The Takeaway:
Best Office Chair for Big and Tall (Non-Mesh)
1. Our Pick: Steelcase Leap Plus
2. Runner-Up: Herman Miller Embody
3. Third Pick: Serta Tranquility Office Chair
Best Office Chair for Big and Tall (Mesh)
1. Our Pick: Herman Miller Aeron
2. Runner-Up: ErgoHuman Executive Chair
3. Third Pick: AmazonBasics Big and Tall Mesh Swivel
Are you a bigger, taller person? Have you been frustrated in your search to find the perfect office chair? If you answered yes to either of those questions, you’re going to love this roundup review.
Let’s face it: if the office chair you’re using isn’t comfortable and isn’t built for you, you’re not going to be very productive. It’s hard to get any work done if you’re constantly shifting uncomfortably in your seat, which is why finding the right office chair for you is so important.
We’ve scoured the internet on a quest to find the best office chair for big and tall people on the market today. It’s a crowded market with some great contenders, but after much searching, we’ve narrowed the field and declared an overall winner.
In this piece, we’ll share the results of our research with you. However, there’s one detail we need to share before we do that. That detail revolves around the upholstery. Where office chairs are concerned, you’ve got three upholstery options: Fabric, Leather, or Mesh.
We’ve broken our results into two categories, listing the best leather and fabric-upholstered big and tall office chairs together and creating a separate listing for mesh chairs. We’ll have more to say about that in the section on our selection criteria, but for now, we’ll just say this:
While most people typically don’t have a strong preference for leather upholstery over fabric or vice versa and usually don’t mind switching between them, people who are looking for a good mesh chair usually aren’t interested in anything else. As such, we’ve broken them out and given mesh chairs their own table in this report, so whatever your preferences are, we’ve got you covered.
Selection Criteria
To a big and tall user, standard office chairs can seem like little more than toys. Given that, we had a few pretty specific things we were looking for when evaluating these chairs. In particular, we gravitated toward chairs with the following characteristics:
Generous Weight Capacity and Sturdy Construction
Standard office chairs typically have a weight capacity in the range of 250 to 300 pounds. We consider that to be the absolute floor limit, with more being better. In addition to that, construction quality matters very much. The materials used in construction don’t necessarily have to be top-end (although that helps!), but they have to be durable and ruggedized with good-quality welds and high capacity and high-quality pistons to control height adjustment.
Seat Dimensions
Big and tall people need big and tall chairs. At a minimum, we want to see a chair that can adjust to a height of at least 18”, with more being better. Granted, this will make these chairs unsuitable for use in a segment of the market, but that’s to be understood, and it is a necessary tradeoff to make a good chair for bigger folks. The current industry standard for big and tall chairs seems to be in the range of 18” to 22”.
In a similar vein, the best chairs in this category need to have high, wide seatbacks and wide, deep seats, with seat depths starting at 18” being an absolute necessity in our book.
Generously Padded & Highly Adjustable
Bigger people need more padding if the chair is going to be comfortable. This is particularly important for people looking for a great office chair designed to be used for several hours at a stretch.
In a similar vein, adjustability matters. While this aspect of office chair design certainly isn’t unique to big and tall users, more adjustability is always better. The more a chair has to offer on this front, the higher we tended to rate it.
Upholstery Options
Earlier, we mentioned the three upholstery options for office chairs are available. People typically have a clear preference for one or the other, but typically, people will happily switch between fabric or leather. Mesh, however, tends to be a different matter.
While leather upholstery looks nice, it has the disadvantage of not being very breathable, which means that if you sit in a leather chair for any length of time, you’re all but guaranteed to start to sweat. Further, many leather chairs are upholstered in bonded leather.
Bonded leather is real leather, but it’s made from scraps that have been fused together. This makes it less supple and less durable. It doesn’t tend to stand up very well to the rigors of heavy daily use.
For this reason, although we’ve included leather and fabric-upholstered chairs in the same table above, fabric chairs tend to have a slight advantage where the overall ranking score is concerned, simply because they’re more breathable and, thus, better suited to the rigors of heavy daily use.
Mesh chairs tend to be somewhat less attractive than the others, but the material is incredibly durable and long-lasting. Even so, most people who are interested in mesh chairs aren’t interested in anything else, which is why we’ve broken them out into separate categories.
Best Office Chairs for Big and Tall People 2024 (Non-Mesh)
Primary Rating:
4.7
|
Primary Rating:
4.6
|
Primary Rating:
4.5
|
$1,299.00
|
$2,199.99
|
$389.03
|
Overall Dimensions:
24.8” x 27” x 43.5”
|
Overall Dimensions:
28” x 27” x 38.2”
|
Overall Dimensions:
33” x 28.2” x 46.25”
|
Chair Weight:
48 pounds
|
Chair Weight:
51 pounds
|
Chair Weight:
57.6 pounds
|
Max. Supported Weight:
300 pounds
Steelcase Plus supports up to 500 pounds |
Max. Supported Weight:
300 pounds
|
Max. Supported Weight:
400 pounds
|
Seat Width:
19.25”
|
Seat Width:
20”
|
Seat Width:
21”
|
Seat Height:
15.5” to 20.5”
Plus is identical here |
Seat Height:
16.5” to 22”
|
Seat Height:
18” to 22”
|
Seat Depth:
15.75” to 20.5”
|
Seat Depth:
15” to 18”
|
Seat Depth:
19”
|
Pros:
|
Pros:
|
Pros:
|
Cons:
|
Cons:
|
Cons:
|
Our Verdict:
Highly recommended, if you can afford it. It’s especially great for people who suffer from chronic back pain. The Steelcase Leap Plus is an amazing chair you’ll be proud to own.
|
Our Verdict:
Recommended for big and tall folk, but be sure to take careful measurements before you commit. Highly recommended for people who suffer from chronic back pain and need a chair well-suited for heavy daily use.
|
Our Verdict:
Recommended for most users. It’s a good, well-rounded option offered by a company with an excellent reputation for quality.
|
Steelcase Plus supports up to 500 pounds
Plus is identical here
- Cutting edge chair filled with top-notch ergonomic features and offered by a legend in the industry.
- Expensive. If you’re especially tall, the max. Seat height adjustment may not be quite enough for you. Measure carefully before committing to this purchase!
