Ask HN: Are Herman Miller Aerons worth the money? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are Herman Miller Aerons worth the money?

13 pointsmatthodan21 comments

I need a new chair. The Herman Miller Aeron seems solid, though I haven't actually sat in one yet. At $400-500 on Craigslist, they're not exactly cheap and I want to make sure I'm not missing something.

Are they worth the $400-500?

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Yes, but try out a few other chairs of similar quality first. They all have slightly different shapes and some feel better than others, depending on the person. Even in the office I use, we have several batches of Aerons with slightly different feels and features.

EDIT - Here are some other brands that usually don't carry such a price premium on CraigsList:

Steelcase: http://www.steelcase.com/en/products/category/seating/task/p...

HumanScale: http://humanscale.com/products/category_detail.cfm?category=...

I love my Ergohuman ME7ERG Mesh chair, which I got on sale a few years ago for a little over $500. The fact that it has a headrest is a big plus, even though it makes my office look a bit like a spaceship cockpit, but I suppose that's a good thing.

One thing to be aware of when buying one used that I just had to go through is that you can't really get them serviced if anything breaks.

Herman Miller gives a 10 year warranty that they'll fix the chair if something happens to it.

I bought mine about 8 years ago from a co-worker who acquired twenty of them in a dot-bomb auction. It's been awesome, but a few days ago the piece holding the armrest to the back broke, so now I only have one arm-rest.

If I had bought it from a retailer, HM will fix it for free. Even so, 8 years of having it prop me up and this is the first issue I've ever had with it, so I still recommend it.

If you sit at a desk all day, a good chair is absolutely worth the money. Desk workers are prone to get back problems from sitting all day long. Programmers more so, because we try to get "in the zone" -- and once we're there, we don't get up or move around much.

A high-end chair will probably last for ten years, so you're talking maybe $100 per year. Compare that to the cost of regular massage, or chiropractic, or back surgery, and it's clearly a good return-on-investment.

But the Aeron isn't the only good chair around. I learned this back in 2006 when I was planning on buying an Aeron too. I stopped by a brick-and-mortar HealthyBack store (http://www.healthyback.com) to try out the Aeron, but I tried out the competition too. I wound up buying a Nightingale CXO chair instead. It wasn't as trendy, but it fit my body frame a lot better than the ones people usually mention online. It's important to do this comparison shopping in person, because our bodies are each very different and you need a chair that feels right for you.

Definitely worth it. The best write up I've seen explaining the pro's and con's of an Aeron is here: <http://www.amazon.com/review/R1MUWGLPM341EB/ref=cm_cr_dp_per...;

I was also doing this research and definitely Aeron is the way to go. My other chair after sitting in it for hours caused my lower back to hurt. If you sit for hours on end working like most of us here, Aeron is the only choice.

Like Staunch said, make sure to get the lower lumbar support "Pad" not the "PostureFit" option. The above link explains why PostureFit is more or less useless even though it is a few bucks cheaper.

Hope that helps!

Wow, that is a great write-up.

I just purchased an Aeron a few days ago. I paid $380 on Craig's List, which you can see is a pretty good deal. It took some waiting. Most of the used Aeron chairs are done by used furniture resellers. These chairs are generally in very poor condition because they were used and abused by office workers. It's much better to get the chair from a private seller since they most likely treated it as their own investment. It's not that hard to tell either. Private sellers are far more responsive, sensitive and have better customer service in a sense. They treat you like a real person. People resell expensive chairs for a living, whether they are a used-furniture dealer or not, generally list a large quantity of the same chair and reply in short, pithy sentences. In the end, they don't care too much if you end up buying or not because they have so much other inventory that another customer will come along. I still don't understand that mentality.

Note that you do not get the famed 12-year warranty if you purchase it used. Only the original buyer receives this. For a new fully-adjustable Aeron at $850, I'd expect to get at least 50% off if I was taking this risk. Herman Miller also does a great job at part replacement so in the rare case you do have a problem, you can pay a fee to have it fixed.

