In a Nutshell:

Low-priced and unobtrusive, the BestMassage High Back Executive Massager Chair provides reasonable comfort, basic ergonomic features, rudimentary massage, HEAT!, and a recline function. Recommended for Chronic pain sufferers on a budget looking for a basic heated office recliner for light to moderate daily use.

Value for the Money
Comfort
Brand Reliability*
Aesthetic Flexibility**

Overall Rating

3.7/5
* Brand Reliability is a measure of the strength and longevity of the brand, which by extension, is a measure of the level of support you can expect. ** While aesthetics is a matter of taste, Aesthetic Flexibility is a measure of how easily a given design would fit into a wide range of home or office décor schemes.

Benefits

  • Decent heat and massage functions for the price range
  • Adjustable armrests
  • Recline function is sufficient for chronic pain sufferers

Drawbacks

  • Built with lower quality materials that won’t last
  • Upholstery is not breathable
  • Lacks padding and upholstery for extended use

Do you suffer from chronic pain? Do you find yourself making regular use of your trusty heating pad as you try to stay productive during the day? Have you found yourself wishing there was a better and more effective solution?

It turns out there is, and if you’ve found yourself asking any of the questions above, then you’re going to enjoy this review. We’ll be quick to admit that the BestMassage High Back Executive Massager isn’t the perfect chair and it isn’t for everyone. For the right user, though, this could be a game changer.

Haven’t heard of BestMassage? We’d be surprised if you had. It’s one of a seemingly countless number of smaller, off-brands that have their chairs manufactured in China and imported here for sale. 

If you decide to buy from one of these off-brands, it’s important to set your expectations accordingly. While Chinese manufacturing has improved in recent years, it’s still not on par with European or American manufacturing, so you’re not going to get the same production quality from a chair or a brand like this.

Also, don’t expect much in the way of customer service and support. We’re not saying that getting support is impossible, but it will be much more of a process than it would be if you had purchased something from a well-established brand. On the other hand, given the fairly modest price, it’s easy enough to simply buy something new when this one gives up the proverbial ghost.

In the sections that follow, we’ll go over everything this model can do, and we won’t pull any punches when describing where it comes up short. That way, you’ll have all the information you need to decide if this is the model you’ve been looking for as the replacement to your current office chair.

If that sounds good to you, let’s jump in and see what this model has to offer!

An Overview of the BestMassage High Back Heated Massage Office Chair

The design team didn’t take any chances where the BestMassage High Back Executive Massager was concerned. It is, by all outward appearances, a conventional office chair, and a fairly unobtrusive one at that. That’s not a knock against the chair at all; in fact, it makes it incredibly easy for this model to blend seamlessly into just about any home or office décor scheme.

Dimensions of the BestMassage High Back Heated Massage Office Chair

Before we dig more deeply into the features this model brings to the table, let’s start by looking at the core stats that drive and define the model. Here are a few:

  • Overall Product Dimensions: 28” x 25” x 49.5” to 53”
  • Chair Weight: 46 pounds
  • Maximum Supported Weight: 250 pounds
  • Max Recline Angle: 135 degrees
  • Seat Depth: 20.5”
  • Seat Width: 22”
  • Seat Height Adjustment: 18.5” to 22”

The big thing that jumps out at us here is the fact that most of these stats paint a picture of this chair being a good fit for bigger, taller folks. Unfortunately, the maximum supported weight limit just doesn’t align with that.

As such, it’s a good fit for average sized people and taller folk with average builds, but that does make it a good bit more narrowly focused than it could be. With not much additional effort to ruggedize the frame, this chair could appeal to the vast majority of the market. It’s a shame the company didn’t take the time to do that.

Adjustability, Comfort, and Extras

The BestMassage High Back Heated Massage Office Chair has a trio of adjustable features: It reclines back to a maximum of 130 degrees, it’s height adjustable, and the armrests are genuinely amazing on this chair. Not only are they height adjustable, but you can also slide them back and forth and pivot them marginally, allowing you complete freedom to put them exactly where you want and need them.

You seldom find that kind of adjustability on a chair offered at this price range. In fact, the armrests are so impressive they almost feel out of place on this model. 

That’s a huge win for anyone who decides to buy one of these, but in our view, the company would have been better served to even out their feature implementations. Nothing else on the chair even comes close to the armrests, which makes them the chair’s best feature, but also something of a curiosity.

In terms of comfort, the chair offers a trio of reasonably well-implemented, non-adjustable ergonomic features. These are:

  • A waterfall-edge style seat
  • Lumber support
  • And an ergonomic head pillow (detachable)
Adjustable armrests of the BestMassage High Back Executive Massager

All of these fall short of excellence in terms of implementation, but they get the job done, and they do help improve the overall comfort of the chair. Unfortunately, it needs help on that front because the chair’s designers decided to skimp on padding to maximize the effectiveness of the massage heads which we’ll talk about in the next section.

The padding is conventional block foam with PU stretched over it. These two facts, more than anything else, limit the BestMassage High Back Executive Massager, defining it as a model suitable to light or moderate daily use only. 

First, while the padding is adequate for short stints of sitting and working, the longer you’re in the chair, the less comfortable it’s going to become because block foam doesn’t offer much in the way of support unless it’s present in generous amounts. It also doesn’t keep its shape well over the longer term, either, so you can expect it to start permanently sagging after about a year of heavy use, or two if you only use it a few hours a day.

