office chairs

An office chair is ergonomic when you can adjust it to your physical needs using different adjustment options. This means that you change the position of the seat, the backrest, the height and the armrests to reduce the risk of serious illness.

If you sit in the same place for eight hours, hardly move in between and then the chair is not adjusted properly, you will at least get back problems that cannot be fixed quickly and are extremely painful.
In addition, poor posture, skeletal disorders, muscle complaints, heavy legs, circulatory problems, headaches, tension and digestive problems are not uncommon.

You sit correctly when the backrest permanently hugs your back and thus supports it. In addition, the seat height should be adjusted so that your elbows and knees are at a 90 degree angle. You can easily determine the correct sitting position by checking whether you completely fill the seat surface. If this is not the case, you will have to adjust the settings of the chair even further.
The armrests have the task of relieving your shoulders and should be adjusted so that your elbows and wrists are in the same plane as the keyboard.
It is also important that your feet are firmly planted on the floor or on a footrest.
To get the full orthopedic benefit from your ergonomic office chair, avoid sitting rigidly and change your sitting position often. This relaxes your muscles and intervertebral discs.

Here you have to consider the material quality as well as the stress and the load capacity. If you sit on your office chair for several hours a day, you will naturally cause much more wear to the cover, the seat mechanism and the castors.
Experts generally assume a service life of around 13 years. The reason for this is that after this time office chairs have formed a seat depression and therefore no longer meet the ergonomic requirements.

Generally, various standards apply to office chairs. The standards refer to the definition of an office chair: A swivel, height-adjustable chair mounted on chair castors for use at desks.
Basically, your office chair should meet the following DIN standards:
DIN EN ISO 9241-5:1998: ergonomic requirements for office activities with visual display units, requirements for workplace design and posture.
DIN EN 1335-1:2002-08: Office furniture - Office work chair
DIN 4550 Office furniture, self-supporting seat height adjustment elements with energy storage for swivel chairs and swivel armchairs, safety requirements and testing
DIN EN 12529:1998: Wheels and castors - Furniture castors - Castors for swivel chairs - Requirements
DIN EN 13761:2002: Office furniture - Visitor chairs

From a health point of view, office chairs with armrests are more than sensible. They relieve the strain on the shoulders and upper arms and prevent tension in the neck and cervical vertebrae.
Important: the armrests should be adjustable in height and depth as well as laterally. This is the only way to adapt them to your individuality.
Armrests should be at least 20 centimetres long and four centimetres wide and be positioned at a height of 20 to 25 centimetres above the seat.

It is extremely important to know the surface on which your office chair will stand. Manufacturers always sell their office chairs from the factory with hard floor castors made of plastic. However, this type of castor is only suitable for carpets.
If you want to place your office chair on parquet, laminate or tiles, you should order soft floor castors.
But be aware that damage can occur as soon as mechanical forces are applied. Therefore, I advise you to always place a proper floor protection mat under your office chair. It prevents the castors from leaving marks on the floor.
Polycarbonate mats are the best choice, as they are much harder than PVC mats.

Ultimately, this is still a matter of taste and is up to you.
In the area of the backrest and seat, only leather, fabric covers or mesh fabric can be considered. Leather is a visually appealing material, looks very noble, soft and comfortable. However, it encourages sweating and is not always easy to clean.
Fabric covers and mesh covers are soft, smooth and usually easy to replace. One drawback, however, is that they can be scratchy.
When it comes to backrests, castors and feet, you should choose plastic, aluminium or stainless steel.
With plastic, however, you must pay particular attention to the fact that it is hard plastic. The castors in particular will quickly become damaged if the material is of inferior quality. On the other hand, plastic is very easy to clean and durable.
Aluminium is stable and inexpensive at the same time. With this material you have a better hold on the armrests and the whole construction looks more stable.
Stainless steel is visually very high quality and even stronger and more stable than the previous materials. However, this is also reflected in the price.

The most important thing here is the correct adjustment of the chair, rather than the brand or manufacturer. It is also important to distinguish whether a woman or a man sits on it.
Women need an office chair with a flexible and soft backrest that supports the lower part of the body. This is the only way women can prevent back pain.
Men, on the other hand, need an office chair for back pain that has a firm backrest. This is because men are more likely to experience tension in the shoulders and neck.
For both sexes, however, it is important to keep a straight line of vision to the screen. Ideally, the top line of the screen should be at eye level and the upper and lower leg as well as the upper and lower arm should form a right angle.

First of all, you should check from which part of the office chair the squeaking is coming. Once you have found this out, the first thing to do is to use lubricant to eliminate the annoying noise. Apply this to the affected area and after a few movements, the squeaking will subside.
If the rollers are the cause of the problem, you'd better replace them and not try to get them to work smoothly again with oil. And most importantly, replace all the rollers so they don't wear differently.
Sometimes it also helps to simply tighten all the screws of the office chair to fix a squeak.