeron chairs for their offices (one for them, one for a visitor). Each conference rooms got 10 to 20 aeron chairs.
The company offered a 20-year warranty at no extra charge, but the warrant was declined because there was no infrastructure to take advantage of it (which I understood to mean that the secretary would rather just order a new chair, rather than figure out how to Fed Ex a chair for repair).
Thanks for paying taxes.
Ummm...the *sweet, sweet lovin'* feature is an option at the time of ordering...an additional $350 for the basic package, and $500 for the Super Deluxe with Lifelike Vibrating...
It's a saying at the laser mine that a new oscilloscope costs 4 chairs. But not that kind of chair.
Moring Jay, I bought one used from Ebay and its the BEST chair I've had :)
Ergonomic and very comfortable.
And the Air Force buys them and puts them in the Enlisted barracks in the lounges... They Navy, well, we're stuck with aluminium chairs from the 1950s.
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?rlz=1C1GGGE_enUS412US412&q=aluminium+navy+chairs&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=3890195973754630582&ei=hiRgTfGiLeDb8QaMob3BBA&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&ct=result&resnum=3&ved=0CEEQ8wIwAg#
sigh...
I've used one of those chairs in a past job, and before that, I too scoffed at the notion of a chair that cost that much.
But after many, many hours in front of a computer, that chair was the most comfortable thing in existence.
After a few months of use, I realized that the asking price and what it was worth were roughly equal.
When my company moved into a new office, they bought one of those chairs for every employee -- all six hundred of us.
I thought it was a joke until I got to actually sit in one for a whole day, which, being in IT, I tend to do often. It's highly adjustable. Once I read the instructions (yeah, really, I read them) and had it tweaked just right for me, it was awesome.
I'd say it's worth every cent. Though at home I prefer a yoga ball at my desk. I'm a cheap bastard that way.
Mine was replaced last month.It was still useable but the lumbar support was broken and gas cylinder leaked and the replaced it with one with a different lumbar rather thank repair it. It was over 11 years old at that point. It came courtesy of uncle enron as part of a subsidiary acquisition well before my time. I love it and wouldn't give it up. I f I could justify one for the house I would.Price per year works out pretty good.
I have one at work, since 2006 or so. Still as good as day 1. On an occupancy basis, I have spent more per hour on chairs from $BIG_OFFICE_SUPPLY $ on my desk chair at home. And they've been less comfortable to boot.
Aeron chairs are the rich bastards' boots of office chairs. (See Sam Vimes "boots" theory of inequality)
Ian beat me to it, but here's the full quote.
By coincidence Stingray just ordered one of these used. The Boots Theory of Economics was his specific cited reason, too.
Incidentally, I should have written that as "rich bastards' boots" of office chairs. They are not (as far as I know anyway) the official chairs of the boots belonging to rich bastards.
Seriously, having dumped close to half the purchase price of one of these into 2 chairs and needing a third, which will no doubt, in the fullness of time, go the way of its predecessors, and my cubicle chair(that I spend at least twice the amount of time in)will still be going strong and as comfortable as when my employer bought it...
We'll see - if I overpaid Unlce Sam, I may have to stalk one of them
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