spinalis ergonomic office chair review & rant.

[manikyath]

so, i'll start off with a little introduction on a why, followed by the obvious, making our way to the nitpicking, ending with a conclusion.

 

i've had back problems ever since i was a child, starting at age 12-13 i noticed my "regular old" €50 office chair caused me a lot of lower back pains, as well as it being a squeaky piece of shit. a while later we found out my sister has a light, but defenately problematic form of scoliosis resulting in my parents making a very expensive decision: both kids would be getting new chairs.

 

we have this office supply store nearby that sells spinalis chairs (exclusive distribution rights in belgium, more on this in the rant).

they opened a new store seperate from their office supply store, and on opening day they did a killer deal: free delivery on your chairs.

the lowest end model that is aimed at desk use was their €600 spinalis "hacker" (more so a "hack" job of putting together, more on this later).

something that worried me at the store is they're also a distributor of €350 egronomic trackballs that look less comfortable than the cheap ass trackball the local hairdresser uses.

in case you wonder, chinese ripoff of this design:

 

anyways, we move on homewards with our €1200 worth of chairs and free delivery (delivery better be free when you spend the store clerk's monthly wage on a purchase...)

the chair assembled easily, and were put into use. now, here starts the obvious. we got two of them, one looked like it needed to be, the other one (mine) had a slight twist from the start.

for reference, here's their website picture of the spinalis hacker:

looks like quite the chair doesnt it? better be for the price i paid for it

here's mine:

notice how the back seems tilted slightly more forward? it hinges back and forth to accomodate your back, and is supposed to have a spring to keep the lower back support against your lower back... mine never had that spring. they claimed its normal so yeah... exclusive distribution right goodness.

 

the chair did what it claimed to do, it got rid of my lower back pains, however it showed two VERY obvious problems:

- very soon after i got the chair, i started having upper back pains.

- it is a VERY tiring chair to sit on.

 

they also warn ahead of time about -my personally favourite feature- the main thing the chair does for seating comfort is the seat is suspended by a spring that stops you from doing all movement with the very lower portion of your back (common reason for lower back pains in office scenarios).

the side effect of this is that people arent used to their chair moving underneath them, resulting in lots of falls the first two weeks or so.

 

quite a few years later (i dont have a timing on this, its been here for a VERY long time.) my leather seating was wearing out, as well as one of the armpieces.

i contacted the one and only reseller in belgium, and was on the phone for 30 FLIPPING minutes before someone saved me fromn their horrendous "all our employees are currently occupied, please wait a moment." loop...

i explain the guy my problem, he replies "oh, you need to contact our spinalis representative, i'll connect you trough" yup, back to their ungodly loop for another 30 minutes before THE SAME GUY picks up the phone acting like nothing's going on, i play along (dat LARP yo...) and explain my problem once more, he replies that i cannot buy singular armrests, and will have to send in pictures of my damaged parts before i can get pricing on replacements.

 

so i do exactly that, they replied with pricing that blew my socks off... €120 for a new seat, and €80 for a pair of armrests.

the guy also pressed on the fact repairs can only happen within the store, which i very crudely refused, stating he mentioned before i could do the repair myself very simply.

 

..time passes while i wait for my new parts.. i do some research on the brand spinalis itself, they appareantly do not directly talk to customers, but they do have a policy where parts that wore out excessively quickly get replaced for free -- this is where i'll let you think about what the guy actually needed the pictures for, and why i now switched my brain from talking to a greasy salesman to talking to a scammer.

 

i get my parts, and that where shit hits the fan.

the bottom two are my old armrests, the top two are the new ones: (remember folks, those cost as much as a cheap smartphone)

how strange, maybe the underside would clarify, there must be a reason for this.

(trough the magic of my phone being a butt with flipping pictures, the old ones are now on top.)

good old cost saving, not only is there significantly less material in the new armrests, they went for a cheaper, softer wood, they didnt properly drill the pilot holes for the metal trheading, and they DAMAGED the wood in manufacturing.

the picture is a tad unclear, but to give you an idea: the metal threading isnt even really put in place correctly, and the wood around them is chipped.

also fun thing to note is that my two old armrests are made from completely different wood types. (you'd think they'd be at least consistent within one chair, right?)

brings us to the next bit, in the meantime i've gotten rid of the upper back pains, but the moment i sat down on the new seating pad, they were back, along with lower back pains, i set out to investigate.

one of the specific features of this chair was that it had a "carving" in the seat for the "buttocks" to sit nice and comfortable.

not only did they get rid of that, they used a type of foam thats that hard i might as well sit on a concrete ball.

once again the metal threads werent put into place properly, but i didnt care to take pictures of that.