- Twelve-year warranty, adjustable everything, and superbly implanted ergonomic features melded with bleeding-edge design. Offered in a variety of colors.
- This chair was designed to appeal to as broad a segment of the market as possible, so straddles the line between being useful for normal sized and big and tall folks. As such, if you are especially tall, the seat height, even at maximum extension, may not be enough for you. Expensive.
- Incredibly comfortable. 10-year warranty. Exceptionally well-priced.
- Not especially well-suited for heavy daily usage.
Our Pick: Steelcase Leap Plus
Recommended For: Anyone, especially for people who suffer from chronic back pain.
According to information published by the company about the Steelcase Leap, every design decision made during the creation of this chair was informed by the following four pillars:
Steelcase is a legendary company in the industry, to begin with. Given that this model was based around the guiding principles and key discoveries described above, it should come as no surprise that this chair was our top pick as the best big and tall office chair on the market today.
A quick note before we get into the specifics of the Leap Plus: The company Leap product line contains a number of different products, so if you’re not big or tall, know that Steelcase makes a comparable chair for you that includes most of the features offered by this model.
Let’s take a closer look at our winner, starting with a review of the basic stats that define it:
Seat Depth
While the smallest seat depth setting is far from suitable for the big and tall market, this is one of the few office chairs sold today that allows you to modify the seat width on the fly. At maximum extension, it has a quite respectable 20.5” depth, which is outstanding.
Seat Height Adjustment
The same thing holds for the seat height adjustment range. While most big and tall chairs gravitate toward an 18” to 22” height adjustment range, the Leap Plus takes a different approach, starting at 15.5” and going to 20.5.”
This comfortably places it within the big and tall range, although it’s certainly not hard to find a chair that offers more on this front.
This has advantages and disadvantages. On the one hand, the Leap Plus’s height adjustment range makes the chair more valuable and accessible to a wider band of the market. That’s good if you’re buying an office chair for a home where several people will ultimately use it.
On the other hand, though, if you’re especially tall, even at its maximum height, this chair may not work for you. Here, it’s important to take careful measurements before you buy. After all, this is an expensive piece of equipment. You want to be sure it will work for you before you spend that kind of money.
Seat Width
The seat width is one of the few elements of the Leap that can’t be adjusted, but at 19.25”, it sits comfortably within the range we like to see for a big and tall chair, which brings us to the maximum supported weight.
The only other chair on our list that supports as much weight as the Leap Plus is the Flash Furniture Hercules, so where supported weight is concerned, the Leap has just about everybody in the big and tall market covered.
Of course, a good office chair is more than just the sum of its dimensions, and we’ll talk about the Leap Plus’s features next.
Features Galore
LiveBack
There’s a lot to like here, with one of the most powerful features being a proprietary technology that Steelcase calls “Liveback.” The seat is made up of a series of slats. When you sit in it, and your back begins to exert pressure on the seatback, each slat will give depending on how much pressure your back is exerting on it.
The theory is delightfully simple, but it has a powerful impact. It allows the seatback to custom conform to the shape of your body, providing optimal support along the length of your spine.
This feature makes the chair worth its hefty price tag in our book, especially if you suffer from chronic back pain. Back pain comes in all shapes and sizes, but most chairs offer a one-size-fits-all ergonomic solution that may leave you underwhelmed. Maybe the company’s ergonomic features will help you, and maybe they won’t.
When you own a Leap Plus, you needn’t worry. The seat back will provide exactly the support you need, no matter where your back pain stems from.
Lumbar Support
The second big innovation is Leap Plus’s lumbar support system. On the back of the chair, you’ll find a simple dial. Turning the dial allows you to make quick and easy adjustments on the fly until the support is exactly where you want it.
Tension and Support Control
Third, the chair offers not one but two different dials you can use to tweak the amount of tension and support the seatback provides. One dial controls the tension in the upper portion of the seatback, and the other controls the tension and support level for the lower portion.
Again, this builds on the idea that everybody is different, and one part of your back may require more support than the rest. Giving you the ability to fine-tune the level of support you’re getting for your upper and lower back is huge and has tremendous therapeutic value. If you suffer from chronic back pain, you may currently find it virtually impossible to spend more than short periods in a conventional office chair. The Leap Plus can literally redefine your ability to work productively in those cases. That’s huge.
Recline Angle
Finally, the angle of the recline is also controlled via a simple dial, allowing you to select any angle between 90 and 120 degrees. Simply dial in the position you want and lean back. That’s all there is to it.
Upholstery & Finishing Options
You’ve got three choices where upholstery is concerned:
In general, the standard upholstery option is the most breathable of the lot, making it the best suited for long-duration sitting. The others are progressively less breathable but still quite good. In practice, we found the differences between the three minimal, but your mileage may vary.
Color Options
In addition to choosing your upholstery of choice, all variants of the Leap are available in a modest number of colors, including:
In addition to that, when you order your Leap, you can select from a few different finishing options that provide accent colors on the base and anywhere else the fabric doesn’t cover. These include:
Extras
Finally, Steelcase offers a few options and extras for their chairs, allowing you to customize and personalize yours further. The most popular is the Steelcase Ottoman, which you can use as an impromptu workspace when you’re not propping your feet up.
They also sell an optional headrest, which addresses the design’s one shortcoming: the lack of head and neck support. Granted, you’ll have to pay extra to acquire these goodies, but you’ll end up with exactly the chair you want.
Minimal Assembly Required
It gets better! Unlike many office chairs being sold today, the Leap comes mostly assembled. It might take you ten minutes to prepare the chair for first use when it arrives at your house, which is a nice touch. There is no need to spend upwards of an hour struggling to assemble the thing!
If none of the above is enough to convince you that this is the best chair on the market today, it’s also made from 95% recycled materials, which makes it a great “green” option!
The only negative we can find about the Leap is that it’s expensive, but you get what you pay for. It’s an amazing chair, especially for people with chronic back pain. Even if you don’t, buying one can help minimize the risk of back problems developing, given its rock-solid ergonomic support.
The only potential wrinkle in the big and tall market, in particular, is that the height adjustment range isn’t quite as robust as you’ll find in other big and tall chairs. That may be a deal breaker, especially for tall users, so you’ll want to take careful measurements before committing to the purchase.
We can’t recommend this chair highly enough. It is well deserving of top honors in this roundup review. It’s the best ergonomic office chair for big and tall people and one of the best office chairs on the market.
