Customer Reviews

Herman Miller(R) Aeron(R) Chair Highly Adjustable Model with Graphite Frame with Lumbar Support

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've purchased 5 Aaron chairs within the last 14 months. I've had the technicians out to replace parts under warranty. The ones I purchased include three highly adjustable models with lumbar support and two of the PostureFit. To be certain I know what I'm talking about, you can see my verified purchase logo on my reviews for both types here Aeron Chair - Highly Adjustable Graphite Frame - Carbon Wave (Large) by Herman Miller and here Aeron Chair - Highly Adjustable Graphite Frame - with PostureFit - Carbon Classic (Large) by Herman Miller. Below I offer inputs based on recent experience with these chairs. One more thing. I've had back problems - I had spinal fushion surgery (it was successful). I mention that because it explains why I was motivated to research ergonomic chairs.

We'll get to what to do if your Aeron chair has problems, but first let's cover the basic decisions to get the right chair. First, price. This is an expensive chair and yet it costs less than most true ergonomic chairs. Unless you're into fashion and have the budget, forget about almost all competitors to this chair. As style increases, price increases geometrically. So far nobody beats Herman Miller, in my view, probably because it benefits from scale. It produces a lot of Aeron chairs. Herman Miller sells large orders direct to the federal government too - using a GSA Schedule (contracting vehicle to sell to the feds). By definition, that's the lowest price anyone pays for this chair. As soon as I find a worthy competitor to this chair with at least equal value, I'll update my review.

Unfortunately for me, I found out late that Herman Miller runs semi-yearly sales on the Aeron. I called Herman Miller to ask only after my last purchase. Their sales run starting the day after Thanksgiving (Black Friday) and for about a week, and then again about six months later. Typically, Herman Miller allows its authorized vendors to sell at a 15% discount from suggested retail price - but only during an official Herman Miller sale.

When you buy this chair, hopefully it will qualify as a business expense. The tax code currently favors furniture purchases by businesses that have offsetting revenues. If you want to know more about this, look up "Section 179" on Wikipedia. Take assurance from the fact that I do not regret buying these expensive chairs nor has any other purchaser I've talked with. I say this despite the problems I've had that caused me to repeatedly contact the vendors, Amazon, Herman Miller and the local chair technicians.

Second decision point is the warranty. You always get a 12-year warranty when you buy an Aeron from a Herman Miller authorized dealer, period. Try to get the chair with the valuable 12-year warranty by getting it from the correct channel. I have no insight into whether Herman Miller will be a viable company 12 years from now, but the warranty is valuable.

Third decision point is size. You can get sizes A, B or C. You can find Aeron chair dimensions for all 3 sizes posted on the Internet. A is the smallest, C the largest. I've never seen size A. Most people should go to a brick & mortar store that carries Aeron chairs and sit on the sizes they carry. B, the medium size, will cut off short on the bottom thigh for many. I believe size C will fit many more people than B. Beware that if you're quite tall, then size C will cut off short under the thighs and you might not even want an Aeron. Also, there is one easy way to tell the size of an Aeron: stand behind chair and feel under inside of upper frame lip (just behind the embossed Herman Miller logo) for Braille-like dots. 3 dots is for size C, 2 for B and so on.

An ergonomic chair is not supposed to cut short under your thighs. For some, there'll be a tradeoff because size C is a little wide. I have size Cs, all my Aerons. You can get used to sitting on a wide chair but you need something that supports out along the bottom of the thighs. Notice the waterfall edge of seat shape on all Aeron chairs - that is to easily allow blood circulation when seated and it works.

Fourth decision point is the Aeron model type. This is where I'm likely to be most helpful to you. For most people the highest end model, the PostureFit, is not the best. In fact, the highly adjustable with lumbar support is superior and I'd rather buy it even if it cost more than PostureFit. That's because the one with lumbar support has a padded support bar that can be placed to support the upper sacrum whereas the PostureFit can only be placed to support the lumbar spine. The upper sacrum is higher than the lumbar spine, and good ergonomics require support at the upper sacrum to stabilize the sacroiliac joints.

I encourage you to look this up on the Internet. Find out where your lumbar spine is and the location of your upper sacrum. Please get this right because most of us, including me, are probably going to be working through old age, given economic conditions, and we've got to make our backs last as long as possible. Here's an intuitive way to understand this important difference: the PostureFit gives you support at about your belt (lumbar spine support) while the highly adjustable with lumbar support model gives you support within a range above your belt (upper sacrum). Now look hard at the pictures of these two models right on Amazon. See it? The PostureFit is low support - designed to support you at your belt. Recent research shows conclusively that support should be above the belt line - exactly at the upper sacrum.

Further, to understand PostureFit, it only allows you an in-and-out control. You cannot move the support parts up or down. Further, the highly adjustable with lumbar support model actually protrudes out more - as it certainly should. I'm telling you based on having both models, being aware of the research and being hyper-aware of healthy back maintenance, you should get the highly adjustable with lumbar support model no matter your height, weight or posture. The fourth decision point is really no decision at all.