 

this brings us to the final problem, also being the one i legitimately want them to die in a fire for.

their "revolutionary" spring system is amazing, but i think we all have enough knowledge that theres a lot of force in a spring that cannot compress more than a few millimeters under its rated load of 110kg (for the USA: 242 lbs, or almost the weight of barnacules)

this isnt a problem if the chair is properly made, which brings us to the "hack" joke from the start.

that is a closeup of the very top of the spring, conveniently hidden under the seat.

that very end bit should be welded in place to avoid it from scraping along things. at the bottom side of the spring this happened, the top side? not so much, resulting in a good millimeter of steel being ground away, the forming of rust, and a god awful squeak, even worse than my old crapola chair.

 

i tried to pry both coil windings apart to get rubber inbetween to stop squaking, these pieces are pressed together with that much force they flattened the head of my (very expensive) chrome vanadium steel screwdriver slightly. as did it just chew trough anything i put in there: a few plys of tape, soft rubber, hard rubber, hard plastic, i tried olive oil, but even that just got squished out from between the two, resulting in my only hope left: WD-40.

nope, mere minutes after the oil settling in it got pushed out again, returning to squirrels in a zinc gutter...

 

something i also noticed along the way is the replacement parts had a much cheaper, almost plastic feeling fake leather, while the old parts felt much nicer. €600 chair, €200 replacements, now feels like a chair from ikea...

 

brings us to the conclusion, and the end of my ranty review.

i'm not sitting on the chair anymore, the new parts are already showing some signs of wear, while my old crapola chair (repurposed as a foot rest) is still in the same state as i got it a few years before the spinalis, i went out to buy a REAL chair.

 

from left to right: my €50 crapola under the desk, my €600 "ergonomic" chair, my new €350 akracing chair.

the pillow on the akracing is MANY times better for my back pain than the old chair has ever been, it has a head rest for long (or especially, late) sessions, the back rest can adjust (because imagine a €600 chair had any sort of adjustment built in... thats at least the €2500 executive model, which in fact exists...)

i will never again set my ass on a spinalis chair, nor will i ever buy from said office store again, neither will i EVER recommend anyone to spend €600 on a piece of garbage that may as well just be a top end "racing" chair, included with propper foot rest for those that think the floor is lava.

while i truly believe ergonomic products have a place in the market, I HAVE TROUBLE FINDING ONES ARENT AN OUTRIGHT SCAM.

 

please dont waste your money, buy a chair that'll be legitimately comfortably designed trough years of experience of sitting, not by people with wads of cash in their front pocket finding marketing tactics in sitting on a yoga ball offering a product that'll never be worth the investment you put into it.

 

PS: for anyone who wonders, this is their executive chair, priced at a whopping €2290

 

which since their most recent update appareantly no longer has back rest adjustment.

if you're interested, they also have a €550 stool thats about as comfortable as one of those poles to stop cars from driving into your local public park.

[pagani123]

i have back issues i noticed you have a dxracer like chair and that you like it i am thinking of getting one my self

[manikyath]

i have back issues i noticed you have a dxracer like chair and that you like it i am thinking of getting one my self

i have an akracing, mostly because dxracer was out of stock at my local retailer because of factory reworking after dxracer changed owner or something along those lines.

but from what i can see, akracing may as well be rolling off the same production line as maxnomic, because pretty much everything looks incredibly similar between the two.

 

i look at it like this: its a €350 chair, thats not cheap at all, but they're miles better than the "true ergonomic" options that tend to cost much, much more.

[Philosobyte]

Any reason you didn't get the Herman Miller Aeron or Embody, or the Steelcase Leap? 

 

edit: and I'm pretty sure this is supposed to go in the Member Reviews section, not the Tech News and Reviews section.

[manikyath]

Any reason you didn't get the Herman Miller Aeron or Embody, or the Steelcase Leap? 

availability. the same reason i didnt end up with a dxracer or a maxnomic.

[pagani123]

i have an akracing, mostly because dxracer was out of stock at my local retailer because of factory reworking after dxracer changed owner or something along those lines.

but from what i can see, akracing may as well be rolling off the same production line as maxnomic, because pretty much everything looks incredibly similar between the two.

 

i look at it like this: its a €350 chair, thats not cheap at all, but they're miles better than the "true ergonomic" options that tend to cost much, much more.

ya im probably going to get a dx racer then after a few weeks or months get it reupholstered in real leather as i prefer real leather over pu 

[BuckGup]

availability. the same reason i didnt end up with a dxracer or a maxnomic.

I sat in a dxracer and I don't like how it cups your legs with that flair up on the sides of the bottom. It just squeezes everything together. Is this chair wide enough?

[manikyath]

I sat in a dxracer and I don't like how it cups your legs with that flair up on the sides of the bottom. It just squeezes everything together. Is this chair wide enough?

well, i'm 1m85 with a weight of 57kg, sitting on a fence is wide enough for me...

i guess the cupping is a personal preference, i actually like it, its like a comfy couch, but in office chair foromat.

