Herman Miller Aeron Chair Review

I received my Herman Miller Aeron Chair a few days ago. As promised, here is a short review.

I ordered the most basic model (i.e. cheapest) which was still $600. The basic Herman Miller Aeron Chair comes with adjustable seat height and back rest (a knob adjusts the amount of tension required to lean back in the chair). The more expensive Aeron Chairs also have adjustable armrest, arms that swing in and out so you don't always have to use them, and I believe there is also some sort of adjustable lumbar support. Unfortunately, the snazzier Aeron chairs also cost a couple hundred dollars more. Because a good ergonomic chair should have adjustable armrests, I almost wish I had sprung for the more expensive chair, but this model feels good and I am pleased with it.

Because I ordered over the Internet, I did not need to pay tax. I ordered the Aeron from Sit 4 Less (links at the bottom). Shipping was free and took about a week to arrive. Assembly was extremely simple. The chair arrived in two halves (bottom and back rest) which were easily connected with the accompanying Allen wrench and four bolts. Even with the help of my cat (who has a penchant for laying on directions), it only took a few minutes to put my chair together.

The Aeron Chair itself is quite sturdy; it has a solid frame that could take a beating and keep on, er, seating. I remember being surprised at how heavy the box was on the porch (of course, most things seem heavy when being dragged up a flight of stairs).

The seat and back are made of a sort of dense mesh that is designed to give good support yet remain cool unlike those leather chairs. The basic casters work fine on my short carpet (Herman Miller has some alternate casters for deep carpet which cost more).

My old chair tended to suck me in, and it was big enough (too big) for me to fold my legs under me or throw them up on the desk, not really the ergonomic thing to do. It was really too large for me. The Aeron Chair is not at all restraining or inflexible, yet it encourages my body to maintain better posture because it fits better.

In conclusion, I believe my Herman Miller Aeron Chair is a solid piece of equipment that will last me for years to come.

Sit4Less
Herman Miller

Comments

[Ivan]

I have had an Aaron since 2000. I have worked 16 hours days/ 7 day week in it sometimes and it has helped me to sit straight and work without pain.
The greatest advantage of it is the fact that the mesh allows your body to breath and not get too hot. The Second is the fact that it comes in 3 sizes to fit every body size. It is made for people who are seriously interested in their body's health. It is absolutely a No No for the people who like to sit with a leg under their buttocks or sit cross legged, or think a chair is a sofa and you should be a cat in it to read a novel. The adjustments are very important. If they are set wrong they can make the chair feel not helpful.
As far as the price ... If you paid more than 3 times the price of the Aaron for your car and still moan about the price you should really take a reality check about the fact that you sit in an Aaron more than you sit in your car if you work at a desk. Your money on a good chair goes further than your car, flat screen TV, iPod or jewelry.
BTW, Aaron is not the only choice, alas, I tested many chairs and sat in many chairs working at different contract jobs. Aaron allows the most adjusted comfortable sitting for me.
All I can tell you is this. BUY THE CORRECT FRAME for your body size and do not think that if you are a luky fit, lean person you would have a lot of advantage in sitting positions in a C frame which is the largest.
Again, make sure you take the time to adjust it. Tension, Lumbar, Armrest, height and limiter levers.
I have replaced the lumbar once and one caster in 8 years. I am 225lbs.
Also I like the fact that every 2 year I use a soft pressure washer on it and then clean the piston area and oil it. Something you can not do to a cushion chair!

[Aeron Chairs]

I have shopped all over the web and it seems like everyone sells the Aeron for the same price, except for the somewhat sketchy sites that sell refurbished models. I don't want to take my chances with one of those. Has anyone here purchased a refurbished Aeron and been happy with it?

[Brian Mattes]

My Aeron chair is barely 3 years old and the seat fabric has already split, leaving the chair unusable. Worse, trying to get a new seat is proving to be impossible. Most dealers can't be bothered with replacement work, but after a lot of work I found two places that claim to offer replacement seats. One told me that they sent the replacement, but I never received it and they no longer respond to my e-mails. The second said that they would get back to me in a day or two, but that was a long time ago and despite repeated follow-up e-mails to them, still no reply. So, I'm stuck with a nearly $1,000 piece of garbage. I should have gone to Ikea or Staples and gotten a garden variety chair -- would have saved a ton of money and a lot of hassles. Aeron simply isn't worth it.