Fifth decision point is color and perhaps mesh pattern. I don't have a notable preference regarding colors or mesh patterns and have no advice on the fifth decision point. From an ergonomic standpoint, you care that the mesh is tight.

Assembly is easy, especially if you avoid getting the PostureFit. No specialized tools are needed. Assembly will probably take 10 to 15 minutes, with most of that unwrapping the parts. Assembly for the PostureFit may take 25 minutes if it is your first time because you have to place a wire mechanism and poke a hole through the mesh. But if you believe me, you'll get the highly adjustable with lumbar support model and have zero trouble in assembly. If you get the chair with lumbar support, you will ONLY have to attach the back of the chair to the rest of it by screwing 4 bolts with the Allen wrench that comes in the box.

You may experience problems with defective parts. One of my chairs came with loose arms, and they were so loose that they couldn't be tightened and fell to the lowest adjustable position immediately. I called Herman Miller and they only asked for the number on the little sticker on the bottom of the chair (literally - no other information was requested). For goodness sake, don't unpeel or lose that number!! That sticker is only about a half inch by a half inch and could easily be peeled off. Write it down to keep a duplicate record. Herman Miller then provided me with the contact information to a nearby store with technicians. This store then sent out two techs to my office to document the problem. They then returned a couple months later and after I called a few times to expedite the process, and they installed new and good arms. They also gratuitously gave me a used lumbar support part and installed it on one of my PostureFit chairs. The techs confirmed that the lumber support part was better than the PostureFit mechanism, and more desired by experienced users, which I found interesting.

But that was not the end of my problems. One chair came with loose mesh in the seat. You want that seat to feel like a taut trampoline, not spongy. The technicians, two really nice guys, are supposed to arrive today or tomorrow with my new seat. Three chairs came with 2 bolts instead of 4 in the sealed plastic envelope. The authorized dealer (an Amazon vendor) expedited delivery of the missing bolts. One chair came without the all-important sticker on the bottom that gives the Factory Order Number and the Born-On date, needed to exercise the 12-yr warranty. The dealer is having Herman Miller mail me a Certificate of Authentication. My most recent order showed up on Amazon as delivered, but had actually not been sent. After a few communications the chairs were delivered, much later than expected. Please note that I've now ordered 5 chairs and I experienced all these issues.

If you have any problems, a service technician will come to your home or business and take care of it. They in turn charge Herman Miller for the service. Separately, the service techs informed me that the most common complaint is that the height adjustment stops working. These chairs are designed to handle the weight of up to a 250 pound person. Somebody heavier than that will often cause this up-down function to cease working, but the techs say it's a real easy thing to fix and the warranty covers it.

Finally, you are considering making a big purchase so I've done my best to help you through the process. I'm very happy I got Aeron chairs. It took me awhile to graduate to increasingly more expensive chairs until I finally caved and got this expensive chair. Everyone in my little accounting firm gets to sit on an Aeron, no exceptions. I can work longer sitting without discomfort as a result. I and others are more productive using these chairs. Your body is worth it. You are a creative person who deserves a bona fide ergonomic chair.

Great chair! Last company I worked for had a fleet of these. I never saw a broken one around the office in the 5 years I was there.

I'm a games programmer; 10 to 14 hours days are the norm -much of it spent in a chair exactly like this one. I'm 6' 2", 180 lbs, for reference. I've seen other (rare) reviews of this chair breaking, but I suspect those reviewers were much heavier than I. Most everyone in my office loved the chairs.

Many reclining chairs I hate because there's no configuring them. They either go too far or not enough. This chair allows you to set a stop, and then recline only that far.

I never thought much about the lubar support pad in the back until I sat in one that didn't have it -not so nice. Made the chair suddenly feel like a hammock. That pad does slide up and down so you can find your comfort zone.

I suppose the only down side was the adjustable arms tended to slide down over time. They have an adjustment screw that slides in a slot and that tightens down against the frame, but it will slip down if you lean on the arm too hard. I finally got mine so tight that it rarely slipped though. I suppose I could have fashioned small wooden sticks to slip into the bottom of the slot and fix the problem completely but I never got around to it.

I've heard rumors that this strech mesh fabric can put wear and tear on nice clothes. Sorry, can't comment on that. My environment was more t-shirt and jeans. We used to joke the only dress requirement was wearing shoes -not that we could ever get the artists to follow even that. lol

When I started looking to add one to my home office I nearly choked. I had no idea they were so expensive. I still want one. Glad to see the prices coming down some. In this economy, office furniture liquidators might even have them too.

If you're hesitant to order unassembled, rest easy. It's dead simple. I was one of those guys in high school who was translating Caesar while the other guys were in shop rebuilding engines. In other words, mechanically challenged. Sing along with the bouncing ball: "If he can do it anyone can do it."

With scissors or blade, remove straps from box and cut packing tape. Remove various bubble packing, chair base, chair back, parts and instructions. Remove protective covering. Slide the chair back on the base. Attach four large allen set bolts. Tighten with provided wrench to finger tight. Remove adjustment instructions, raise arms and seat to desired height. Sit, Ubu. Like 10 minutes, max.