(PS: thats 6ft 1inch and 125lbs for the 'muricans out there)

[BuckGup]

well, i'm 1m85 with a weight of 57kg, sitting on a fence is wide enough for me...

i guess the cupping is a personal preference, i actually like it, its like a comfy couch, but in office chair foromat.

(PS: thats 6ft 1inch and 125lbs for the 'muricans out there)

I would like it but it is too stiff

[Yog]

Ick, never buy expensive specialty brands with little name recognition...doesn't even matter what the product is they're usually run by someone like a doctor or professional of some sort that really is just using it as a cash cow.

[Blade of Grass]

To Member Reviews we go!

[manikyath]

Ick, never buy expensive specialty brands with little name recognition...doesn't even matter what the product is they're usually run by someone like a doctor or professional of some sort that really is just using it as a cash cow.

well, to give you an idea, i had to do an afternoon of digging to find who actually makes them...

 

To Member Reviews we go!

i seriously did not put this in the wrong category, did i?

(is member reviews new, or is my brain just a complete failure? i seriously looked over that, and i'd swear my last review was in technews/reviews as well.)

[Blade of Grass]

well, to give you an idea, i had to do an afternoon of digging to find who actually makes them...

 

i seriously did not put this in the wrong category, did i?

(is member reviews new, or is my brain just a complete failure? i seriously looked over that, and i'd swear my last review was in technews/reviews as well.)

lol, NP, you put it in TN&R

 

we've had member reviews forever 

[thekeemo]

The upper back pain comes from the proper posture..

[manikyath]

lol, NP, you put it in TN&R

 

we've had member reviews forever 

well, yeah, i guess thats what happens when you spent the last 6 months of your life without a propper sleeping schedule

i went to check, my last review was in the correct location.

 

The upper back pain comes from the proper posture..

from propper posture, or lack thereof? because i have developed a tendency of "hanging" on my chair in the process of getting rid of the upper back pains.

[thekeemo]

well, yeah, i guess thats what happens when you spent the last 6 months of your life without a propper sleeping schedule

i went to check, my last review was in the correct location.

 

from propper posture, or lack thereof? because i have developed a tendency of "hanging" on my chair in the process of getting rid of the upper back pains.

When I fixed up my back I had upper back pain for a while

[ShadowCaptain]

id have shipped in a herman miller celle tbh

[manikyath]

id have shipped in a herman miller celle tbh

shipping in wasnt an option, my parents are about as dense as a black hole when it comes to ordering online.

they are also much, much more expensive from the looks of it.

[ShadowCaptain]

shipping in wasnt an option, my parents are about as dense as a black hole when it comes to ordering online.

they are also much, much more expensive from the looks of it.

 

Why isnt it an option? that makes no sense.. you just go on a shop, order it, and pay for it and it gets delivered to you

 

it would have been CHEAPER even if you had to pay tax etc

[manikyath]

Why isnt it an option? that makes no sense.. you just go on a shop, order it, and pay for it and it gets delivered to you

 

it would have been CHEAPER even if you had to pay tax etc

my parents are about as dense as a black hole when it comes to ordering online.

i just learn to live with it...

[ShadowCaptain]

i just learn to live with it...

 

I am confused as to why your parents are relevant? you could have just ordered it for them and ordered it from a shop online

 

its literally no different to ordering from a local store

 

 

but hey whatever

[manikyath]

I am confused as to why your parents are relevant? you could have just ordered it for them and ordered it from a shop online

its literally no different to ordering from a local store

but hey whatever

because sadly i still live at my parents' and even with me being 21 years old and all that, they still think everything i find on the internet is a plain scam.

 

to give you context, if they walk in my room i minimize all chats and forum windows, because for all they trust, you're a rapist.

they also truly believe that the entirety of twitch.tv, both streamers and people in chat are paid actors to suck money out of me specificly.

 

at some point theres so many layers of foil one just gives up and sits it out.

[ShadowCaptain]

SNIP

 

thats scary, but if it was my money id have just ordered whatever I wanted from wherever I wanted

 

Surely they would trust an industry standard brand of Herman Miller with thousands of positive editorial reviews, over an unknown brand chair? or was it just that it was available in a shop 

 

I mean my parents are very ignorant of stuff, but im happy that they trust me to make informed decision

 

hopefully you can move out and do what you want

[manikyath]

thats scary, but if it was my money id have just ordered whatever I wanted from wherever I wanted

 

Surely they would trust an industry standard brand of Herman Miller with thousands of positive editorial reviews, over an unknown brand chair? or was it just that it was available in a shop 

 

I mean my parents are very ignorant of stuff, but im happy that they trust me to make informed decision

 

hopefully you can move out and do what you want

the akracing was avaiable at the *only* local retailer of pc components. as for the positive editorial reviews, "they're there paid to write that se we give them our money ITS A SCAM, SON"

yeah... looking forward for an opportunity to get the hell away from here, preferably svalbard...

[Sauron]

ikea master race