Staples® Valerian™ Plush Fabric Manager's Mid-Back Chair, Black

Comments about Staples® Valerian� Plush Fabric Manager's Mid-Back Chair, Black:

Rather than all hardware in a single bag, required hardware is broken out into multiple bags and labeled for the appropriate assembly step. Nice touch.

I might have given this item five stars except for a major problem. As you get into assembly of the chair you discover a note advising you that the wheels provided are for carpets. If the chair is to be used on hard surfaces (hard flooring or hard mats), as mine was, then you are instructed to use special 'soft' wheels which you must purchase separately. The added cost for these items would have a very significant bearing on one's decision to purchase this chair.

Of course you don't find these instructions up front. No, they are stapled to the bottom of the seat cushion, an item you do not encounter until assembly step 2 AFTER you have installed the provided wheels in step 1.

This experience has left a bad taste in my moutn and served to color significantly what might have otherwise been an overall positive purchase.

Comments about Staples® Valerian� Plush Fabric Manager's Mid-Back Chair, Black:

I spend around 14 hours a day in front of my computer. This chair is very comfortable and has held up to my hefty weight of 317 pounds. My only concern is the wheels. I have had the chair for about a month and, so far, everything is great.

Comments about Staples® Valerian� Plush Fabric Manager's Mid-Back Chair, Black:

This Valerian chair is very comfy for a manager's chair, but still provides solid back support. I didn't want any high-maintenance leather, or any rough fabric, and this plush fabric is a perfect alternative.

The chair lacks back-tilt capability, so I actually swapped the lifting mechanism with the one from my old chair, so now it can double as a power-napping lounger!

The arms and base are made of hard plastic with some kind of vinyl covering for the armrests.

All in all, it's a great, quiet comfy chair fit for a home office or den.

Comments about Staples® Valerian� Plush Fabric Manager's Mid-Back Chair, Black:

First I want to address some comments made by other reviewers:

Some people have said the chair only rocks forward and doesn't rock backward. These people mounted the rocking plate in reverse. Unfortunately, it fits both ways because the distance between the screw holes is the same on both sides. Strange design.

Some people said even with the tension turned down all the way, it is still hard to recline. This sounds like a quality control issue. I turned my tension down a lot and it reclined really easily.

Some people said the screws were hard to get in. I agree. Some of them didn't seem to *quite* line up correctly.

Some people said the wheels are hard to get on. I agree. I had to use a rubber mallet.

And as another reviewer stated, you don't learn that the included wheels are only for carpet until a later step after you have already attached the wheels. This was poor documentation planning. And as hard as the wheels were to get on, I can only imagine they are even more difficult to remove if you need to change them.

Ok, on with the chair review:

The chair itself is very padded, cushy, and as others have stated, easy to fall asleep in. However, it suffers from 3 major flaws which caused me to return it:

1) the "lumbar support" in the back doesn't go straight across; instead, it feels like it's only on the sides. It felt like a tennis ball poking me in the kidneys on either side. I don't recall the demo model in the store doing this, so maybe I got a bad one? It doesn't matter, because the other two flaws were dealbreakers, too.

2) the arms are padded, and it's pretty soft and comfortable. In the middle, however, if you press down in the padding, you can feel a bolt sticking through that sticks up about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch. I noticed this one day when I was readjusting myself in my chair and this bolt hit me in the elbow. I went back to the store to view the floor model and one of the arms had this and the other arm didn't. Mine had it on both sides. Quality control issues? You can tighten/loosen the bolt below, but oddly enough loosening it causes more stuff to press up into the padding, and tightening it doesn't fix it, either.

3) Other than the two things mentioned above, this chair is very comfortable when you recline. The problem comes when you want to sit up or sit forward. Because the back of the chair is attached to the seat, you cannot change the angle of the recline. When you lean back, the seat and the back recline together as one piece. If you want to sit up (with good posture) or sit forward and type, you will be supporting yourself because the back is too far away. This problem becomes compounded when you consider that the seat is very soft and padded, which causes your hips to tilt back, which causes you to have to support yourself at an uncomfortable angle. This chair can be locked into place so it doesn't tilt, but even doing that the back is still reclined a bit too much to sit up properly.

So to summarize point #3: When reclining, this chair is extremely comfortable. When trying to sit upright, it's going to be the wrong angle.

SUMMARY:
- think twice about using this chair as a computer chair. Sitting up is very uncomfortable because of the fixed angle of the back relative to the seat.

- check out the chair in the store to see if the "lumbar support" is painful for you or not.

- you may have bolts sticking into the arm rests that poke you in the elbows and forearms depending on where you put your arms

Comments about Staples® Valerian� Plush Fabric Manager's Mid-Back Chair, Black:

I find myself in agreement with some parts of all the reviews listed here. The chair design is attractive, it is sturdy, and it rolls and turns very well. More adjustability would be an improvement. I found the assembly very difficult becasue the screws did not always line up well with the screw holes. I finally got it right, but it took me two days. Also disppointed I did not get the chair at the sale price,

Comments about Staples® Valerian� Plush Fabric Manager's Mid-Back Chair, Black:

Needs to be a bit more adjustable when it comes to leaning back in the chair to stretch.