[LB]

Sorry to hear that Brian. I've had my Aeron 5 years, sit in it every day for 8-12 hours, and it still looks like new (ok, there's a bit of dust down below...). I even have a tendency to sit in it in non-ergonomic ways (leg thrown over one arm, etc.), and it's still in great shape.

[Joe N.]

I found a ton of info about Aerons at Aeron Chair Guide (www.aeronchairguide.com) before I bought mine. It had information on the manufacturer, sizing, and the differences between the basic and loaded models. All sites seemed to be priced the same (except for a few shady ones), so I looked around for a while before I bought one at Herman Miller Seating (www.hermanmillerseating.com). I spoke with a customer service rep before buying it, and it arrive 2 days after I placed the order. Great shopping experience!

[Joel S.]

I bought 10 aeron chairs for my new office and they weren't really up to my expectation. I am 5'9'' and weight about 180-90 lbs. My back still isn't comfortable considering i paid quite a lot of money. I'm starting to wonder if these chairs are really just "symbolic" as luxury. I tried this new hara chair at a physical therapy clinic and it had far better lumbar support. Can someone recommend me or help me find aeron or hara chair that will support my back better?

[Ari]

I have put together a good collection of consumer information for Aeron chair buyers: aeronbuyersguide.blogspot.com

[Kira]

I've had two Aeron's in my home office for close to ten years. I'm having to replace the casters since they are self-destructing all over my tile floor.

I removed the arm rests from my "main" chair since arm rests (of all chairs) damage my nerves, and I like being able to use my hands.

The chairs are still in great shape, please ignore the puppy chew marks in that adjuster handle.

I like mine and would recommend them, with the caveat that the ergo market is full to bursting and lots of other option exist.

At the time, they were one of the few chairs with a mesh seating surface, very helpful in the humid, hot south. In my personal experience, they have held up well to daily use and abuse.

[SittinPrettyinPDX]

Between days sitting in a crappy chair at the computer mixing music and nights working a bar, my lower back was getting worse by the week.

After pulling my lower back, I thought, "this is the perfect time to find a chair that fits me", as my back will shout loudly when a chair isn't working.

I read this blog, ergonomics blogs, forums, ads, everything I could find, then tried out everything I heard good things about: Aeron & Mirra from Herman Miller, Leap and Think from Steelcase, Life Chair by Knoll, Freedom & Liberty by Human Scale. I bought the Aeron, here's why:

Freedom - very comfy, moves with you, interesting armrest adjustment, but it hurt my back when reclining fully, and there's no back lock. It's supposed to support the lower back, not stretch it! Also only able to adjust lumbar support by raising seat height - bleh.

Liberty - not painful, liked the mesh back, but very little lumbar support.

Life Chair - felt great, very solid, good tilt, nice locking system, very adjustable, my favorite for looks. The mesh back had pretty good lumbar support on it's own, but I found the lumbar insert to be finicky and too thin - like a bar across your lower back. Close but not quite...

Think - A very nice chair, mesh back a plus, very good motion, but the lumbar support sewn into the mesh felt a bit sharp.

Leap - the runner up. The chair felt great, moved great, extremely adjustable, lumbar height adjustment very clever,
but in the end it lost to the Aeron. Also, a friend's employer bought 40 Leap chairs, spent $30K+, and most of the armrests have fallen apart after 5 years.

Mirra - felt great, but not as adjustable or as comfortable next to a properly-sized Aeron.

Aeron - because the mesh is simply the way to go. You never get sweaty, ever. The main reason I chose it, however, is because I felt it would support my back the best. So adjustable, takes a bit to figure it out, but well worth it. Changing things throughout the day is easy, don't listen to people who say it's difficult - they deserve Darwin awards.

I put a lot of time and research into choosing a chair, going to different stores one after another so I didn't lose the feel for the chair I'd just sat in. I sat on quite a few side by side for comparison. I sat in each chair for at least a half hour, learning it, trying out the various body positions I sit in throughout the day. I took detailed notes. As I'm a man of modest means, this was a big, important purchase to me!

