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Ask HN: What's the best developer chair on a bootstrap budget?

9 points by Killah911 ↗ HN
We're spend a ton of time coding. Our rigs are set up just the way we like it, we have plenty of horsepower on our dev boxes and server, but as far as furniture goes, we just get by.

We're looking to get some chairs that we could sit in all day and be OK. Ideally the herman miler aeron would fit the bill, but if we got one for every developer... that'd be quite a hit. We're looking at second hand aeron chairs which are a bit cheaper, but haven't found a bunch of them (6-8 is what we need). What's been your experience? Any IKEA ones or other less expensive brands worth getting?

19 comments

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danso
My previous office had really nice chairs (don't know if they were Aeron)...but the chair I bought for my apartment was the $199.00 IKEA Markus

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/00103102/

Pretty decent range of swivel, good wheels...I recommended them to my new employer, who is on a budget, and we all use them now. Can't complain.

Killah911
How well do they hold up over time? We got some cheaper Ikea chairs at one time and they weren't that great after a while.
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[dead] 458679
Herman Millers are definitely worth the money. Mine has held up great so far and I sit in many weird positions.
YoAdrian
Move everyone to standing desks and cut out the costs of chairs. I'm not joking. I've been using one for over a year and I can't bear to sit for long periods of time at work any more.
734497
>Move everyone to standing desks and cut out the costs of chairs. I'm not joking. I've been using one for over a year and I can't bear to sit for long periods of time at work any more.

Standing up for a long time is not good either. The key idea here is change. Stand up, sit down, move around.

mapster
I ran out and picked up 4 plastic crates, 1 for each corner if the desk. Presto - perfect height standing desk. For a chair I use a slightly used bar chair (the kind you use for kitchen breakfast bars) - but after 1 month I don't feel the deep thought and focus I would get when plunked in a chair.
natdempk
I picked up a refurbished Chadwick chair (designed by Don Chadwick, one of the designers of the Aeron) from ebay for about $170 on ebay. Its comfortable for being on the computer for long periods of time and was a great bargain for its quality.
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734497
Pretty much any chair will get uncomfortable if you sit in it long enough. I would just get a refurbished herman miller and take a lot of frequent breaks to stand up.
thatthatis
Used Herman millers usually run around 3-400 in most major metro areas.
mattwritescode
+ 1 for the Ikea Markus. Have one at home and in the office. Its well built and very comfortable with a good back rest even for someone tall.
mephju
I have this chair as well but I am not enthusiastic about it. It's cheap and OK but nothing more. The armrests are not adjustable and the headrest is really a pain.

Do you lower the chair so much that the armrests fit under the table or do you just not sit that close to the table?

talmir
I've owned two of those. They are very comfortable. But the back of the chair ended up breaking off at the base both times.
jasonkester
I think I'm in the minority, but I prefer to sit in a plain wooden chair, of the standard-issue kitchen table variety.

It's essentially a hard wood platform, so I sit upright while typing and seldom find myself slouching backward. That seems to do nice things for my posture. Nothing ever gets tired/strained/injured, even though I've been working this way for several years (and I'm 42, so if health problems were to be had, I'd have them).

Back in my cubicle days, I'd spend my time slouched back in the Aeron, with terrible posture all day. My butt would get sore because it was being used as a scootch-guard to keep me from sliding onto the floor. That doesn't happen anymore.

Around the same time, I started making a point of never reclining my seat on airplanes. Long flights used to be a giant butt-ache from the 2hr mark onward. Now, sitting upright like a human being, I'm good to go for 14hrs and beyond. Even sleeping comfortably with everything balanced on top of my spine.

Sitting up straight. It's the way forward.

Killah911
That's really interesting... Especially in light of the article on HN which pointed to sitting slouching back as being the "best" posture to be in (which is my preferred posture when coding), and having a good chair where the back tilts might actually help.

I do agree with you about the plane thing. When I'm flying redeye from SF to FL, I try to either find an empty row and lay down or lean on the window and sleep. I did sit in a Herman Miller chair before when working for a well funded tech co. and I used to look forward to sitting on the chair and getting in the zone. I was OK, even after sitting for a long period on those.

The oddest issue I had then was getting blisters on my back since the chair wasn't a mesh back (it wasn't an aeron) and tended to heat up from me sitting in it for a long periods of time. Although, that happened a few 16 hours day in a row.

mrexroad
we had shitty chairs for a good 12+ months at the first start up i joined. i begged for a better chair, but it wasn't a priority for the founders at that point; 8 months in, i developed a spinal disc herniation from the chair and desk equipment. my toes were numb for 18 months and i couldn't lift my kids for the several months it took to recover. i purchased (myself) a herman miller embody and it was worth every single penny. fwiw: i was in my mid 20's, maintained an ideal weight, and was pretty active.

re: standing desks -- i can take about a half day of standing, then my knee and left foot start hurting. everyone has slight differences in their musculoskeletal systems; don't assume what works for you will work for others.