For you design types obsessing over the difference between graphite and "true black," the Pantone Color Cue in daylight reads it as 8003 C (RGB: 129, 121, 110; HTML #81796E, CMYK 16,27,29,46). The arms are 309 C (RGB 24,63,77, HTML 183F4D, CMYK 100,24,20,66).

I have this same model Herman Miller Aeron chair at work, and when I began telecommuting 50% of the time, I knew I'd have to upgrade my home office chair. You can't think of a type of adjustment you'd want to do that you can't do on this chair; you can adjust height with a simple lever pull, as well as arm height and angle, lumbar support, and how far back or forward seat back will recline. Oh yes, you can also adjust how much pressure you need to put on the seat back to recline.

The seat and back are open weave, making for a very cool and comfortable chair.

I guess the best measure of how good this chair is is the fact that as expensive as it is, after sitting in one at work for six years, I knew the product was worth the cost.

The product came almost fully assembled. I got the lumbar support option rather than the PostureFit adjustment option. With the lumbar support, all I had to do was screw in four screws. It probably took me ten minutes to assemble, including opening the package.

I was hesitant to purchase a nearly $1,000 chair online without the opportunity to test it first. And the Herman Miller Aeron chairs I sat in at client sites never blew me away. They always felt to small. After doing some research I discovered that Herman Miller makes three different sizes of chair A=small, B=intermediate, and C=Large. So based upon all the positive buzz around this chair, and advice provided by my chiropractor, I took a chance and bought the biggest size (C) - I am 6'1" and 210. I made a good decision.

It is not the type of chair that you sit in and go aaahh. Not plushy, and soft, and oversized. But after sitting in it for 2-3 days, up to 8-10 hours a day, I noticed that my back was not stiff, my legs not stiff and crampy. I also purchased the aftermarket headrest on Amazon (not a Herman Miller product, but still great quality) and that made the chair even better. It is incredibly comfortable and highly adjustable (spend the extra dollars and purchase the fully loaded Aeron chair so you get all the adjustment options). I saved big by purchasing the chair on Amazon as compared to other retailers who charge up to twice as much. Plus you get the full 12 year warranty from Herman Miller. I found it about $100 cheaper from an online retailer, but it only had a 30 day warranty.

I have been seeing a chiropractor for the last 10 years to straighten me out from nearly 20 years of spinal abuse from playing football and rugby. This chair has absolutely helped in this regard. He noticed that I have been holding my adjustments better, and we both attribute it to the herman Miller Aeron chair.

This is a great chair for a medium build guy. It is a expensive item but has a good warranty to the original purchaser.

We run our software dev company from home - this means lots of hours spent sitting and coding for my husband. We knew we wanted to treat this purchase as an investment - it's a tax deduction and will ultimately increase productivity. After reading every single review available for the higher-end chairs I settled on this one. So happy with our choice.

The chair arrived sooner than expected and was packed nicely, very easy assembly, no fuss at all. One of the best investments we've made in our company. Would never go back to a 'regular' chair again after this purchase.

We got the Classic Carbon color and it looks great. The large size C fits my 5' 10" 190lb husband perfectly.

Though it's only been in use for a week at this point, the quality materials and construction lend themselves to durability. The 12 year warranty is nice as well.

Great purchase overall!

I've had this Aeron chair for almost a year now, and I find this to be a very comfortable chair for spending long hours at my desk. The chair has a sleek modern look to it, feels sturdy, and is adjustable enough to keep me comfortable. I love the breathable mesh seat and back. I'm a big guy and usually find myself slouching in traditional chairs, but this one has a high enough seat back to prevent that. The casters are sturdy and I am comfortable rolling in the chair across a ceramic tile floor.

On the flip side, there are a couple of things I don't like about this chair. First, the optional lumbar support bar doesn't go high enough for a tall guy like me. If the seat back was adjustable in height, this wouldn't be an issue. Second, I don't like how the armrests sometimes unlock themselves and become misaligned during use. It doesn't happen very often, but it can be a bit annoying if you have to readjust them to a particular height. If I were a smaller guy, I'd probably give this chair 5 stars.

So far, so good. Very comfortable, durable, and minimal assembly. My only quibbles: I'd have liked more color options and I would get the headrest version if doing all over again.

I'm short (5'2") and have always had problems "dangling" from chairs. I had chronic back aches from the bad posture that resulted as I tried to make myself comfortable (try sitting with your feet an inch or two from the floor for a while- you'll see what I mean). I did lots of research and the Aeron highly adjustable chair with lumbar support got excellent reviews. Several people mentioned back problems and claimed that the chair really helped. So I decided I would bite the bullet and pay for a really nice office chair. I ordered it and waited with baited breath for it to arrive. I guess I was expecting too much... don't get me wrong, the chair is nice. It's probably the first I've ever had that really "fit" me. However, it didn't cure the back aches. For the cost, I guess I expected it to be life-changing (LOL). So, would I buy it again? I'm not sure.