I ended up buying five year old Aeron. It felt EXACTLY the same as a brand new one, except the controls actually worked better after they had been broken in. This chair is so over-engineered it's ridiculous. They're like soft tanks. They tilt forward and back with ease, back locks in 8 positions, forward tilt rules and only they have it. Mesh bottom = no sweaty junk! Armrests are perfect, I could go on, but the number one selling point for me was the perfect fit of the PostureFit Lumber support system. The little bar insert was worthless. Also, make sure you spend time in the different Aerons to get the right size, I almost bought the C but eventually realized it might press against the back of my knees and didn't fit my curves as well as the B.

The moral of the story is try out whatever you can, but for me, the Aeron was the clear winner. Almost immediately, my chronic lower back pain was gone, and still is six months later. Also, they have a 10 year warranty which includes 3 on-site repairs! Imagine if you have to get three repairs, the cost to them would be as much as the chair! To me that says this thing is built to never break, and if something does, replacement parts will likely be available forever.

The Aeron is still the best chair.

[junsei]

I found a web site called PreOwnedAerons.com - it's like a Pre-owned lexus car dealer for Aeron chairs. I called the sales department who said that they are the only one certified by Herman Miller to offer refurbished aeron chairs. I decided to try them out and have to say the chair looks just like a brand-new Aeron. I saved $300 by going with an used Aeron chair from PReOwnedAerons.com, instead of buying a new one. Especially with this economy, I'd rather go with an used Aeron.

[Mark G]

I have used the Aeron at work, and it is a good chair. I am not sure any chair is worth $895. I am still on the fence on it. It seems hard to believe that a chair with nylon netting should cost more than a chair with good leather.

About backpain though: I had terrible back pain for a long time. It is not just about pressure and posture. It is more about circulation.

I highly recommend ANYONE who is having low back pain to go to: rebuildyourback.com -- the guy sells his book for a donation of whatever you want. It's not magic. It will take a couple of months. But IF you do the stretching routine in the book, your back pain WILL go away -- regardless of what chair you use. He explains the medical science behind it, so I won't go into it here. But doing these exercises is a life-saver.

[Jessica]

We have purchased a number of Aeron chairs for our new office and have been using them now for roughly a year. Four out of six of us have repeatedly had the same complaints. At first it was not being able to find a comfortable position to keep the lumbar support in, as it would do nothing more than dig in and apply the wrong pressure to awkward parts in your back. Then the next major complaint was feeling like our legs were falling asleep because the front lip would dig in the bottoms of our legs. And to further back up that it was not a fault of our own, and just not fitting the chair properly, we had made sure to purchase the correct size and sex option for each employee as well, in hopes of avoiding these issues. Finally the major complaint was that after even just half a day of being in the chair (including regular breaks to try and interrupt the shots of pain), it felt like our tailbones were on fire. It was painful to get in and out of our chairs at work, then to properly straighten upright, and manage to walk without flinching or feeling pain, which lasted more than a couple of days. At first I thought it was just me, but then after talking with fellow co-workers, they too had the exact same issues, and I quote 'hated these chairs'. Since we have had these chairs now for almost a full year, we are not sure if we can do anything about it (warranty/complaint wise), however, we are trying our hardest to get rid of them or get an exchange. For paying over $800 per chair, I would have thought that a chair designed specifically for proper adjustment and posture, one would not be dealing with such painful and frustrating issues...

[AeronReviewer]

I bought my aeron chair from an authorized dealership in Dallas called WorkPlace Resource. I first got a PostureFit size A. After sitting on this chair for 3 days, I was not able to walk due to back pain. Then I paid money to replace the posturefit pad for a lumber pad. Its lot better now but still very uncomfortable to sit on.

I realize that the size is too small for me, as I am a medium sized person. The dealership where I bought it from WORKPLACE RESOURCE (CARROLLTON, TX) is extremely arrogant and they will not even let me exchange my new order for a floor model they may have, to get a different size.

My recommendation is buy it a place who will respect you in such a way that if it is causing you injury rather than comfort, they should be able to do an exchange at least, for a different product which fits you.

By trying out a chair for 5 minutes, or 10 minutes, you will never know if it works out for you.

This is true if you this is for busines use or your home use.