Heated massage function of the BestMassage High Back Heated Massage Office Chair

Second, PU is not a breathable material, so if you plan on spending extended periods in the chair, you’re going to get hot and sweaty, especially if you use the included heat function. We do not understand the fascination, so many companies have with pairing PU or leather with a heating element. The combination is guaranteed to make you uncomfortably hot in short order, but that’s the decision the designers made, so that’s what you get.

What’s interesting about this is the fact that the chair comes with a pull-out footrest, which allows it to pinch-hit as a recliner if you want or need to take a short break from work, shifting your position to ease the tension in your back.

We love the recline function, and it’s a welcome surprise on this, or any chair, adding a great deal of value and versatility to the design. Even better, the ability to recline in the chair enhances the massage (or heated massage) experience you get from this model.

Having said that, adding a footrest to this model, in particular, isn’t an optimal fit for two reasons. One, the modest padding and upholstery work together to ensure that you’re not going to be comfortable spending endless hours of every day in this chair, which is when you’d need the recline function the most. Two, the chair only reclines back to a maximum angle of 135 degrees, which is quite modest for a recliner.

Ultimately then, it depends on what you’re looking for in an office chair. If you only plan to use it for a few hours a day, this is a great option, but power users will not be impressed. The features just don’t blend together as well or as seamlessly as we’d expect given that BestMassage has been in the office furniture market for long enough to know better.

The Massage Function

It’s important to set expectations before we talk about the massage function. After all, this is not a true massage chair; it’s an office chair that offers a very basic massage function. There’s a tremendous difference!

That said, the massage offered by this chair is significantly better than what most of its competitors can deliver because the company has made fantastic use of older technology, creating something that’s surprisingly close to a genuine massage chair experience.

Where most chairs of this type render their massages with a series of stationary heads that vibrate, this chair has an actual track that the massage heads move up and down along.

Yes, it’s true that they simply vibrate along this track, so it’s not like you’re getting a genuine massage technique, but the fact that they can move around a bit gives them a lot more flexibility and dramatically improves the overall massage experience.

Even better, you can custom tailor your massage via the simple wired remote, directing the massage heads to either focus on your upper back, your lower back, or your entire back.

The company doesn’t try to get fancy here. You won’t find any pre-programmed routines or means of adjusting the massage intensity, but even without that, the massage is much better than we expected it to be. It still falls short of what you’d get from a proper massage chair with quad rollers, of course, but it definitely qualifies as a high value addition to the design.

Moving massage heads of the BestMassage High Back Executive Massager

Best of all, though, is the fact that the chair comes with heat! Heat always makes massage better, and gives this chair some genuine therapeutic value, especially for those who suffer from chronic pain or arthritis. In our view, the surprising quality of the massage and the addition of heat more than makes up for the chair’s other shortcomings. We were impressed.

Does Not Come Assembled

As with most of the office furniture being sold today, this model does not come assembled. Putting it together is not a complicated process, and overall, it should take you no more than twenty minutes, even if you’re doing it solo, but the production quality isn’t high, and the instructions aren’t clear. 

The main reason it won’t take very long then has less to do with the chair itself and more to do with the fact that it’s not hard to figure out where the various pieces go and how they fit together.

Pros and Cons of the BestMassage High Back Executive Massager

The BestMassage High Back Executive Massager with its wired remote control

Make no mistake; this chair has its share of negatives. It’s built with lower quality materials that won’t last. It has relatively low production quality and many of its features clash, seeming almost to fight with each other. The biggest examples of this clash are:

  • It offers heat but is upholstered in PU, which isn’t breathable.
  • It’s a recliner, but it doesn’t recline back very far
  • And it’s a recliner, which is perfect for a chair built for comfort and heavy daily use, but it lacks the padding and upholstery to facilitate use for extended periods.

Those are serious issues, but even given their existence, the chair got a relatively high rating from us. In our opinion, this model succeeds in spite of itself. There’s just enough padding to make it a great option for someone who only needs a chair for a few hours of each day.

The recline function, while not great, is more than sufficient to allow a chronic pain sufferer to change his or her position, kick back and relax for a few minutes and enjoy a heated massage, and the heat and massage functions are much better than you’d expect to find on a chair offered at this price range.

Plus, it’s got those crazy-good, adjustable armrests!

BestMassage High Back Executive Massager Review Conclusion

This was a surprisingly hard review to write because the BestMassage High Back Executive Massager has an odd collection of really good, and really bad points. It seems inexcusable to us that a company with even a modest amount of experience in the office furniture world would build a chair with so many clashing features. 

On the other hand, though, the things this chair gets right, it really gets right, which is proof positive that BestMassage does know how to build good office furniture. Given the feature mashup, we provisionally recommend this model for people who:

  • Weigh 250 pounds or less
  • Are looking for an office chair for light to moderate daily use
  • Suffer from chronic pain or arthritis and need a chair that can help mitigate and manage their pain

If the three bullet points above describe you, this chair belongs on your short list. If they don’t, this chair is destined to underwhelm you.

Recommended Reading

Mecor Heated Office Massage Chair Review

We examined the Mecor Heated Office Massage Chair to find out how it offers relief for arthritis and chronic pain.

Hbada Ergonomic High Back Office Desk Chair Review

Check out our review of the Hbada Ergonomic High Back Desk Chair, an undervalued gem perfect for most users.

HomCom Heated Massage Executive Office Chair Review

In this review, we looked into the HomCom Heated Massage Office Chair, a solid ergonomic option for the right user.


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