The older models, which you generally find on Craig's List, aren't much different. The only difference I've noticed is the arm height adjustment is more difficult since you have to turn a wheel several times to loosen or tighten instead of just using a lever present in the new models.

Also, used-furniture retail stores are generally way overpriced. The average I saw was $600. The extra markup is of course to pay for the overhead of the brick and mortar store.

I have so much knowledge because over the past month, I watched Craig's List like a hawk for Aeron chairs, and visited nearly every used furniture store in the Phoenix metro area. I've sat in dozens and became in expert in Hermal Miller chairs. I corrected furniture store dealers on how adjustments work, and what "new" pricing really is. I did this all and only saved $400. I hope my time and effort helps you though!

You also won't find the newer Posture-fit support on Craig's List, but in my experience it's not that much better than the normal lumbar support.

To answer your question though, yes it's worth the money. I go through padded chairs like shaving razors. Buying a new Staples padded chair at $100 every 6 months adds up quickly.

Sit in it and give it a shot. We did this a few jobs ago when we convinced management to buy good chairs for tech. We were surprised to find nobody in the office actually liked the Aerons. Personally, I found I wasn't a fan of the mesh back, but YMMV.

We tried a few different chairs at the same shop and we all ended up almost simultaneously agreeing on preferring the HumanScale Freedom (http://humanscale.com/products/product_detail.cfm?group=Free...). I liked the chair so much I ended up negotiating to buy it from the company when I left (as they downsized all of tech into oblivion) and I still use it every day, ~3 years hence.

The biggest lesson here isn't me saying "I prefer HumanScale" but that it is REALLY important to try chairs before you buy them. They're one of the most important tools for a developer, followed by not using a cheapo keyboard ;)

I just recently shopped for a good chair as well. I've used Aeron chairs before and they're great but I really didn't like the mesh feeling.

After digging around, I have decided to go with the Steelcase Leap. http://www.steelcase.com/en/products/category/seating/task/l... I liked this because it is just as configurable as the Aeron (I'm short so these things matter a lot). I liked the fact that i can choose the fabric so it matches my home office. They have a ton of color swatches and fabric types. They have a 10 yr warranty and has good customer service so far. Its all personal preference, but make sure it fits your body. For example, can you clear at least 3 fingers between the edge of the seat and behind your knees. When I sat down on this chair, i just knew this one would be good for me.

There are other chairs that are as good as the herman miller aerons that cost about the same or close enough to it. However, the resale market for herman millers is extremely strong - you can buy one new for around 650 and sell it 5 years later for 400. Where the steelcase leap might be a great chair too, it simply doesnt hold its value the same way.

I was looking to buy an Aeron but it wasn't very comfortable for me. The medium one was too small and the large one too big.

When I tried the Embody at the store, I fell in love. It's expensive as hell, but I'm glad I bought it. It's an outstanding chair, superior to the Aeron in every way in my opinion. I can sit on it all day with no pair or discomfort whatsoever.

It is a good chair but you really need to sit in it and its competitors before plunking down the cash.

I'm partial to the steelcase leap.

I went a few months in my new company with a $100 Staples "executive" chair. It was fine for a few hours at a time. At 12 hours per day though it's horrible.

Yes, it's really worth it. No, there's no really good cheap alternative.

I also highly recommend the $50 lumbar support thingie (you can "install" it yourself in 5 seconds).

I'm in one now. It's nice, but I've sat in other chairs that are $250 that are also quite nice -- not as nice, but decently close.

However, those $250 dollar chairs only seem to last me ~2 years.

A side note that does make a difference: The $250 chairs are at home and my children are _quite_ hard on them.

Thanks for the good info, everyone. I am in the market now for a good chair and this is helpful. I loved my Aeron at my last job but you've opened my options to a range of chairs now.

Thanks for the advice! I'm going to test out an Aeron and a couple alternatives tomorrow. Thinking about the risk of developing back problems sure puts the cost in perspective.

If you amortize the cost over the next decade at least, it isn't that bad. I'm sitting in mine right now.

No, get a standing desk.

Average standing desk > the best chair.

Yes.

No.

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