Features to look for in an ergonomic task chair

The first thing to look for with good ergonomic task chairs is the level and number of manual adjustments. These levers and knobs allow the seat to be customized to any user however large, small, heavy or light.

There are a lot of great looking chairs out there, many with stylish exo-skeletal frames, but if there is no function to the “look”, then you paying for appearance and not comfort and ergonomics. Remember that when you are sat on a chair, all you are concerned about is its functionality, not its appearance.

Manual ergonomic chair adjustments

Many good looking chairs have very few adjustable features and those that do often have gimmicks rather than comfort enhancing attributes. Here is a list of the main features to look for in a good ergonomic chair.

1. The seat height should be adjustable, normally with a lever controlled pneumatic height adjuster. It is important that the seat be at the right height with a 90 degree angle between the knees and the feet placed flat on the floor.

2. Seat depth should be adjustable and a good seat will slide backwards and forwards with several “lock” positions. If the seat depth is too great, then the seat will press against the knees. Equally, if it is too short it may not support the thighs adequately.

3. The seat should have a waterfall front. In other words the seat should fall away (down) at the front in a pronounced manner. This prevents pressure behind the knees and enhances long term comfort.

4. The seat should tilt up and down. The best seat position for most desk based tasks is with the seat sloping slightly forwards and down. A good ergonomic chair should have a mechanism to enable this angle to be varied.

5. The backrest should be high backed and adjustable for angle (rake). This allows a comfortable position to be found and for the position to be varied during the working day.

6. The backrest should offer some form of lumbar support or lumbar height adjustment. With mesh backrests this will usually take the form of a tension or height adjuster and with cushioned backrests this will see both a ratchet adjustable height mechanism and a balloon pump to inflate a pressure zone in the cushioning.

7. The chair should have a tension adjuster that enables the movements of the chair (e.g. tilting) to be customised to the user’s weight. This is usually seen as a twist knob under the seat.

8. Armrests should be adjustable for height and may be adjustable for horizontal angle and even width or span (i.e. the distance between the armrests). It is important that an imaginary straight line runs through the lower arm and wrists to the fingers. This will protect against tension and repetitive strain injuries, so armrest height variation is essential.

9. Any head rest should be adjustable for height and angle. This feature is not present on many chairs and is sometimes used to enhance the appearance of an otherwise feature-less, but stylish looking chair. (Headrests are probably the least important additions for most task and ergonomic chairs.)

10. Most good ergonomic seats will have both a lock and a floating setting for seat angle and backrest angle and, by adjusting the chair’s tension control correctly, it is often found to be most comfortable to have the seat angle lock in an open position. This allows the seat to move and adjust to its users movements. With most chairs there will be a 2 to 1 movement ratio between the headrest angle versus the seat angle when the lock is left open.

Avoid overly contoured seats and chair backs. The best resting surfaces will adapt to the body shape and not the reverse. A good padded but firm seat and backrest, or an open mesh seat and backrest surface are the most common finishes. Memory foam and Latex are the best seat fillings, but regrettably they are still uncommon in ergonomic chair design.

If you want to see the ergonomic office chair that I use, you can see and read about it, and have an explanation of why I selected it, on this page my ergonomic chair.