In a Nutshell:
The smaller cousin of the Hercules Mesh Executive Chair, this is a great choice as a backup, or for moderate daily use. 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.
Value for the Money
Comfort
Brand Reliability*
Aesthetic Flexibility**
Overall Rating
3.6/5
Benefits
Drawbacks
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.
Is money tight at your house? Are you in the market for a decent chair designed for big and tall folks that won’t cost you an arm and a leg?
If you answered yes to either of those questions, the Flash Furniture Hercules Mesh Executive Swivel Task Chair might be just what you’ve been looking for. Note that we said ‘might’ and we’ll be quick to add that this chair isn’t for everyone. For the right user, however, it’s an absolute godsend.
Are you that user?
There’s only one way to find out. If you are, then there’s no need to spend more than you have to in order to get a chair that works for you and gets the job done. Sure, there are office chairs out there that cost hundreds of dollars, but honestly, if you can find something durable and workable for a fraction of that, why wouldn’t you?
In the sections that follow, we’ll tell you all about the Hercules Task Chair and what makes it so good. If you find yourself nodding in agreement as we’re going through the chair’s features and thinking to yourself, ‘yep – that’s exactly what I need from an office chair,’ then you’ll know you’ve found your next perfect chair.
Even if you don’t reach that conclusion, by the end of this review, we think you’ll agree. For the right person, this handy task chair is perfect. Ready to see if you’re the person this chair was designed for or not?
Let’s jump right in!
Flash Furniture Hercules Mesh Executive Swivel Task Chair Overview
Okay, there’s just no good way to say it; the Flash Furniture Hercules Mesh Executive Swivel Task chair isn’t going to win any beauty contests. It’s not outright ugly, but the mesh seat back doesn’t do this design any favors, making it look a bit industrial.
If you have a home or office space with an industrial design aesthetic, it will fit right in. Otherwise, it’s going to stick out a bit. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s what you tend to notice when you see the chair for the first time.
If you’re okay with its industrial aesthetic, then the rest of the chair comes into focus and what you see is a big, sturdy, capable task chair. As to how big, sturdy and durable, let’s take a look at the stats that define it.
Chair Specifications
A couple of things to make a note of right off the bat. It’s a substantial piece of furniture, weighing as much as many full-blown executive chairs and it supports a generous amount of weight.
On top of that, it’s got a seat height adjustment range that’s right in the sweet spot for big and tall chairs. Short people, sorry, this chair isn’t for you. Taller folks, step right up.
There’s a bit of a catch though. Notice that the seat width and depth only barely meet our qualifications for a big and tall chair. This model then, caters more toward taller, big-boned people than shorter heavy-set folks, making it something of a niche product. Even so, if you fall into that niche, you’re probably already thinking of the different ways you might be able to use it.
To assist with that, let’s move from raw statistics and into the actual features the chair brings to the table.
No Armrests
The first thing you’ll notice is that as a task chair, the Flash Furniture Hercules Executive Mesh Swivel Task Chair doesn’t have armrests.
That’s not a deal breaker by any means. Many people don’t actually like, or often use the arms of their office chairs, and if you’re a musician and looking for a chair to practice in, even if you get a chair with arms, you almost always gravitate to ones with arms that flip up so you can get them out of the way as needed.
Mesh Back & Lumbar Support
Since the seat back is mesh, your eye can’t help but be drawn to the support band that runs through the middle. This is supposed to be the chair’s lumbar support, but it’s placed much too high to serve that purpose. What lumbar support you get comes from the struts descending below it, while the band itself does an admirable job of supporting your mid-back.
In any case, there’s no mechanism to adjust the tension, so there’s no way to tweak the level of support you get. Again, that’s not a deal breaker and in fact, is the norm on office furniture offered at this price, but hold on. Take a closer look at how that support bar is attached to the edges of the seat back.
Lumbar Support Adjustment
Notice the grooves on either side? That allows you to reposition the band and at its lowest point, it does provide dedicated lumbar support. Unfortunately, that’s mentioned precisely nowhere in the assembly instructions or anywhere else, and many people just overlook it, saying that the chair’s lumbar support is below average.
It isn’t, but the company doesn’t make it clear how to utilize it best.
This implementation does have one problem though, in that over time; the band will loosen in its groove and tend to slide to the lowest position. It’s not a huge deal because again, at its lowest position it’s providing lumbar support, but if you require support higher up on your back, over the long haul, you’ll find yourself irritated at the little band and ultimately have to resort to a DIY solution to make it stay where you want it.
