Wondering how to stop your office chair from sinking? Sometimes there is just nothing better than having a really nice office chair that has a fantastic seat cushion, great lumbar support, an adjustable neck rest, really nice armrests, and more. However, it probably took you weeks, if not months, to find a comfortable chair, one that doesn’t make your back hurt.
Moreover, you probably spent countless hundreds of dollars on it because let’s face it, office chairs are not cheap. In fact, as far as economic seating goes, rolling office chairs are some of the most expensive items out there.
So, you have an expensive rolling office chair that’s super comfortable, but oh no, all of a sudden it starts sinking. You keep adjusting the height and raising it back up to where it should be, but for one reason or another, it keeps sinking down.
Now, you might get mad and be tempted to just throw the chair out and replace it with a new one, but of course, there is a matter of cost. Before you throw that office chair out, there are some things you can do to stop it from sinking. It’s what we’re here to teach you right now, so let’s get to it and help you save a bit of money.
How to Stop Your Office Chair from Sinking
The Pneumatic Cylinder
What we want to do first is to clarify why exactly your office chair is sinking. The height adjustment of your office chair is controlled by a pneumatic cylinder that uses pressurized air to maintain a specific position. The issue here is quite simple and it’s that these pneumatic cylinders tend to fail after a few years.
No, we don’t want to point any fingers here, but yes, the size of the person who sits on the chair does have something to do with this. That said, of course the quality of the chair in question matters as well. Whatever the reason for your chair sinking might be, the problem is here and now you need to solve it.
Replacing the Cylinder
One thing that you can always do is to replace the pneumatic cylinder. Yes, strictly speaking, this is a possibility, but whether or not it is realistic is the other question. In many cases, replacing the cylinder is actually going to be just as expensive as buying a new chair.
Of course, at that point, you might as well just buy a new chair. However, we are not here to tell you to buy a new chair. What we’re here to do is tell you how to repair your existing chair, so let’s move on.
Stopping an Office Chair from Sinking with a Hose Clamp
What’s nice is that stopping in office chair from sinking is as easy as using a hose clamp with a bit of duct tape. Altogether, it shouldn’t cost you more than $10 or take you more than 10 minutes to fix this issue. Let’s go over a step-by-step instructional on how to stop your office chair from sinking with a hose clamp and some duct tape.
- The first thing that you need to do here is to lift up the skirt. This is the plastic tube that covers the pneumatic cylinder. Depending on the chair in question, you might have to push it up as far as it can go or press it down as low as it can go. The point here is that you need to expose the cylinder.
- What you need to do now is take some time to adjust the chair to the proper height that you will want it at. Remember to take some time to do this because once you do this fix, you will not be able to easily adjust your chair again (at least not without repeating the steps below). Make sure that the chair is indeed in the right position for you.
- Next, before we start using the hose clamp, what you want to do is wrap a couple layers of duct tape around the cylinder. The reason for this is that the cylinder is very smooth and so are hose clamps. If you put the hose clamp directly on the cylinder, it’s likely to slide down. Get some duct tape on there and make sure that it’s smooth and flat.
- All you have to do now is slide the hose clamp on the cylinder and tighten it as far as it can possibly go. Pull the hose clamp tight and then use the screw to secure it shut. You can now sit on the chair to test if it will still slide down or not.
- If the clamp slides down, unscrew it and put some more duct tape underneath it. You can also try fastening a strip of rubber beneath the clamp. This should be more than enough to stop your chair from sinking.
Conclusion
There you have it folks, a fast and easy way to stop your office chair from sinking. If this does not work, there is another method that involves using PVC pipe. If this does not work, you will most likely need to replace your office chair.