Runner Up: Herman Miller Embody
Recommended For: Anyone, especially those who work long hours at the desk.
Herman Miller is one of the best companies in the industry today. It is known for making durable, long-lasting office chairs that constantly push the envelope. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a more innovative company in this industry. While its products are expensive, this is definitely a case of getting what you pay for.
The Herman Miller Embody was designed specifically for power users. So, if you’re a gamer, work from home, or have an office job that involves spending long hours at a stretch sitting in your chair, this model was designed for you.
Starting with aesthetics, the Embody has a decidedly futuristic flair that may not appeal to everyone. In fairness, this makes it somewhat difficult for this design to blend seamlessly with some home décor schemes, although it typically has an easier time blending into office environments.
If you find the aesthetic appealing, you’ll love just about every other chair aspect.
Chair Specifications
In terms of basic statistics, here’s a quick review of the summary table:
There are several things to discuss here, some good and some not-so-good for big and tall folks.
On the good side, check out the height adjustment range! Although 16” is well below the seat height we like to see in a big and tall chair, it extends up to 22,” which means that this chair appeals to an incredibly broad swath of the market, including average-sized folks. The seat width is also splendidly suited to the big and tall market.
A Few Things to Consider
However, there are two potential issues that big and tall users might have with this model. First, the weight limit of 300 pounds is adequate but far from exceptional. We consider 300 pounds the starting point for a big, tall chair. The Embody makes the cut, but only just.
Second, the maximum seat depth is just 18”. Again, we’d consider this the minimum threshold for a chair designed for the big and tall market.
Of interest, though, is the fact that the seat depth is customizable. You can compress it down to a seat depth as small as 15”. Again, this makes the Embody a great chair for a household with multiple users of a variety of shapes and sizes while still meeting the criteria for big and tall users.
That brings us to what is, in our view, the single most impressive thing about this chair. Virtually every aspect of it is adjustable. You can adjust:
In addition to the extreme amount of adjustability this model brings to the table, it has two other design features you won’t find in other chairs currently sold today.
Unique Design Features
First, there’s the seat design. Although the Embody only offers a modest amount of padding compared to the other chairs on our list of finalists, it’s much more comfortable than you might think because the seat itself is articulated, so its shape adjusts to the shape of your body as you move and shift position in the chair. It’s a brilliant design that makes the chair a delight to sit in, even for extended periods.
Second, the Embody has a spine. You’ll find a series of articulated “vertebrae” on the back of the chair that provide dynamic support. This feature allows the seatback to mold to you, following the natural curve of your body’s spine. Again, this is brilliant and the innovation that has made Herman Miller such a force in the industry.
Finish Options
Next, let’s discuss Embody’s upholstery. This is yet another feature that underscores the uniqueness of this design. Nothing about the Embody is standard.
Upholstery
When you order your chair, you can select from two different fabric types for the upholstery:
Both fabric options are futuristic, combining traits of traditional fabric and mesh. Still, the fundamental difference is this: The Rhythm fabric tends to be more breathable and, as such, is better suited to long-duration sitting, adding to the chair’s comfort. The Balance fabric provides additional padding, making it the better choice for short—to medium-duration sitting.
Colors
If you order Balance fabric, you can choose from four colors (Berry Blue, Black, Carbon, or Iris).
If you order Rhythm Fabric, you have a slightly expanded color palette to choose from:
Minimal Assembly Required
Another cool thing about the Embody is that when you order one, it will arrive at your door and be mostly assembled. Sure, there are a few bits you’ll need to finish up on your own, but this process is quick and painless and can be done solo in minutes. It will probably take you at least as long to get the chair out of the box as it will to set it up and prepare it for first use.
Having said that, you will need to go through a period of familiarization and customization. Since so many aspects of the Embody can be tweaked and adjusted, finding the perfect settings for you and how you use the chair can take some time. The exact amount will vary from person to person, of course, but with every improvement you make, you’ll fall in love with it more deeply as you optimize your settings.
In the final analysis, the Herman Miller Embody is simply a masterpiece, representing the bleeding edge of office furniture design. Given that and its impressive twelve-year warranty, we highly recommend this model.
This chair didn’t win top honors in this Roundup Report because it’s designed to appeal to a broad swath of the total market in a few dimensions, so it barely meets our requirements as a big and tall chair. Despite that, it claimed a second-place spot, which speaks volumes about its overall quality and utility.
It is truly a great chair and one of the best office chairs for big guys who are also power users.
Value Pick: Serta Tranquility Office Chair
Recommended For: Big and tall folks weighing up to four hundred pounds who need a chair for light to moderate daily use.
Few companies know more about comfort than Serta. Granted, they’re best known for their mattresses, but they have also used those skills to design office chairs and other furnishings. The Tranquility is an excellent example of their work.
Size & Specifications
A quick review of the chair’s basic stats reveals that the Tranquility is well-suited to the big and tall market. It has a seat width of 21” and a height adjustment range that starts at 18” and extends to 22,” which is perfectly acceptable. It has a slightly underwhelming seat depth of 19,” which exceeds our minimum threshold for a good big and tall chair, but not by much.
Max Supported Weight
In addition, the Tranquility supports up to 400 pounds of user weight. While other chairs on our list of finalists can support more weight, this generous number makes the chair a good fit for a broad swath of the big and tall market.
Comfort
The raw stats, however, only tell part of the story. The Serta Tranquility is easily the most comfortable chair on our list of finalists. If comfort matters most to you, then this one will be hard to beat.
While the overwhelming majority of office chairs use standard block foam for padding, the Tranquility takes things to a whole different level, utilizing a comprehensive comfort system composed of five different layers of padding, which we’ll outline in detail:
It could even be argued that a sixth layer of comfort technology exists here because all of these rest in a padded comfort cradle.
In short, the Serta Tranquility is hands-down the most comfortable chair on this list. It doesn’t sport the suite of cutting-edge ergonomic features of our top picks, but if comfort is what you’re looking for, nothing else comes close.
Ergonomic Features
Despite not having the latest and greatest in ergonomic features, the Tranquility does have a suite of well-designed, well-implemented standard ergonomic features, including:
Armrests
Of these, the weakest link is the armrests. While they are well-padded and comfortable, they’re not adjustable. That’s certainly not a deal breaker, but it does mean that as an ergonomic feature, the armrests are just not as well-implemented as the others in the set.