Tilt Function
Other than that, and the seat height adjustment we mentioned at the start, there’s only one other feature to mention here, and that’s the tilt limiter, which allows you to recline back in the chair at 120 degrees.
This, in our view, is a bit of a problem and here’s why: Most tilt limiters have specific settings. 90 Degrees. 95 Degrees. 100 Degrees, and so on. These settings allow you to fine tune the angle of your recline.
The Hercules Mesh doesn’t bother with that. The tilt limiter is binary. You’re either sitting up straight, or you’re reclining back to 120 degrees. There’s no in-between choice.
Your only other option is to use the muscles in your back to “sort of recline” which gets tiresome in a hurry. Given that, in practice most people who buy the chair either opt to leave it locked at 90 degrees or leave it unlocked and live with it. Few switch back and forth between the two modes.
Comfort
Now let’s talk about comfort. One thing you’ll notice when you read reviews of this model is that a significant minority of people complain that the chair isn’t as well padded as they’d like, and it’s true. The Hercules Mesh Task Chair doesn’t sport a copious amount of padding.
That’s by design, and our sense of it is that the people making this complaint are trying to use the chair for something other than what it was intended for. This is not the chair you want to buy if you plan to spend several hours of every day sitting in it working at your computer or gaming.
This is a task chair. It was designed for people to have a reasonably comfortable perch to do a short to a medium-duration task, and then get up to do other stuff, returning to the chair at periodic intervals to sit for short periods.
In other words, this would make a terrible office chair, but it’s a great chair for someone with an active job that also requires periodic intervals of sitting. That’s why there aren’t tons of padding.
If you’re only sitting in the chair for an hour or two at a stretch, you’re not really going to notice, so there’s no need spending extra money on padding you’re not really using.
Conversely, the reason executive chairs tend to boast more padding is because the people sitting in them tend to stay in their chair for several hours at a stretch. Over the course of those hours, block foam padding continues to compress. Without lots of padding, you’d reach a point where you’d feel as though you were sitting on the metal seat pan, which is unpleasant.
The point here is, make sure you get a chair that aligns with what you’re doing and how you’re going to use it. If you’re an active person but need a chair to sit in for short periods off and on throughout the day, this model is perfect and is being offered for a song.
On the other hand, if you’re a power gamer looking for something to sit in for twelve hours at a stretch while you’re playing World of Warcraft, this chair is a terrible choice for that.
Minimal Assembly Required
If you decide this is the chair you want, there’s good news on the assembly front. Although the Flash Furniture Hercules Series Big and Tall Mesh Swivel Task chair does come in pieces, it comes in exactly four pieces, so putting it together will only take you about ten minutes.
Even better, since the seat doesn’t attach directly to the seat back, it’s a job you can perform entirely on your own, with ease. There’s no need, and really no advantage to enlisting the aid of a second person here. The instructions are clear, and setup is a breeze.
Pros & Cons – Flash Furniture Hercules Mesh Swivel Task Chair
We feel as though this chair gets an unfairly bad rap, with a significant minority complaining about the lack of lumbar support and the chair’s relative lack of padding.
We disagree on both counts. Granted, the lumbar support’s implementation could have been cleaner, and Flash could have taken some steps to explain how to use their little support bar, but in our view, complaints along these lines stem from a lack of communication and a general misunderstanding. The feature is present; it’s just that its use isn’t all that obvious.
We also disagree with the people who say this chair lacks sufficient padding. The padding is perfectly adequate provided the chair is used for the purpose it was designed for. Again though, if you buy this chair with the intention of spending six, eight, ten, or twelve hours at a time in it, no. You’re going to be miserable. That’s just not this chair’s function.
Flash Furniture Hercules Executive Mesh Swivel Task Chair Review Conclusion
We don’t love this model, but we do really like it. The Flash Furniture Hercules Executive Mesh Swivel Task Chair is very good at what it does, and it would be a superb chair for any active individual who needs a perch to sit on for short periods throughout the day of an hour or two at a time. It would also make a stellar backup chair, and it’s cheap enough to make that a genuine possibility.
If the dimensions and purpose the chair was designed around work for you, you’ll get a lot of value for your money. It’s not one of Flash Furniture’s best models, but it’s better than it gets credit for being. On that basis, we provisionally recommend it.
Recommended Reading
Flash Furniture Hercules Mesh Executive Office Chair Review
Our Flash Furniture Hercules Mesh Executive Chair review explores the ergonomic features of this gigantic chair.
REFERENCES & RESOURCES
- Flash Furniture, Official Brand Website.
- The Hidden Cost of Office Chairs, Safety Solutions.
- Why We Still Haven’t Found the Perfect Office Chair, LifeHacker.