Adjustable arms on an office chair are a great feature to have and it’s important you set them up correctly for your exact needs.

The level of adjustability of chair arms will vary depending on the features the manufacturer includes.

All adjustable arms at least allow a person to set the height of them and indeed this is the most critical setting.

You should make sure the chair arms are set about half an inch below the normal natural resting position of your elbows and arms when relaxed. Avoid having the arms set too high causing your shoulders to point up as this will allow muscle tension to build up in your shoulders.

If you are able to set the width of the chair arms get them the same width or slightly wider than your shoulders, try and avoid as far as possible stretching your arms too far outwards.

More sophisticated arms allow you to push the arms backwards and this can be very useful when you like to get close to your desk to work.

Pivoting arms can also be useful for closer working too, when your chair has this function.

Overall the most important consideration is that your chair’s arms allow good support of your elbows and lower arms in their natural position.

With the sea of choices of upholstery available for office chairs it can be both daunting and confusing when making a final choice.

There are several factors to look into and this will be influenced by your own situation.

When all you want is something that will work with most office environments you won’t go far wrong with black or dark gray fabric.

Fabrics are available in a wide range of colors, both plain and patterned, try and avoid very bright or boldly patterned fabrics unless you really want to make a statement. Plains and lightly patterned fabrics work well in most offices.

Presuming that you plan your chair to last for several years it’s also a good idea to check the durability of the fabric, see if you can find a fabric with a high rub count as it will last longer.

It’s also a good idea to see if the fabric comes with some form of soil protection treatment as it makes it a lot easier to clean and maintain the material’s appearance.

In the next post I’ll examine some of the other finishes you might want to look into.

Unsurprisingly the majority of office chairs are made to suit the average person, although what is average is open to wide interpretation.

When you’re between 5 foot 6 inches and 6 foot you’re unlikely to have trouble adjusting your office chair seat height properly.

When you fall outside this height range you may not be so lucky. People less than 5 foot 5 inches frequently find that they can’t rest their feet squarely on the floor, even with the chair set at its lowest level.

On the other hand, when you’re over 6 foot the opposite problem can occur, here your knees and upper legs end up pointing upwards which is both uncomfortable and bad for the posture.

Quite often the issue can be solved relatively easily by changing the standard pneumatic gas lift for one with either a lower or higher lift range. Try contacting your chair supplier and see if they can help.

For the smaller built person using an adjustable footrest can often sort this problem.

Sometimes when you’re working at your computer you may not want your chair back to recline, but be there to support your back. However, maybe you’ve struggled to find out how to stop your chair from reclining, there could be a couple of reasons for this.

First, check if your chair has a tilt tension adjuster because it may be that you just need to set it to offer more resistance when you lean back. Take a peek underneath the chair is there a knurled knob under the center of the seat? If so, try turning it clockwise to increase the tension.

Alternatively, you can often find a lever under the chair that simply locks the back off in a pre-set position. But, very basic office chairs may only have a wheel at the base of the back that when tightened will partially lock the back, but not very effectively.

As a rule you should avoid sitting in a fixed position for extended periods of time, so try and set the back up to suit your weight if you can as this will encourage healthy movement.

If none of this works you may need to think about replacing your chair, this article covers the essentials of successful office chair selection.

When you’ve got an office chair that squeaks it can be really annoying and infuriating when you’ve got work to concentrate on. It’s even worse when you can’t figure out why it’s happening.

Generally speaking, there are a couple of prime suspects that you should look into.

The first is anywhere where metal parts are moving against each other, like the components that join the back to the chair seat.

Over time they become dry and cause squeaking so try applying a light film of WD40 to these parts and see if that helps, but take care not to get any on the fabric.

The other main reason is more of a creaking noise and this can be due to the fixings holding the seat mechanism or the back stem to the chair back.

The core of the seat and back are commonly made of plywood, when the fixings loosen a little with use you can get a creaking noise.

This isn’t so easy to resolve as these parts of the chair are often enclosed with plastic covers. Begin by looking underneath for any large screws and see if you can tighten them up.

If they are concealed take great care when trying to remove covers as often they aren’t intended to be taken apart once fitted, so you risk breaking the fixings.

Maybe you’ve wondered whether a Ball Chair is right for you, although they’re generally fairly cheap you don’t want to find that it doesn’t work for you.

Well, there is a simple and inexpensive way to find out, ball chairs are all basically based on an inflatable exercise ball.

You will find that you can pick up an exercise ball for less than $15 on sites like Amazon, so for a small outlay I suggest buying one to evaluate if it’s right for you, choose a 650 mm diameter ball.

There are some who actually suggest using an exercise ball as a chair, but I wouldn’t recommend this for long term use.

However, it’s a great way to test the concept for a small outlay. Start by sitting on it for short periods of time and see how you get on, you’ll need to learn how to balance on it properly and if you discover you can manage it OK , then a full Ball Chair should be suitable for you.

You can find reviews of Ball Chairs here.

If you are using your office chair on a smooth or hard surface like lino, hardwood or ceramic tiles you may be finding that you can’t control your chair properly and it seems to want to roll too freely.

It’s likely that your chair has got casters that are intended for use on carpets and so is moving much too freely on your smooth, friction free floor.

What you need is to replace the existing wheels with a set of hard floor casters, they’re typically rubber faced and so grip on smooth floors better.

You should contact your chair’s supplier and see if they stock the right casters, alternatively, you’ll find that you can probably get suitable casters from this online specialist.

Office chairs have improved enormously in the last 20 years or so, as many new ergonomically designed seats have been introduced, however there is still one type of office chair widely available that is just not good for your postural health.

This is what is known in the trade as a one piece shell chair, I prefer to call them one piece hell chairs! With this type of chair the seat and back are either constructed as or remain fixed in a single piece.

Consequently, it isn’t possible to adjust the back and seat angle independently, all the user can do is alter the overall angle of the chair, but the back and seat remain fixed at a constant angle.

This is not a good idea for people who work in their office chair for long hours each day.

Twice recently in technical magazines I’ve seen articles on control rooms where likely $1 million or more has been spent on high tech equipment and in both cases the poor operators were sat in one piece hell chairs. Pity their backs after a 12 hour shift.

You’ll often find this type of seat in high end management chairs, frequently in leather and costing hundreds of dollars.

I suspect one of the reasons for their continued popularity is because they look big, important or luxurious, much like lounge chairs on wheels.

So, if you’re looking to replace your office chair, avoid these types of chair, your back will thank you.

Are you shortening the life of your office chair fabric without realizing it?

You would be amazed at the amount of dirt and grime that gets embedded in an office chair’s upholstery. As it builds up it clogs the fabric’s fibers and this causes it to rub against the structure of the fabric and act just like sandpaper.

This causes significant shortening of the life of your chair’s covering. So make sure you regularly vacuum and occasionally clean your chair’s fabric with an approved upholstery cleaner to prolong its life and avoid costly premature replacement.

Hopefully your office chair allows you to adjust the chair’s tension to match with your body weight.

When you’ve got things correctly you should be able to lean back in to your chair comfortably without applying excessive pressure or conversely feeling as though you’re suddenly sinking right back with little or no resistance.

So what’s involved in setting it up? With most office chairs you’ll find a knurled knob midway under the seat pad. Normally, you turn it clockwise to increase the tension and stiffen resistance or anti-clockwise to reduce the resistance.

Just experiment until you get it set to your liking.

Some more sophisticated ergonomic office chairs have a crank control on the side of the chair that actually makes it easier to adjust.

Tilt tension is just 1 of the 5 essential features that an office chair needs, to discover the other 4 see this article on what you need an ergonomic office chair to include.