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Comment by luxurytent | Hacker News Reader

Hah! I am in the market for a standing desk and am 95% sold on the IKEA Bekant. Just waiting to move to commit to the purchase.

I wasn't keen on the crank but I figured I could live with it. This is a nice and fun addition :)

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I bought the Bekant a couple of years ago, and then an Idasen just a few months ago. I highly recommend you consider the Idasen instead. It's double the price and the legs are arguably uglier, but overall it's so much more sturdy than the Bekant. There's no more wobble at the top, the desk surface itself is twice as thick, and the lever for raising/lowering it is way better than the buttons on the Bekant. I could tell it was going to be a better desk while constructing it; there's no more plastic stuff, all the pieces are held together with thick metal bolts.

The Idasen does look a lot better. Do you think it would handle a move (or two) well?

I bought a set of Uplift legs online and bought and stained a butcher block from Home Depot. Whole thing cost around the same as the Ikea desk, but is built like a tank, has programmable heights, and the butcher block is strong and thick enough that I could mount my PC tower hanging underneath.

Very happy with the Uplift legs. And stained butcher block looks pretty classy.

While researching for standing desks to buy, I came across this [1] listing the problems with the Bekant. The stability issue is a design problem and hard to fix.

[1] https://www.btod.com/blog/problems-ikea-bekant-desk/

Be careful with btod reviews and blog posts. They sell their own desks under the VertDesk and NewHeights brands.

Good to know. Thanks.

I had the ikea one and this one:

https://smile.amazon.com/VIVO-Ergonomic-Adjustable-Controlle...

The vivo one has been far better in features and reliability. I had to replace the ikea one because it started only going down and not up.

I have this one with an ikea kitchen counter top and it is an amazing combo, Highly recommend https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B073K1JSW7/ref=ppx_yo_dt...

I've never owned an IKEA desk, but can vouch for VIVO's frames - I'm typing this comment using a mechanical keyboard on an IKEA Karlby countertop mounted to a set of VIVO V120EB legs and am experiencing minimal wobble (minimal desktop wobble, no monitor wobble thanks to the gas-spring monitor arm I have).

I also have my desktop at ~49" off the ground, including castors and a 1.5" thick countertop, and I've read that no standing desk has 0 wobble at this close to maximum height.

If you still have the Ikea one, that was caused by a fairly wide-spread issue with the power bricks. They'll replace them under warranty with just an email with some info about the brick.

I've had one since 2015, and I've been quite happy with it.

The desk itself is great; sturdy, stable, and the size I prefer.

The one caveat; make _sure_ to keep your receipt. This desk has known issues with the power supply burning out. If you have your receipt, IKEA will honor their 7-year warranty and throw you as many new power supplies as you need.

I was too until I heard that it might not be the most stable desk, something that's very important to me. So I'm looking at Effydesk[0] right now.

[0] https://effydesk.ca/collections/electric-standing-desks

I have been using a [1] Jarvis frame only, with an IKEA top for now close to 5 years and really loving it. I swapped the top out when I wanted to change color.

[1] https://www.fully.com/jarvis-frame-only.html

I have a Skarsta, which is a hand-crank-operated standing desk from IKEA, and I really like it. It's much cheaper than the mechanized version (Skarsta is $240 vs Bekant $400) and I don't miss having the electric controls, since I only change its position once a day at most.

The autonomous desk is sturdier, cheaper, bigger and actually has built in position memory settings etc.

It’s served me amazingly over the past few months WFH. Definitely worth a look.

To be clear, you're talking about the BEKANT yeah?

Parent seems to be referring to https://www.autonomous.ai/standing-desks

Yes, that’s the one.

I've just ordered these, so I'd be interested in any opinions. (Ideally ones that validate my decision to purchase, let's be honest.)

Haha.

My wife got one for herself and we were impressed enough that I got one as well a week later.

It’s been about 2 months and they are doing excellently.

Honestly, I was surprised by the weight and sturdiness for the cost (under $400).

4 memory positions and a very decent vertical range (it goes higher than I would find useful being 5’8” tall, although I wish it went slightly lower than its current lower limit).

It has 4 auto memory positions that is convenient since we occasionally swap desks, so it holds both our standing and sitting positions.

I honestly have no complaints.

I found the accessories a little annoying though. The swivel drawer accessory wanted me to drill a hole, which I was not comfortable doing in the desk at all. So I returned that. I can’t speak to how useful it would have been. The cable holding undercarriage is excellent to hide all the wires, etc, but it sits really close to the desk, so it’s a little difficult to maneuver stuff in there, especially since I’m using it to hold my spike guard and have all the plugs plug into it. But once I managed to get everything plugged in it looks great.

So my wife and I are huge fans so far. I’m not sure how good it will be a few years from now, but I have no reason to believe it won’t last and be excellent.

So much so I am considering buying their ergonomic chairs as well, once this whole pandemic situation clears up a bit.

Thanks, really useful.

I have one of these... it needs to be re-greased, since it's currently making lots of noise when raising and lowering. It would also be vastly improved by implementing acceleration instead of just starting and stopping its motion at full speed. That's a design decision I completely fail to understand, since it's trivial to do in software on the board.

Our desks accelerate and deccelerate. Maybe they’ve updated the model? I think mine is the smart desk 2 (their model numbers are confusing. I’m pretty sure I was looking at the wrong YouTube video while building it).

I have one and it is pretty good, at least considering the price. It is a little bit less stable feeling than I'd have liked, but overall ok.

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