Cheap Chairs Can Be Expensive

When it is time to get a new computer chair, what many people first do is to establish an upper limit for the cost and start looking for a model below that price. The logic behind getting a cheap chair is simple. You cut down the costs and save the money for hard times or for better things in life. It is a fact that by getting chair that costs less than $100, you will be saving lots of money today. But does that count towards saving money for the next decade? The answer is, in most cases, no! This is because a cheap is a very bad investment in the long term whereas a high-end ergonomic chair is an excellent one.
To understand why that is tha case, let us first consider the price difference between the cheapest office chairs in the market and some of the most expensive ones. It is almost impossible to find a chair that costs less than $50 if you do not want to hit ground within five minutes of sitting on the chair. The most expensive chairs on the other hand cost approximately $800. The difference is sixteen times.

Better Chairs Last Longer

Now let us presume that you are 200 lbs, which is average by American standards and you are sitting on your chair for ten hours a day. How long would the lousy, cheap chair survive? Maybe two years. On the other hand, most of the expensive office chairs are made to last a lifetime and come with substantial warranties. Indeed, you can expect at least two decades of use from some of the best ergonomic chairs. Now with some simple maths we can calculate that you will buy ten cheap chairs until the time a really good chair wears out. It is possible to argue at this point that this calculation does not justify the cost of expensive chair and that it is wiser to keep buying the expendable chairs and then throw away all of them. Indeed, to some extent, it is a matter of preference and what is important for you in life. When considering the price to performance ratio of a chair, one also has to consider the disruption that will be caused by a broken chair, the hassle of finding and buying a replacement and more importantly, the constant pain of sitting on a low quality chair. On the other hand, with a good chair at your desk, you will be spending your next decade for nothing other than completing your successful projects at the computer.