Lumbar Support
On the flip side, the chair’s lumbar support is its best ergonomic feature. The company utilizes a proprietary design they call “Pivoting Air Lumbar Support,” which provides dynamic lumbar support superior to the static support bar or pads used by many other chairs and helps increase breathability.
Bonded Leather
The note about breathability is important because this chair is upholstered in bonded leather, which means it’s not very breathable. If you spend any time sitting in it, you’ll start to get hot. Your back will sweat.
Mesh Pockets
However, Serta has taken steps to improve its breathability. They incorporated mesh side pockets in both the seat and the back, making a difference. Even so, fabric-upholstered chairs still beat it out on the breathability front. Still, we have to say, this is the most breathable leather-clad chair we’ve ever seen. Kudos to Serta!
On the flip side, there’s the matter of the bonded leather itself. As we mentioned in earlier sections, bonded leather is real leather, but it’s composed of scraps that have been fused, which makes it somewhat weaker and less supple than grain leather. It just doesn’t stand up well to the rigors of heavy daily use.
Does Not Come Assembled
As with most office furniture, the Serta Tranquility doesn’t come assembled. It will arrive at your home in a large box and several pieces. Production values are high, and the assembly instructions are quite clear, but this is a big piece of furniture, and assembling it solo will take up to an hour and present you with several challenges.
Also Great
ErgoHuman High Back Swivel
Recommended For: Anyone. This is a solid chair by any reckoning.
There’s no denying this is a great chair with much going for it. Unfortunately, as you’ll see below, it has a couple of shortcomings that kept it from ranking more highly on our list of finalists. It’s important to remember those things when deciding if this is the right chair for you.
Chair Specifications
Let’s start with the chair’s basic statistics, which highlight its three less-than-awesome features. The seat width is good at 20.5” but falls short of exceptional, and the seat depth of 18.5” only barely qualifies as big and tall, which is a bit underwhelming.
Those few underwhelming aspects of the design aside, though, make this a great chair, and everything else about it is amazing. The seat height range is quite good, starting at 18” and going up to 22”, making it well suited to a broad swath of the big and tall market, although the very tallest users might want a bit more on that front.
Max Supported Weight
In a similar vein, the chair’s maximum weight limit is 350 pounds, which isn’t bad but does reside at the lower end of what we’d like to see in a big and tall chair.
Seat Height
Those few underwhelming aspects of the design aside, though, make this a great chair, and everything else about it is amazing. The seat height range is quite good, starting at 18” and going up to 22”, making it well suited to a broad swath of the big and tall market, although the very tallest users might want a bit more on that front.
Extras and Add-ons
Hands down, the best and coolest feature this chair offers is that ErgoHuman sells various extras and add-ons that allow you to customize your seating experience in ways that aren’t possible with any other chair on the market.
We included the link to the company’s website: the extras and add-ons aren’t typically offered on third-party vendor sites. If you want them, you’ll have to buy directly from the company, and those additions will add to the already hefty price of the chair. Even so, depending on how you plan to use the chair, they’re well worth the added investment.
Standalone Ottoman
While there are a variety of options to choose from, the most popular are the matching, standalone ottoman, which is designed to serve as a low work table if you want it to, and the articulated arm.
Articulated Arm
This is an impressive innovation. The arm can be attached to either chair arm and supports a level platform big enough to hold a full-sized laptop, allowing you to work just about anywhere.
Upholstery
In addition, this chair is offered in fabric upholstery, grain leather (which is significantly better and more durable than bonded leather), or mesh, at your option. You can also select from various color finishes, with the exact color options varying depending on the type of upholstery you select.
Ergonomics
It gets even better, though. The ErgoHuman is no slouch where its ergonomic features and ‘extras’ are concerned. Ergonomically, you’ll find an excellent, adjustable lumbar support, a waterfall-edge style seat design that improves the circulation in your legs and makes this model exceptional for long stings of sitting, and a fully articulated headrest for excellent head and neck support.
Lumbar Support
The great thing about the lumbar support is that it can be adjusted to taste without changing how the rest of the seat back feels because it is broken into an upper and lower segment.
That’s awesome, but ErgoHuman’s implementation doesn’t give you the same kind of whole-back support that a chair like the Leap Plus offers. Even so, you’ll like the chair’s lumbar support system, especially if you suffer from chronic lower back pain.
Armrests
Turning our attention to the armrests, we find that although they are not ergonomically designed, they are height adjustable and swivel in and out by up to 45 degrees.
Lifetime Warranty
The designers put a lot of thought into the chair, which is unique among our finalists in terms of sheer flexibility. There’s nothing else that even comes close. You can order the chair you want, optimize it for how you plan to use it, and get it in various colors. Best of all, ErgoHuman offers a lifetime warranty on their products, so if the dimensions of this model work for you, this is the last office chair you’ll ever need to buy.
Easy Assembly
The only other thing to mention here is that if you decide this is the chair for you, it will arrive at your door unassembled and in several large pieces. Fortunately, the assembly instructions are clear, and the production quality is exceptional, both of which combine to make putting it together pretty straightforward.
If you’re assembling the chair solo, expect it to take about 35 minutes. The only real tricky part is attaching the seat to the seat back, which is made slightly easier by the fact that the seat back comes in two separate pieces, with the bottom-most section dedicated to lumbar support.
If you have a trusty assistant to help, the seat-to-seatback attachment will be significantly easier, and it will probably shave ten to fifteen minutes off the total assembly time.
Overall, we recommend the chair, noting that the relatively modest weight limit (by big and tall standards) and the underwhelming seat depth may make it unsuitable for some segments of the big and tall market. If the dimensions work for you, however, and you love customization options, this is an amazing chair you’ll be proud to own.
Flash Furniture Hercules 24/7
Recommended For: Anyone who spends several hours a day in their chair. This thing is virtually indestructible.
Flash Furniture is an off-brand, so it wouldn’t be surprising if you hadn’t heard of it before. As an off-brand, though, Flash is in a class by itself. They make incredibly good furniture offered at amazingly low prices, which is why their products are so commonly featured alongside much larger and better-established brands.
The company’s Hercules furniture lineup was designed for high-volume call center use. These chairs were intended for multiple shifts operating twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. As such, Flash pulled out all the stops, constructing these chairs with durable, heavy-duty materials and providing copious padding.
