HumanScale Freedom Chair with Headrest, Black Wave Fabric

by Freedom Chair

Product Details

• Shipping Information: View shipping rates and policies
• ASIN: B00062X3II
• Item model number: 10014-400-0402
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #54,812 in Office Products (See Top 100 in Office Products)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 2, 2001

Product Description

Goodbye manual adjustments. The Freedom chair is designed to give the maximum ergonomic benefit to the sitter with a minimum number of manually adjusted controls. Once the chair is fitted, no further adjustment is required. The idea is that movement, which is essential for a healthy body, shouldn't be constricted by locking mechanisms and manual controls. In other words, sitting comfortably isn't something you should have to think about. The Freedom chair was designed specifically to encourage frequent, spontaneous changes of position. There are no locks and no tension springs to negotiate. Instead, there are elegant mechanisms that automatically support your body in every position you'll assume throughout the day. Headrests are added to chairs because your head needs support when you recline, which is why people without headrests put their hands behind their heads when they lean back. However, fixed or manually adjusted headrests are never in the right place when you need them. The dynamic, position sensitive headrest on Freedom cradles your head and neck as you recline, and moves out of the way when you sit upright automatically!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great if you prefer to work in a reclined positon, September 11, 2008

By 

Lost My Mind (California, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: HumanScale Freedom Chair with Headrest, Black Wave Fabric (Office Product)

First, let me say that if you don't spend much time reclining in your office chair, then this is the WRONG chair for you. Plain, and simple.

Second, getting this chair without the headrest is a waste of time. If you don't get the headrest, get a different chair. You'll thank yourself.

This is by far the best chair I've found and this is almost entirely due to the recline-headrest mechanism. The most unique feature of this chair is the ability to recline and still have adequate support to see your monitor.

Out of a 10-hour workday, I will spend roughly 7-8 hours of it in a slightly-reclined to fully-reclined position. This position helps take a lot of pressure off of my back. The headrest is designed to stay "upright" while you lean back which makes it easy to read, view a monitor, type, etc.

The lower-back/lumbar support is aggressive when compared to other chairs, mainly because it's intended to be used while reclined. The back support also moves a little to encourage movement and shifting while sitting in the chair.

The arm rests recline with the back which helps keep the arms comfortable. They also can adjust in quite far and are longer than normal arm rests.

The seatpan can include standard foam or gel. I personally prefer the gel and can easily sit in this chair for 10-hours or longer.

That all said, in the upright position, the headrest may be in the wrong position for some folks and may push your head too far forward (or let it fall too far back). As I mentioned before, the headrest works best when slightly reclined. I had one of these chairs for 7 years and there was never a problem--even the fabric showed almost no wear. I sat in it 10 hours a day, 5 days a week.

Before you buy this chair, you *must* try it out and see if it works for you. If it doesn't fit, you *will* be uncomfortable (as other reviewers have complained). And by try it out, I mean sit in it for an hour. Bring a book, your laptop, whatever. Sitting in it for 5 minutes doesn't prove anything and is a good way to get hurt.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars great for short periods, January 6, 2009

By 

Not a Kansan (Newton, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: HumanScale Freedom Chair with Headrest, Black Wave Fabric (Office Product)

I borrowed one of these while recovering from a severe pinched nerve and needed strong shoulder support. I found the chair great in that aspect, and I loved that it would adjust to my seating position instead of having to move a bunch of levers.

The big problem is that I can't sit in the chair for much more than an hour. There's hardly any padding in the seat, so after I while my butt gets sweaty and starts to hurt. Other chairs seem to have solved this problem by having either a mesh seat or a lot of padding. Not sure how they messed this up.

Maybe this is a subtle way of encouraging us to get up and walk around every hour or so. If so, that's not what I was looking for. Even after taking a 5-10m break, sitting back down still hurt.

Too bad; otherwise it's a remarkable chair.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best desk chair I have ever tried/owned, July 17, 2008

By 

M. Smith "bigwormie" (spakelum, Mars) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: HumanScale Freedom Chair with Headrest, Black Wave Fabric (Office Product)

"upgraded" from an aeron chair (actually handed it down to my wife) as I work from home and am sitting in a chair for many hours straight. I tried many, many different chairs from specialty stores at all different price ranges and spent about 4 weeks of trial and error before deciding to get this one. I am 5'9", 185 pounds and sorta muscular build. Some things I have noticed:

1. Chairs are very personal items. This chair seems to be designed to fit average sized people.

2. I first tried the regular seat for a couple of days before deciding to upgrade to the gel seat. But I think this is a personal choice issue. Some people like the gel and some dont. I much prefer the gel.

3. I found that I had to go with all of the upgrades to get the most out of the chair such as the advanced arms.

4. Even after all of the research it still took me about a full day to get used to the differences of this chair. Wouldnt give it up if you paid me double for it:)


Also...after 3 years of owning this chair one of the functions of the arm rests stopped working properly. I called humanscale and they were EXTREMELY responsive to my issue and are sending a replacement are right out. Nice to have a lifetime warranty.