Not about mattresses, but similar materials. I’ve owned a fairly expensive office chair (Herman Miller Sayl chair) for about a year, and the foam seat cushion has started to bottom out. It’s quite uncomfortable. The problem isn’t excessive weight (I’m about 155 lbs.) but that my body doesn’t have much padding down there, so it feels like a lot of pressure on my hip and thigh bones.
What bothers me is that, no matter how expensive the chairs, they’re never promoted as having especially durable seat cushions. So you could spend $1000+ and have something you can’t sit in when the foam breaks down.
Has anyone dealt with this problem? I’m thinking of getting a separate gel or foam pad to put on top, just to absorb some of the pressure.
If you do get it re-upholstered or even if you add a seat cushion I would consider the use of HR polyfoam (2.5 lbs density or higher and a compression modulus of 2.4 or higher) which can have a softer surface feel but gets firmer more quickly as you sink into it so it doesn’t bottom out.
I would also consider a buckling column gel seat cushion which are very durable and have very good pressure relief as well. Some examples include orthogel and wondergel.
Phoenix, thanks. I think the chair is assembled with adhesive, so trying to take the seat apart would probably ruin it.
The Wondergel cushion looks good to me. I think I’ll try one.
Thinking back to what I learned here when shopping for a mattress, I suppose the big name brand chairs don’t make any additional profit from using a more durable cushion. If it feels good in the store…!
While I’m certainly no furniture expert … furniture that you sit on tends to use higher density foam overall than mattresses (typically 1.8 lb density or higher is considered to be “furniture grade”) but the weight is also more concentrated so quality and durability are relative to the application. I would also agree that the furniture industry as a whole will tend to use the lowest quality they can “get away with” in a particular budget range because consumers are so price sensitive and generally don’t often know (or know how) to check for the quality or durability of the materials but just like mattresses there will also be exceptions to the rule.
Assuming you decide to go ahead with the wondergel seat cushion I’ll be interested in your feedback when you receive it.