While this model is reasonably attractive, the company played it safe here, opting for a conventional, if oversized, aesthetic. The good news is that this chair is delightfully unobtrusive, which means it will blend in seamlessly with almost any home décor scheme.
The Hercules 24/7 also has the distinction of supporting more user weight than any other chair on our list. This is mostly because the design team made it a point to use heavy gauge steel in the base and heavy-duty components elsewhere, which combine to make the chair virtually indestructible. However, this also has the unavoidable side effect of making it an incredibly heavy piece of furniture for an office chair!
Although the padding is conventional block foam, there’s much of it, except the armrests. Although they are padded like the rest of the chair, that’s the one area where the padding is a bit on the skimpy side. Certainly, it is not a deal breaker, but something to make a note of.
The armrests are ergonomically designed, the chair offers decent ergonomic support in the headrest and also features good-quality lumbar support. Unfortunately, the lumbar support is not adjustable in any way. While this is another design limitation, it won’t be a deal breaker for most people.
It gets better, though. This chair offers an incredibly wide, deep seat and a massive height adjustment range that starts at 21.5” and extends to 25.5”. That, combined with its incredible maximum supported weight, makes it an ideal choice for the biggest and the tallest user.
Since the overwhelming majority of home users aren’t going to be using this office chair anywhere close to 24/7 (which, again, is what it was specifically designed for), you’ll find it delightfully durable and long-lasting, capable of handling just about anything you can dish out.
The chair does not come assembled, and due to its size and weight, putting it together without help can be frustrating and time-consuming. If you have to do it solo, expect it to take the better part of an hour. You can probably cut that time to about thirty minutes with an extra pair of hands. Once you’ve assembled it, you’ll have to periodically re-tighten the arms using the included Allen Wrenches.
While many of the other chairs on our list of finalists feature cutting-edge ergonomic features and are much more adjustable, this model is hard to beat in terms of price, durability, and basic functionality.
If you don’t have much money to spend and want a rock-solid chair, this one belongs on your shortlist and deserves the “Best Value” award we gave it. Highly recommended. It’s quite possibly the best heavy-duty office chair on the market today.
Note: Although this chair is upholstered in fabric, you can also order a (bonded) leather-clad version. Doing so would make this chair less well-suited to heavy daily usage, but if you prefer leather, you have that option here.
Bonus Entry – AmazonBasics Big and Tall
Recommended For: Anyone on a budget, looking for a low-priced leather-upholstered chair.
We’re including this chair at the end of this review section because it scored exactly the same as our honorable mention and best value item.
Given that the two chairs scored the same overall and Amazon is such a respected company, we felt our review would be incomplete without mentioning this model briefly.
Although this model ranks identically with Flash Furniture’s Hercules 24/7, it’s not quite as good as a big and tall chair, for reasons we’ll discuss below.
First, let’s take a quick look at the basic stats that define the chair:
As you can see, in many ways, this chair is well-suited to the big and tall market it serves, although its height adjustment range isn’t quite as impressive as the Flash Furniture offering. It should be noted, however, that unless you’re exceptionally tall, you don’t necessarily need the full-height extension of the Flash Furniture chair.
Also, note that the seat isn’t quite as wide as the chair we just talked about, but the difference is only a single inch, which won’t be a deal breaker for most people.
Unfortunately, this chair only supports a maximum of 350 pounds of user weight, which qualifies it as a big and tall chair based on the selection criteria we talked about earlier. However, it’s definitely on the lower end of that spectrum, which means it won’t work for people at the top end of the big and tall segment of the market. We prefer seeing big and tall office chairs that support 400 lbs. or more, but those are surprisingly rare.
That one shortcoming aside, however, it’s an unmistakably solid design that is surprisingly full-featured. The chair’s biggest selling point is that its excellent lumbar support system is height adjustable, allowing you to customize your seating experience for optimal comfort and ergonomic support.
In addition, it features excellent head and neck support with a well-designed headrest. The chair arms aren’t adjustable, but they are generously padded. Unfortunately, although the seat seems inspired by the waterfall design, it falls short of being a true waterfall-style seat, which limits its ergonomic use on that front.
This model didn’t make our list of finalists for two reasons. The first is its relatively low weight limit for a big and tall chair. Given that it competed directly with a chair that offered nearly double that amount, it was hard to justify its inclusion on our shortlist.
The second reason, though, concerns the chair’s upholstery. It’s cladded in bonded leather, which, as we discussed earlier, is certainly attractive but not as well suited to or able to withstand the rigors of heavy daily usage.
Given both of those, we simply felt the chair offered by Flash Furniture was the better choice. However, Amazon is such a well-respected company that we didn’t feel this section of our review would have been complete without giving it at least a brief mention. It’s the best office chair for big and tall men looking for a good leather upholstery option. We provisionally recommend it.
Best Mesh Office Chairs for Big and Tall 2024
Primary Rating:
4.5
|
Primary Rating:
4.3
|
Primary Rating:
4.3
|
$1,419.99
|
$699.00
|
N/A
|
Overall Dimensions:
28.2” x 28.2” x 43”
|
Overall Dimensions:
26.5” x 29” x 52”
|
Overall Dimensions:
28.1” x 29.1” x 40.5”
|
Chair Weight:
43 pounds
|
Chair Weight:
64 pounds
|
Chair Weight:
45.2 pounds
|
Max. Supported Weight:
325 pounds
|
Max. Supported Weight:
350 pounds
|
Max. Supported Weight:
450 pounds
|
Seat Width:
20.25”
|
Seat Width:
20.5”
|
Seat Width:
23”
|
Seat Height:
16” to 20.5”
|
Seat Height:
18.5” to 22”
|
Seat Height:
18” to 22”
|
Seat Depth:
18.5”
|
Seat Depth:
18.5”
|
Seat Depth:
20”
|
Pros:
|
Pros:
|
Pros:
|
Cons:
|
Cons:
|
Cons:
|
Our Verdict:
Honestly, this is the best big and tall ergonomic office chair being sold today. Highly recommended, IF its dimensions are a good fit for yours.
|
Our Verdict:
Recommended for users who are interested in maximizing their color, upholstery, and seating options – if the chair’s dimensions work for you.
|
Our Verdict:
If you’re struggling to find a chair that’s wide enough for you, and you don’t have a lot of money to spend, this is a great option. Recommended.
|
- This is one of the oldest, most time-tested office chair designs on the market today, offered by a giant in the office furniture industry.
