BASETBL Ergonomic Executive Office Chair with Extra Padded

I need to sit at my desk for seemingly endless hours every day and so I do get through chairs far more frequently than most. This gives me a chance to sample different chair styles and, when I felt my previous chair was in need of replacement I began looking.

I have to say it was the gray colour that attracted me to this sales page. Most office-style chairs are pretty much the same in function and I have come to prefer a fabric cover rather than leather or faux leather, far more comfortable to sit on.

At the time of ordering, this chair was listed at the reduced price of 128.99, which I felt was a really good deal. Even better, there was the chance of a further 20 discount, which I accepted. Then came the wait. With the product shown as being delivered by Amazon, I had expected a reasonably fast delivery from one of their warehouses but, in this case, it was not to be. The chair was being delivered by DPD (a decent company). However, the tracking number repeatedly showed that DPD had received the order but had not received the parcel to progress further. I therefore assumed it was coming from Europe, hence the slightly longer delivery date shown on my email. Perhaps I was lucky, the box arrived exactly 7 days from my order, which was really good – although the DPD site still showed it had not received the parcel, even though DPD delivered it. I guess there was a fault there with DPD. I do wish, though, that the sales pages would show precisely where an item is located, it would give customers a better idea of delivery status – and, in my case, it arrived early in the morning without any notification, fortunately I was at home.

I am definitely not marking this item down because of some mix-up with the delivery company, that would be totally unfair. My review, therefore, will focus solely on this office chair.

The box contained all the items necessary – remember the accessories are housed in the back of the chair back, you need to unzip and carefully remove them. Every single item had been carefully packaged and was covered in either bubble wrap or plastic to protect it in transit. The necessary bolts, along with an allen key, were actually quite large, nothing fiddly here, and that made the entire assembly process even easier.

I decided to follow the simple instructions to put the chair together, starting at point one and working through. That way I could review the manufacturer as well as the product. I have to say it was simple. I have assembled some office chairs in my time that took hours and a lot of sweat and swearing, this one took me under an hour and I deliberately went slow and steady.

Order of construction was clear, fix the legs to a central circular holder, cover top and bottom with a plastic cover (remember the plastic cover appears to be an entire circle but it does come apart), then push on the castors. First impressions were pleasing. The legs are a perfect width, definitely not too large like some chairs are.

I then fixed the controlling mechanism to the base of the chair and fitted it onto the legs. HINT – although the bolts are nice and chunky, they have to fit deep inside the recess of the mechanism so ensure you have lined up the holes first. Don’t tighten each bolt the full way, wait until all bolts are in place and then go around tightening them.

The arms I then screwed to the back of the chair (two bolts each side) – HINT have a small torch to hand because it is extremely difficult to line up the holes in the chair with the holes in the arms (black on black). Using a torch it makes it easy. Part-screw one bolt then fix the other, then tighten (but see my note at the end of this).

It is not easy to attach the back with arms to the seat – it never is! Especially because the bottom part of the arms is slanted. Using the torch again to light your way, fix one bolt and then the other, then tighten. I found it far easier to work both arms over the seat base and then lie the whole chair sideways on the floor. Turning it over to fix the bolts in the other side.

I mentioned above I would add a note here. When you tighten the bolts in the arms to the chair back, there is very little play in them to stretch over the chair seat. It might be better not to fully tighten the bolts until you have also attached the arms to the seat, then go around and tighten them all with the allen key. Choice will be yours, obviously.

One point I wish to make clear – on the model I received I found it very difficult to zip the back covering all the way around the second lower corner. This took a lot of careful pinching of the fabric so the zip moved by mm at a time. This is caused by the fabric being so tight around the edges of the chair back. I got there in the end but it took me 10-15 minutes of patience – and this time is included in the hour it took me to construct the whole thing.

When I had the chair fully constructed and standing on its castors, I sat on it with my body resting against the back and then adjust the height of seat I wanted. All worked first time and perfect – although I didn’t change the angle of the back because I like chair backs to remain near upright, and I never lean back or rock on the chair anyway.

I lifted the chair, it stayed intact, I rolled it into position, sat on it and found it really comfortable. The light grey colour is not overpowering at all in my room and the chair looks far more expensive than it actually is.

What would I have liked? A little more padding on the arms and more and firmer padding on the seat. Whilst it is comfortable, like so many office chairs that padding will flatten over time. Again, I am not marking the chair down because of this since it is simply my own wish and most chairs (unless you buy huge office chairs) have little padding.

All in all, using this chair now for several days and for many hours each day I have found it comfortable to sit on, the light grey colour looks perfect in my room, the chair arms are not too long and are ideal to rest elbows on (not long enough to hold an entire forearm). This chair cost me less money than almost all the other chairs I have bought in the last 10 or 15 years yet I find it superior to all of them. If I had the sense I would buy another one and keep it in storage to use when this one needs replacing.

A long review, yes, but I also wanted to point out the ease of construction and offer a few hints to make it easier for future customers. The fact I wish I could have a second to keep for the future indicates just how much I like this product and I have no hesitation in recommending it – especially the grey colour.