Staples Carder™ Mesh Office Chair, Black

Good chair, back height adjustment odd

My family has a 10 year history with office chairs, starting with ergonomics problems which led to discomfort for several of us (spend a lot of time in front of our computers).Read complete review

My family has a 10 year history with office chairs, starting with ergonomics problems which led to discomfort for several of us (spend a lot of time in front of our computers).

After checking every chair in every office store in town, found this one on sale at Staples. Bought two more over the next 3 weeks.

Assembly was straightforward and really did require only the included tool. Took maybe 20 minutes, at a leisurely and double check everything pace.

Adjustment of the first one was a bit of a challenge. We've all had 4-adjustment chairs before, so know and expect the routine. But this is a strange one: the chair bottom and mechanism design assumes a back which simply has a long metal plate going down, where the back is just lifted to the desired height and the knob at the back of the base tightened. But that's not how the chair was delivered. The back has a short metal plate to go in the socket, with a plastic pin to go in a hole so the back can't be lifted and set using the knob in the base.

Instead, there's a second knob on the back, behind the lumbar support. The back has an internal mechanism which allows it to be lifted by click stops (adjust in half inch increments, not precisely which is what should be done). The mechanism was hard to figure out, and not shown in the instructions at all. (turn the knob to either side to release, center it precisely and then move the back up and down until it clicks into place). We finally got the back to click at a position slightly below what was needed, then pulled the plastic pin out and used the base adjustment to move the back up, slightly, to the desired position. (please use common sense, there are really unsafe things you could do along these lines)

I think this is a failed back design for a much more expensive chair, paired with the base of a different more expensive chair. To me, it was a quality product I could afford while paying college bills, and that says a lot. Or maybe I just wasn't very smart figuring out how it was supposed to work.