- In some dimensions, it only barely qualifies as a big and tall chair, which means it may not be appropriate for the biggest of the big and the tallest of the tall.
- There are an almost unbelievable number of customization options for this chair. Lifetime warranty!
- You’ll have to pay extra for the options above, and the chair is already rather expensive. On top of that, while its stats qualify it as a big and tall model, it only just makes the cut, meaning it may not be a good fit for every big and tall user. Available in a broad range of colors and upholstery options.
- Impressive seat width. Independently height adjustable arm rests. Excellent, adjustable ergonomic support. Offered for a song by a great company.
- Bare bones. While there are a few notable features, this chair doesn’t do much more than cover the basics.
Now that we’ve taken a closer look at the best non-mesh big and tall chairs on the market today let’s do the same for the best mesh chairs currently being sold.
Our Pick: Herman Miller Aeron
Recommended For: Anyone. A solid, venerable ergonomic chair.
Herman Miller’s Aeron is a venerable design that the company has offered for over two decades. Periodically, Herman Miller’s designers will reel the chair back in and give it a refit and redesign, keeping it up to date with everything the company has and continues to learn about ergonomic design.
Not long ago, the Aeron underwent one of those periodic redesigns, and the latest version of the chair is a wonder.
One thing to be aware of when dealing with the Aeron is that it’s offered in three different sizes, dubbed simply A, B, and C. The “A” chairs are for petite users, while the “B” chairs are for people of average size, and the “C” chairs are for big and tall folks.
Before we take a deeper look at everything the Aeron can do and has to offer, let’s do a quick review of the stats in the summary table:
Chair Specifications
There are a couple of important things to talk about here. First and foremost, the chair’s weight limit may be problematic for some big and tall users. Although we’re looking at the “C” model here, which is the largest Aeron made, it has a surprisingly modest weight limit for a big, tall chair.
It works for certain segments of the market, but it clearly won’t work for everyone, which means that despite its ranking the highest overall, it may not be the right chair for you.
Second, there’s the height adjustment range. While most big and tall chairs have a height adjustment range that starts at 18” and goes to at least 22,” the Aeron starts lower and doesn’t extend as high. Again, this is an important limitation to be mindful of. It’s great for big and tall people up to, say, about 6’2” or 6’3”, but if you’re taller than that, then one of our other finalists will be a better overall fit.
Those two limitations aside, though, every other Aeron aspect is amazing. Just be sure to take careful measurements before committing to the purchase, as the Aeron isn’t cheap by any means!
Packed with Features
PostureFit SL
Although the Aeron’s seat back is all one piece, its cunning design still provides the biggest benefits of a segmented seat back design. The driving force behind that fact is the chair’s “PostureFit SL” technology, which serves much the same function as the Leap’s “LiveBack” which we talked about in the non-mesh section.
Here, the “SL” stands for sacral and lumbar, which describes the area of your spine ranging from your lower back to your mid-back. The seat back flexes and moves independently for these two regions, providing dynamic back support, which is more or less equal to the aforementioned LiveBack technology, which gives the chair genuine therapeutic value if you suffer from chronic back pain and makes the chair a lot more comfortable than you might expect.
Mesh + Comfort
One of the shortcomings mesh chairs tend to have on the comfort front is that pure mesh chairs trade padding for increased breathability. There’s much to be said about breathability, especially if you spend several hours a day working from your chair. Still, it’s not a perfect replacement for padding, so many mesh chairs adopt a hybrid approach, using a denser, more tightly woven mesh-fabric hybrid in the seat and then stretching this over block foam.
The Aeron takes a slightly different approach. Some padding is found along the edge of the chair’s waterfall-edge-style seat, but the rest is pure mesh. This innovative third-way approach further enhances the chair’s comfort while maintaining something close to maximum breathability.
Overall, it’s not quite as comfortable as a padded chair, but it’s close enough that you won’t feel any discomfort, even after a full day sitting in it. The breathability, a bit of extra cushioning for your legs, and the Aeron’s dazzling back support combine to create a delightful seating experience that far exceeds just about every other mesh chair out there.
Ergonomic Features
Even better, you can adjust the amount of lumbar support you get by tweaking the tension offered by the lumbar support structure, so you’re guaranteed to get exactly the level of support you need.
The armrests are ergonomically sculpted, well-padded, and comfortable, but that’s just the beginning. Depending on how you use the chair, you can independently adjust the height of the armrests, move them backward or forward, and swivel them, changing their angle for optimal comfort.
In addition to reclined seating at any angle between 90 and 135 degrees, you can adjust the tilt limiter so that the chair leans forward. This is fantastic if you’re doing any type of drafting work or leaning over a tablet rather than looking at a PC monitor.
Color Options
Finally, although you won’t find a generous selection of color options here, Herman Miller does offer the Aeron in a few different color and base configurations. These are:
Given Aeron’s unobtrusive design, these four options are more than enough to make the chair blend seamlessly into most home or office environments.
Great News, It Comes Mostly Assembled!
This is a small point, but it’s worth mentioning. While most office chairs come completely disassembled, the Aeron will arrive at your door in just two pieces. It will take longer to unbox the chair than it will to position the seat onto the base and get the chair ready for first use, so if you’re looking for a chair that you won’t have to spend the better part of an hour wrestling to assemble, then you’ll love this model!
Even better, it comes with Herman Miller’s standard 12-year warranty, which is impressive, to say the least.
Overall, we love and highly recommend the Herman Miller Aeron, although we caution users to take careful measurements and be mindful of the two limitations we discussed at the start (the relatively modest maximum supported weight and the somewhat lower-than-average seat adjustment height). If you can live with both of those things, this is a superb mesh chair you’ll be proud to own. Consistently one of the best-rated big and tall office chairs on the market.
Runner-Up: ErgoHuman Executive Chair
Recommended For: Anyone. This is a solid chair by any reckoning.
The ErgoHuman holds a unique position in our Roundup Review because it is the only chair to appear both in the mesh and non-mesh portions of our review. That’s simply because it offers all three upholstery options.
