f13.net forums - Avoid the Steelcase Think chair if you are a fatass

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June 22, 2025, 01:13:11 PM

we're back, baby

Avoid the Steelcase Think chair if you are a fatass like myself. My chair arrived today by FedEx but was damaged. In the process of attempting to fix it I discovered a fundamental design flaw with the chair -- two major weight supporting pieces are made out of plastic.

This is the back view of the chair (without the back attached). The shiny triangular piece is metal but the two faint black circularly things on the ends are plastic.

Here's the side view of that black weight supporting piece of plastic.

Here it is upside down and you can see how it connects the metal frame of the seat bottom to that bar in the back.

When I received the chair the bar at the top had somehow actually been separated from one of the plastic supports (forgot to take a picture then). I'm not sure how it was even possible but something hit the chair so hard that it dislodged it and broke off another piece of plastic underneath the seat bottom (the chair uses a lot of plastic). I loosened the plastic support piece with the provided Torx wrench (used to attach the seat back) so I could put the bar back in but when I stuck things back together and sat down on it the bar popped out again and a little plastic cap piece went flying off to the other side of the room, bounced off a few things, and ended up underneath a couch.

The problem is is that after loosening and retightening the support pieces as tight as I could, there's a little play left in them and so they flex out a bit when you put weight down on the bottom which caused the bar to pop out of them. On an undamaged chair the support pieces do not flex, at least not initially, but it's possible that over time with enough weight on them they will since they are only plastic.

I never buy a chair any more without checking it out in person. It's amazing how many chairs aren't built to hold living, fidgeting humans.

I checked it out in person (Rucker Fuller in SF). I didn't bother to check at that time which pieces were plastic, though. Live and learn.

You gonna sell that chair? I'm not a fatass anymore.

Or are you just returning it? They have a 30 day warranty

It's broken now (the support pieces are loose). Wouldn't even support the new schild 2.0's weight. I bought it online from Steelcase which means I get to return it for a full refund. Hurray! That's why I bought it online, in case I didn't like it.

Yea, I'm not buying one now that I know it's plastic.

When you find a chair, plz tell me. I've been looking for one in the $500-$1000 range.

I sit in a chair stolen from a call center right now.

The pickings are getting really slim now, which is why I asked in that other thread for suggestions. I'm probably just going to get another Aeron since it's known faults are tolerable to me. For you you may want to check out the Leap like we talked about before. It should be more sturdy (but check it to be sure) and if you don't mind a regular padded seat it should work. I don't like the Humanscale stuff because it doesn't have the seat back lock. If that doesn't bother you either of those (Liberty or Freedom) might work. They both felt a bit "flismy", though, even compared to the Think (the Leap is built like a tank, similar to the Aeron).

I have two Steelcase Springboard chairs in my office. No idea the cost as they got picked up when a local business closed down, but I've had them a couple years now and they're still awesome. Comfy, sturdy, solid. Heavy.

My brother picked up a chair for $300ish a few months ago that is fucking amazing, I swear to god it's stuffed with baby squirrel fur or somthing, I'll check what it is in the morning.

I've slowed down my search for steelcase to start stocking the Amia.

We have leap chairs at my office and while I think they're great a surprising number of people hated them so much that they had to offer everyone the old style chair again, which was a cheaper knock off of the Aeron. I mostly chalk that up to people not liking change and refusing to give the leap a proper chance though.

Thanks, it's not. Those are ceramic tiles with concrete around them.

BTW I should mention that the reason the bar can pop out from the plastic supports is that there's nothing securing the ends of the bar inside the holes on the supports. The support is screwed into the seat bottom but there no screw or other securing device on the other end. In the bottom pic you can see the end of the metal bar that has a little piece of plastic around it (the one that flew off) fitting into the hole and that's it.

I wanted to get Righ one of these but he never uses his office. He works from his comfy chair.

When he has to build something, he sits on the floor. I guess I should get him one of these, instead:

(I like toast)

Quote from: Trippy on January 27, 2008, 04:24:37 PM

Thanks, it's not. Those are ceramic tiles with concrete around them.

Even better, I don't know if those tiles are made anymore. I wasn't being sarcastic, by the way.