So here’s the situation: a few years ago I bought a cheap-o leather office chair with built-in massagers. At the time the price was right but when the chair showed up it was cheap. The leather was coarse, the padding was thin and though it had a battery for cordless operation without AC power it provided a decidedly underwhelming massage. What it DID have going for it was a programmed massage that was really nice. Unfortunately, after several years of use by various people the padding is worn, the battery is dead (which is probably my fault, since I rarely used it without power and probably ruined the battery as a result) and worst of all the sensors have moved enough to prevent the chair from properly detecting my weight and thus actually providing its massage feature. Thus it was decided that I needed a new chair to replace the aging chair.

My criteria for the replacement chair was the following:

• More comfort from better padding and better leather
• A high back was highly preferable so that I could rest my head if desired
• The ability to rock freely was a must
• Massage was mandatory with at least five motors
• Said massage should have an autoprogram or alternately, be programmable

I looked at two less expensive chairs that I initially intended to choose between but chair #1 from Staples was made of the same coarse, stiff leather that I didn’t like in my old chair and chair #2 from OfficeMax only had four massage motors and no program features at all. Both were mid-back models besides and the true deal-killer was that Staples had a much nicer massage chair with heat for fourty bucks more. That is the chair that I decided upon and that I am now enjoying.

Thus far I have found it to be much more comfortable than my previous chair as well as providing a much better range of control over the massage motors. On the negative side, the heater seems a wee bit under-powered and I’m not sure that I like the programmed massage of this unit as much as I liked the programmed massage of my previous chair. Since it’s made with nice leather I’m also experiencing that phenomenon of occasionally peeling myself out of my chair but on the whole I’m satisfied with my purchase. That said, if I didn’t have a religious objection to pleather I’d probably have bought this chair instead, which Wal-Mart sells for $129.99.