Since we’ve already discussed this model at length in the non-mesh portion of this document, rather than repeating that information here, we’ll simply refer you to the ErgoHuman section of the non-mesh review above.
Literally, the only difference between the mesh and non-mesh versions of the ErgoHuman chair is the absence of padding and the material itself.
The mesh version of the chair still features the two-segmented seat back, which allows for highly customized and effective lumbar support without impacting the feel of the rest of the seatback. You can order the full range of add-ons and extras for your mesh chair.
No matter how you slice it, this is a superb big and tall mesh office chair.
Budget Pick: AmazonBasics Big and Tall Mesh Swivel
Despite its shockingly low price, the AmazonBasics Big and Tall mesh chair wound up claiming an impressive third place on our list of finalists. While it lacks the cutting-edge features of the Aeron and doesn’t boast the impressive array of extras offered by ErgoHuman, it’s got the basics very well covered and is a superb choice for anyone on a budget.
Let’s start by briefly reviewing the basic stats that define the chair:
As you can see, based on the numbers, Amazon’s offering solves the two biggest problems we had with the Aeron. It supports a generous amount of user weight and extends to a height of 22”, which is the unwritten industry standard for big and tall chairs.
It also has a delightfully wide seat, which makes it ideal for users who tend to be bigger, whether or not they’re taller. Sadly, that’s an underserved segment of the big and tall market, so kudos to Amazon for filling the niche and offering such a great chair!
Ergonomic Features
Regarding features, there’s much less to talk about here than there was with the Aeron. Its standout ergonomic feature is its well-implemented adjustable lumbar support. While it doesn’t provide the same level of therapeutic benefit offered by the more expensive chairs on our list, its lumbar support is excellent and will serve people who aren’t suffering from chronic back pain very well.
In addition, the Amazon Big and Tall mesh can recline up to 120 degrees, and the seat is generously padded and comfortable.
It seems clear that the seat was at least inspired by the waterfall-edge design, but it doesn’t quite meet that standard. It’s comfortable and won’t cut off circulation to your legs, even if you work several hours from the chair.
Assembly Required
Unfortunately, unlike the Aeron, this model comes completely disassembled, and if you’re putting it together on your own, you may be in for a bit of an adventure. Given the size of the chair, you’re much better off enlisting the aid of an assistant while you’re putting it together. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself struggling in places, although once you get the chair put together, the only thing you’ll have to do is a bit of periodic re-tightening.
Ultimately, whether this chair is the right choice for you comes down to this: If you suffer from chronic back pain, you’ll probably be happier with the ErgoHuman or the Aeron. However, the downside to those two chairs is that they cost vastly more.
If you’re just looking for a good mesh office chair that provides solid ergonomic support and you don’t have a lot of money to spend, the models that ranked more highly may be overkill. This model is a strong contender. We recommend it without reservation. It’s a good fit for a huge swath of the big and tall market.
Also Great
Flash Furniture Hercules Mesh Executive
Recommended For: Anyone on a budget.
We can’t say enough good things about Flash Furniture, the tiny little off-brand that manages to stand toe to toe with much bigger names in office furniture.
In fact, in this roundup review, Flash has placed more chairs on our list of finalists than any other company. The only thing keeping their overall rankings from beating out their larger competitors is that they don’t have the brand strength that the others do. Long story short, though, they make great furniture, and the Hercules Mesh Executive Chair is no exception.
This chair is similar to the fabric-clad Hercules chair we mentioned in the non-mesh section of our review, but there are some important differences.
Rather than comparing those two models side-by-side, though, it’s probably more appropriate to compare this model to the Amazon Big and Tall, which narrowly beat it out in the overall score.
Chair Specifications
Let’s start by reviewing the basic statistics that drive and define this model:
Chair Design
When you look at those numbers, one thing that jumps out at you right away is that this is a big, imposing chair. Fortunately, however, it’s designed along purely conventional lines, so other than its imposing size, it tends to blend in easily with most home or office décor schemes.
Chair Size
The other thing that is readily apparent is that this chair was built for giants. This chair is probably too big for you if you’re on the low end of the big and tall spectrum. Short people can’t even sit comfortably in it. If they scoot back in the massive seat, their legs won’t hang over the edge of the seat. If they lean forward so their legs hang over properly, they won’t have any back support, and even at this chair’s lowest settings, their feet are unlikely to touch the floor.
Height Adjustment
Another thing to note is that when you compare this model to Amazon’s, this one basically picks up where Amazon’s offering leaves off. The Amazon chair has a height adjustment range that starts at 18” and runs to 22. This chair starts at 20” and runs all the way to 24.”
If you find that the standard height adjustment range used by most big and tall chairs sold today just isn’t enough for you, this chair has you covered.
The Hercules Mesh can support an impressive amount of user weight, owing to its sturdy construction and the use of high-grade materials.
Where most office chair bases are made from plastic or aluminum, the Hercules line of chairs offered by Flash Furniture has solid steel bases and ruggedized gas lifts. These chairs can stand up to just about anything. Sure, solid steel makes them heavier than most office chairs, but they’re built to last, and in our book, that’s a very good thing.
Ergonomic Features
Another thing we like about Flash is that they don’t try to do too much with their designs. They select a few key features, implement them well, and let the rest go. This chair won’t dazzle you with tons of cutting-edge features. It’s an unassuming model that focuses on the basics, offering excellent adjustable lumbar support and a waterfall-edge style seat as its ergonomic mainstays.
The one “extra” you’ll find here is that the chair’s stubby arms (a bit too short for our liking) flip up when not in use. That’s handy given the chair’s size because with the arms down, you’re unlikely to be able to push this one under your desk when you’re not sitting in it. Kudos to Flash for including the feature, which adds flexibility to the design.
Assembly Required
Like the AmazonBasics chair we just discussed, this one does not arrive at your door assembled, and the assembly process can be a bit daunting, if not downright frustrating if you attempt to do it on your own. It’s just a beast of a chair, and the presence of an extra pair of hands will help things go more smoothly. Not to say you can’t do it solo – sure, it’s possible, but you can expect it to take a good deal longer.
Once you get it put together, though, this chair can handle just about anything you can throw at it. It’s surprisingly comfortable and well-suited to the rigors of heavy daily use.
We’re pretty sure this chair can handle everything up to tossing it into a live volcano, and even then, we wouldn’t be all that surprised if it survived the volcano. This is one tough chair, and if you’re big enough to fit into it, we recommend it without reservation. One of the best mesh office chairs for a big person on the market today.
