First Impressions
For the last few years working from home I’ve been using a couple of old office chairs that my previous company were throwing out as they moved from the building they were exiting. They’ve been great chairs but recently have been falling apart. One had the back snap on it, the other started making worrying noises in the same area and all four armrest tops were splitting and falling apart. It was time for me to go on the Great British chair hunt again.
All I knew going into my search was that I wanted something sturdy and long-lasting, that would be good for my relatively large frame, and it needed to be good for, or at least not make worse, my sciatica. That meant really considering only “ergonomic” chairs. OK, I know, there’s absolutely zero science behind ergonomics, it’s pure marketing, but I’ve got a bad back and I’m just a regular consumer. I also know that there’s no substitute for getting off my backside at least once an hour.
After sitting on lots of chairs and getting really despondent with how few shops now exist where you can try things, I figured it was time to do some serious research online. Office chairs and gaming chairs are the ones designed for people to sit in for extended periods, the “manager” chairs have always been too soft for me and don’t do my back any good at all. I narrowed it down to two slightly different chairs, the Musso H80 Pro and the Secretlab Titan Evo. Both were offering 30 day trials, they both got relatively good reviews (although not too many English language genuine reviews for the Musso), and both seemed like they would fit my needs. In the end it came down to price, and the likely more cooling mesh of the Musso.
I received my Musso H80 Pro ergonomic chair today (Saturday), delivered by the excellent DPD in a 20+KG box, after ordering 3 days ago (Wednesday).
Delivery and communication has been great, although it’s clear that English isn’t the first language of the supplier.
I contacted Musso before ordering asking about the 30 day free trial sit, and they assured me that should I not like the chair, I could return it for a full refund, so I’ve saved all the packaging just in case.
On opening the box and seeing the parts, my first impressions were of everything being well packed and sturdily built. Everything has a good weight to it, and parts you might expect to be plastic are metal, showing a generally good quality. All the parts were present, and there was a nice large instruction sheet in colour with great pictures. A hex-key tool is included with all the screws / bolts and washers in separate labelled bubbles in the packaging.
In a first for a chair assembly for me, the casters clicked straight into the metal legs with little force. The legs themselves are screwed into a solid metal hub. It’s a shame the protective cover in the middle is plastic, but it’s unlikely to see any wear and it looks nice. The gas lift is a nice shiny silver.
Attaching the arms and tilt base was fiddly, and needed the help of another person. Also the screws for the unit into the chair base were fine but the washers seem a bit small and slip into the holes, making me worry a little that it’s not exactly secure – time will tell on that one and I’ll keep monitoring it.
It really does take two people to spin the chair over comfortably, although it’s possible for one person to do it on their own. All in all assembly took about 30 minutes – I could probably do it in 15 if I’d done it a few times.
As an assembled chair it definitely has the feel of quality, although the plastic footrest detracts from that a little. The footrest is comfortable enough though, so no complaints. It looks good, with a lovely high back, but not overpowering and not excessively wide. As a 16 stone plus 6 foot tall bloke with a relatively wide rear end, the base width is comfortable with an inch or so spare at each side of my legs.
You can really feel the lower lumbar support and the sides supporting you properly. I think there’s going to be lots of little adjustments for me though over the coming days and probably weeks. As far as the adjustments go, they’re relatively numerous:
- Chair height, with the gas lift, up and down
- Chair back, lifting up and down
- Head rest, up and down, forward and back, then a tilt for minor adjustments
- Seat base forward and back
- Chair back angle upright and back
- Arms. Well, what can I say. Up and down, left, right, sideways, forward, back, tilt, in, out, they go everywhere.
If you want the chair closer to a desk and the arms are getting in the way, just spin them 180 degrees and put the short bit at the front.
In general all the adjustments are fairly stable, but I think I’d prefer some sort of locking mechanism on most of them, especially the arms. If I lean on the arms to change my position, their angle will change. I actually trapped my finger doing that too, so be careful.
The seat base going forwards and backwards is again a bit easy, and it’s much to easy to mix up the height and seat base adjusters.
I have one more slight niggle, and that’s that the front of the seat base, under my thighs, feels like it’s pressing in a little. It’s soft sponge, feeling like memory foam, but I can definitely feel the transition from pure mesh and I’m hoping it doesn’t make the whole experience uncomfortable.
I think for my height and weight, this is a good chair. I don’t feel like I’m too heavy for it, it feels well built and sturdy. The chair feels fine at all angles and I think the adjustments are something that will really make it comfortable for me over time. The castors roll smoothly over my laminate floor, and I’m waiting for the included chair mat to be delivered to see if that improves things even further.
OK, that’s enough for first impressions. I’ll make an effort to post again in a couple of weeks, with either “I’m keeping it because…” or “I’m sending it back because…“, hopefully the former!
Until next time…
– The Zoo Keeper
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