Finding the perfect office chair is like finding the right car. This is something you will use almost every day. It should be comfortable, fit your budget, and be something you enjoy using. With cars, there’s usually a ton of online reviews to read over. And you can always drive to a car lot and test drive them. But with premium office chairs, there isn’t as much information out there. Sure, you can find cheaper, low-quality chairs at a chain office store. Or buy something off Amazon sight unseen. But if you want a chair that’s going to last, who can you turn to?
That’s where Dakota Business Center comes in. At our showroom, we have dozens of options to try out. This is one of the chief benefits of partnering with so many commercial interior brands. Another benefit is that even if you don’t find the perfect fit, we can get you what you need.
One of the great benefits of parting with so many brands is testing options from each company. In our showroom, we usually have twenty or more task chairs to sample. Most people don’t have extra time in the week to stop in and try out chairs, so I thought I’d try each model and write an honest review.
The model I’m using is outfitted with all the bells and whistles. See the spec sheet below for more details. It is fully adjustable. I can make the arms taller or shorter, which is great for writing posture, but I can also make them wider. This is a feature that we don’t see in a lot of chairs and one that some of our clients are desperate to find. Many chairs are made with narrow people in mind and it rules out a whole segment of the population. Being able to get the arms right plays a huge role in all-day comfort.
The next feature I love is the sliding seat. This will adjust the chair to thigh length. If you have shorter legs, you can pull the seat back to get your back more closely aligned with the lumbar support. Longer-legged people will find the seat being farther out will make their legs feel more relaxed. I’m on the taller side being over six feet, and I like it somewhere in the middle. I feel it gives me the best posture when I need to write for an extended period.
Both the mesh back and the upholstered back come with an adjustable lumbar support that is easy to position. I’m using the mesh back so it’s easy to see where the position is, but believe me when I tell you, you can feel it. On the mesh back, the support seems to be made out of a tensioned rubber. It feels solid with a little give. As a woman with chronic back pain, I’m grateful that I have this option rather than bringing in a support cushion from home.
The one con of this chair that I was going to point out turned out to be an easy fix. The arms always felt a little loose to me and I wished they were a little more solid. But before writing that as a flaw I thought, “this could be a loose screw.” Sure enough, the Allen head screw on each of the width adjust levers was a tiny bit loose. Not a lot, but just loose enough to make the arms wiggle back and forth. A quick adjustment has these arms feeling nearly as solid as a fixed-arm chair.
This isn’t something I would blame on the manufacturer, as every new chair tends to need a little adjustment after it has been in use for a few months. After that initial adjustment, things usually stay tight. If they don’t, a dab of thread locker can make the screws and bolts stay put for the long haul.
I’m giving this an overall rating of 4.9 out of 5.