Flash Furniture Hercules Mesh Task Chair
Recommended For: Anyone who doesn’t have a lot of money to spend and is looking for a low-priced, durable chair for moderate to periodic heavy use.
Bringing up the rear of this section of our roundup review is the third of three Flash Furniture models to make the cut. It’s a very good chair for the right user, but unfortunately, it’s gotten a bit of a bad reputation.
Our view is this: For the right user, using the chair for the purposes it was designed for, this is a superb, incredibly cost-effective choice. Use it in any way other than what it was intended for, and you’re bound to be disappointed by it.
Because it tends to be narrowly focused, though, it didn’t rank higher than an honorable mention in this section of our review.
Chair Specifications
Let’s start by reviewing the stats that define the model:
From this, you can tell that it’s a big and tall heavy-duty office chair like the fabric-upholstered chair we mentioned earlier. Still, a closer look at the core stats reveals some interesting differences and limitations.
For example, it’s sturdily constructed and supports an impressive amount of weight. It utilizes a standard height adjustment range that you commonly see in big and tall chairs, but check out the seat width and depth.
Those values are very borderline for a big and tall chair, which makes this a solid choice for tall users but not a great choice for heavyset users. The seat width doesn’t support it in the same way that the Amazon Basics or the Flash Furniture Executive chair does, which defines it as a niche product.
Comfort
Then there’s the matter of this chair’s relatively modest padding. It’s got far less padding than just about every other chair on this list, and in truth, this relative lack of padding has led to more than a few negative reviews of the chair.
The thing is, though, this isn’t a chair you’d want to buy if you plan to spend several consecutive hours sitting at a desk. This is a task chair.
It’s designed to give active users who are on their feet a comfortable place to sit in between the other stuff they’re doing.
If you’re not spending much time in the chair and your sitting is frequently interrupted, the limited padding isn’t an issue. It’s perfectly comfortable for an hour or two of sitting, and then you’re on your feet again. If that’s how you plan on using the chair, this is a great model, and you can pick it up at a super attractive price.
Ergonomic Features
The Flash Furniture Mesh chair has two ergonomic features: well-implemented and not-so-well-implemented. Let’s start with the good.
Seat Design
This chair offers a waterfall-edge style seat design, so it doesn’t cut off the circulation of your legs while you’re sitting in it, so when you get back on your feet a bit later, you don’t suffer that annoying pins and needles feeling. It is a solid feature and a great addition to this chair.
Lumbar Support
The lumbar support, which Flash typically implements very well, isn’t as strong on this chair as we would like to have seen.
In this case, a bar that stretches across the mesh seat back provides support. That’s not bad, but the bar’s position can be adjusted. It provides great lumbar support at its lowest position, but you can move it higher to provide mid-back support if you need more.
Notes About the Lumbar Support
It’s a great idea in theory, but there are two problems with the company’s feature implementation. First, they didn’t bother to include any documentation to let buyers know how to use it best. That, combined with the fact that most of the pictures you see of this chair show the support bar in the mid-back, has led to some complaints and a few negative big and tall office chair reviews.
Second, there’s no way to tighten the bar to hold it in place. When you move it, the only thing that keeps it where you put it is that the bar travels in a tight-fitting groove. Over time, the groove will wear down, and the bar will drop down automatically to its lowest possible position.
Again, that’s not a bad thing. In the lowest position, it provides lumbar support, its main purpose. The company implemented the “groove” system to allow it to provide support in other areas of your back, too, at user preference, but the idea, from the start, was lumbar support.
Once the groove begins to wear, if you want mid-back support, you’ll have to get creative and rig up a DIY solution to keep it in place. That’s not a deal breaker, but it does point to substandard implementation, which is unusual from Flash Furniture.
Tilt Limiter
Finally, there’s the matter of the tilt limiter. This is only a problem for people who like to recline in their chairs, but reclining isn’t a critical function in a task chair.
Most office chairs with a recline function have several settings you can choose from, usually marked out in five- to ten-degree increments. You can, for example, set the angle to 90 degrees, 95 degrees, 100 degrees, and so on.
The Flash Furniture Mesh Chair’s tilt limiter is either on or off. If it’s off, the chair is locked at 90 degrees. If it’s on, it reclined back to 120 degrees. There’s no in-between setting, and the only way you can simulate it is to activate the tilt and then use your back muscles to not recline all the way back, which gets tiresome quickly. For this reason, most people either just don’t activate the tilt function at all, or they’ll activate it and just work from the 120 recline angle.
Recommendation
So, who, exactly, is this chair for?
In our view, if you:
This is an amazing chair. It also makes a great backup chair if you sometimes have company and need a temporary place for a guest to sit while you’re showing them something.
This is not the kind of chair you’d buy to sit in for more than two hours or so at a stretch, though, and if you use it that way, you’re almost certainly disappointed in it. If you use it for its intended purpose, you’ll find it a great little chair that provides solid value for the money.
Given all of the above, especially the fact that it’s designed for a relatively narrow segment of the big and tall market and is not a true office chair, we provisionally recommend this model for the right user.
Best Big and Tall Office Chairs Roundup Review 2024 Conclusion
So, what’s the best office chair for big and tall on the market today? Ultimately, that depends on you. Every person who’s looking for one has different preferences, needs, and desires and you may not agree with our top picks in the two categories we’ve explored, which is why we made sure to include the other finalists as well.
If you’re still undecided, here’s a quick summary:
Non-Mesh (Leather / Fabric)
Mesh
At the end of the day though, there’s only one question: Which of these is the best big and tall office chair for you?
Recommended Reading
Office Chair for Back Pain
We reviewed and assessed the best office chairs for back pain against four selection criteria.
Office Chair for Hip Pain
Discover the best office chair for hip pain or arthritis in our comprehensive roundup review.
REFERENCES & RESOURCES
- Amazon Basics Big and Tall Mesh Chair User Manual.
- Flash Furniture, Official Brand Website.
- Steelcase, Official Brand Website.
- Herman Miller, Official Brand Website.
- Ergohuman, Official Brand Website.
- Four Key Features of an Office Chair, HumanTech.
- Maintain an Erect Sitting Posture with Office Chair Back Support, StreetDirectory.