Alternative to Relax The Back chair - Lifeforms

Written by Lee from TX
Sep 29, 2010

I needed a new home office chair. I looked far and wide. I tried many chairs. The Liberty, Mira, and Leap were 3 of my favorites. However, I wanted something with a high back so I could rest against it once in a while. I am 6 ft tall and 190 pounds. I got a loaner Ergohuman chair and tried it for a couple days. It was the all mesh version. After 3 days I grew to hate that chair. The lumbar support never went high enough to be comfortable. The mesh lacked support and was just squishy. After some time I came to realize that despite mesh being all the rage, leather sure feels better in the long term. I went to the chain Relax The Back and tried many chairs. They sell a custom chair by Lifeforms (canada) which is very nice and ergonomic with all the adjustments you could want. In nice leather its cost is 3k though! Not worth it. If you want something almost identical for half the cost you can buy the VIA Oslo for half the money but still has the leather, ergonomics, and same highly adjustable mechanism. But even 1.5k was still too much money for me. I discovered the Office Star line of chairs. They are cheaper chairs made in Taiwan and sold in places such as Office Depot, etc. They are distributed and shipped out of Ontario, CA Check out the Office Star website for model listings. Many chairs of this class get poor reviews because they have low density foam and cheap components with poorly adjusting mechanisms. Most of the models you find in Office Depot, etc. are the cheaper models. This chair from Office Star is one of their top-line models. It is all leather. The leather piece on the back is one seamless piece. Obviously this is not top grain expensive leather, but it looks nice, is durable and feels great under my butt. The mechanism is highly adjustable and has all the same adjustments as the expensive Relax The Back chair mentioned above. The arm rests are sturdy, functional, and about what you would expect for a chair in this class. The best part of this chair is the FIRM MOLDED CONTOURED foam in the seat area and the back area. Firm foam feels better for longer sitting periods if the chair fits you properly. Firm foam makes the chair last longer and gives nice lumbar support that is soooo much better than any mesh lumbar support I have tried. Generous tall back should easily take care of those up to 6'2" in heighth at least. Good thigh support in the seat allows your thighs to use the entire width of the seat pan making the seat feel wider than it would feel on some cheaper chairs. Sliding seat pan accomodates taller individuals. Caster wheels are nothing special (black double wheeled plastic for carpet), but you can always change those out. The 5 star base is solid metal with a nice metallic gray paint on both sides. The base is really solid. Arm rests when adjusted in the narrow position still feel slightly wider than most chairs, but I like this wider arrangement because I have wide shoulders so it works for me. I am pretty sure the foam in the seat pan is just a good quality high density polyurethane foam (not memory foam), however, a few seconds after you sit in it, it molds itself to the shape of your butt very well and has an almost memory foam effect. This exceeded my expectations. This chair has just about all the adjustments you could ask for on an ergonomic type chair. The back has a ratchet mechanism to adjust the vertical lumbar support perfectly in the small of your back. The back tilt is completely adjustable but is the locking type which locks into position wherever you set it. Then the back reclines WITH the seat. This is different than the "synchro-tilt" or "2:1 ratio tilt" some chairs have. These two types of back mechanisms are the two most popular in the world of ergonomic chairs. The Humanscale Freedom has a synchro-tilt mechanism where the tension is proportional to your body, but I always found it soft and lacking enough support. Since it is not adjustable there is nothing I could do about it. This Office Star chair has the traditional knob with spring you turn to adjust recline tension. The chair was ordered online and arrives in a single box. I assembled it with the included allen wrenches. There was one screw which was difficult to get to so it required a socket wrench (american size). The seat pan and back are made from steam molded plywood. The seat pan bottom has a nice molded plastic cover over the plywood. The mechanism is impressive....heavy....many leavers for all those adjustments.....solid metal with a small plastic cover over a portion of it. Regardless the mechanism felt solid. The only problem I have noticed with the mechanism is sometimes the lever which locks OUT the forward seat pan tilt comes unlocked and I am able to do the forward tilt. Forward tilt I thought would be a nice feature in front of the computer, but so far I haven't used it. Jury is still out of forward seat tilt. In summary, overall a very solid chair and strong competitor which wins hands down on price over most all the other competitors. If you think you really want a mesh chair, then you should think long and hard. I started this process wanting a mesh chair such as the Aeron. I tried the Aeron and found it uncomfortable for me. The Mira was much better for my body, but no high back. The ergohuman in FULL leather model perhaps would be a great chair for the correct body size, but since the mesh version did not fit me AT ALL it was off my list. The ergohuman had the most beautiful and SOLID metal design of all the chairs I tried. Too bad its proportions were off. The ergohuman armrests run HIGH, but its back rest adjustability runs LOW. I had the back rest maxed out and it was still very low. The lumbar support mechanism is on an independent spring which I found annoying and lacking stiffness and support for my back. Office Star also makes the EL4300 and EL4350. I considered the EL4350 for a long time. I emailed Office Star and asked them which (4350 vs. this chair) had the firmer and more contoured foam. They said this chair had much firmer foam. Firm foam is what I wanted so this is the one I bought.