HoMedics HMC-100 Massage Chair Review 2024

Are you looking for a great little massage chair for your home or apartment to help unwind after a long day?

Are you hoping to find something that offers some therapeutic value without costing a fortune?

If so, you’ve probably been pretty frustrated in your search. While there are a ton of massage chairs in the value segment of the market, most of them aren’t very good and are offered by off-brand companies with spotty reputations regarding customer service and support. 

In other words, pickings are slim. That’s what makes this model, offered by Homedics, such a pleasant surprise. A massage chair with enough features to render a world-class massage and provide a few basic therapeutic benefits at a price that won’t break the bank. What could be better than that?

If you’re intrigued, keep reading. In the following sections, we’ll review everything this awesome little chair can do and ensure you know its shortcomings and limitations. It doesn’t have many, but there are a few things to remember.

If that sounds good to you, let’s jump in and see what the Homedics HMC-100 Massage Chair offers.

Key Features of the Homedics HMC-100 Massage Chair

Let’s start by discussing aesthetics because that’s what you’ll notice first. 

At first glance, two things stand out about this model. First, it bears the unmistakable design influences of a gaming chair, but it also contains enough in the way of conventional styling that it won’t look out of place in your living room.

It’s not what we’d call an attractive chair; it’s relatively small and unobtrusive and will blend in well with most home décor schemes. It’s also offered in two different colors, Ivory or brown, so you’ve got at least some flexibility there.

Chair Specifications

We mentioned its small size in passing just above, and we’ll have more to say about that in a moment, but let’s take a closer look at the Homedics HMC-100 Massage Chair’s basic stats first.

As you can see, this isn’t a huge piece of furniture, so you’ll easily find a permanent home for it, even if you live in a smaller house or an apartment.

Unfortunately, it’s so small that you may not comfortably fit into it; check out that modest supported weight limit! 

According to the vendor’s detail page, the chair will accommodate users ranging in height from 4’9” to 6’2”. In our view, that’s probably too generous. If you’re over six feet tall, this chair probably isn’t a good fit. 

As long as you fall under the height and weight restrictions, though, there’s a lot about the model you’ll like, but before we take a deeper look at its feature set, we should pause to say a few words about Homedics as a company.

About Homedics

Homedics is not a giant in the industry, but it is a well-respected company that stands head and shoulders above the off-brands that dominate the value segment of the market.

This chair was designed for the company by Cozzia, which, like Homedics, is not a giant in the massage chair industry but is nonetheless a well-respected brand with a reputation for making consistently good chairs. 

As you’ll see in the next segment, Cozzia used their expertise to design this model well!

Dual Rollers and an L-Track

Modern massage chairs use one of two track types. An S-track is relatively short, running from your shoulders to the small of your back. An L-track is longer, extending under the seat so that the rollers traveling along the track can also massage your glutes and the backs of your thighs.

This model uses an L-track, which we consider superior because it gives you something closer to a full-body massage treatment.

Granted, owing to the chair’s small size, the track itself isn’t terribly long, measuring just 30”, but assuming you fit into the chair, that’s long enough to give you a good massage over much of your body.

The model also features dual rollers that travel along the track. Unfortunately, that’s below the current industry standard. Most more expensive chairs utilize quad rollers that more closely mimic human hands’ feel. Even so, compared to most massage chairs valued under $1000 this one competes with and offers a next-level massage.

Most of the chairs in the value segment of the market utilize a fixed frame with stationary massage heads mounted on it. Since the heads don’t move, the massage they can render is limited. This is vastly superior to those types of chairs.

A Few Basic Options & a Wonderful Surprise

Most massage chairs sold in the value segment of the market offer a simple, vibration-style massage. This is another thing that sets the Homedics HMC-100 Compact Massage chair apart. It utilizes two actual massage techniques: Shiatsu and Tapping. You can specify which one you want via the wired remote.

Even better, the remote has four pre-programmed massage routines, making it easy to sit down and start enjoying a massage in mere seconds. Just settle back into the chair, push a button, close your eyes, and enjoy.

Of course, you can create a customized massage experience, too. The remote allows a few basic customization options, although you are limited to selecting your massage technique and your desired intensity level.

Remember, this is a very inexpensive massage chair, and to keep the cost low under 500 dollars, there are some things you’ll commonly find on more expensive models that just aren’t here. These include things like:

This last item deserves more discussion. We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Homedics chair has body scanning technology. That means that every time you sit down in the chair, it will scan your body and tweak the position of the rollers to better target the pressure points on your back.

More expensive chairs will also offer some means of manually adjusting the roller position in the event that the body scan is incorrect. Sadly, that’s not the case here. 

If the body scan doesn’t put the rollers in the perfect spot for you, you’re out of luck. Short of wiggling around in your seat to try and move your back to the rollers, there’s not much you can do. It’s not a deal breaker because the body scan is generally pretty accurate, but it is a limitation.

Another thing to mention is that this chair does not recline at all, and there are no leg massage ports. The massage track stops at the backs of your thighs, and that’s that. 

On the other hand, this model has one feature we regard as absolutely amazing: heated rollers!

Heat almost always improves your massage experience, and it has genuine therapeutic value. If we had to pick just one feature to name as the standout aspect of the design, this would be it, without question. Heated rollers are amazing.

That said, this chair has its limitations. It doesn’t do everything, but it covers the basics well and even offers a surprise. Given its modest price, we love it.

Comes Fully Assembled!

This is another thing we love about this little chair. When the box arrives at your door, you can take the chair out of the box, put it where you want it to go, and plug it in. Everything comes pre-assembled, so there’s no mucking about with pieces and parts.

A Delightfully Simple Remote

While you may wish the Homedics chair had more features, one happy side effect of its limited feature set is that the remote is simple and intuitive. There’s’ no learning curve to speak of here, and even if you’re not especially tech-savvy, you won’t have any trouble mastering the chair’s use.

Even better, the chair’s design features a handy hideaway slot, allowing you to store the remote out of sight when you’re not actively using it.

One final thing to mention here, like in other Homedics HMC-100 Massage Chair reviews, is that all of the massages you get from this chair default to a fifteen-minute timer, and there’s no option to tweak the massage duration, up or down. 

Of course, there are easy ways to work around this limitation. If you want a shorter massage, turn the chair off. If you want a longer massage, push the button again when your fifteen minutes is up.

That said, the fact that the company didn’t include a mechanism to adjust the duration of your massage is hardly a deal breaker. The reality is that some chairs cost thousands of dollars and don’t allow users that luxury. Even so, it’s a detail worth bringing to your attention!

Pros & Cons of the Homedics HMC-100 Compact Massage Chair

In the world of value-priced furniture, companies take two different approaches. The first approach designers in this market segment tend to take is to throw a bunch of features at the wall and hope that at least a few of them are implemented well enough to stick and stand out.

Furniture like this tends to be made with low-quality materials and isn’t designed to last. Fortunately, the Homedics chair doesn’t fall into that category.

The other approach budget furniture designers take is to focus on one or two key features and implement them well, then pretty much let everything else go. That’s an apt description of this chair.

It doesn’t try to do too much, but it covers the basics well and even manages a pleasant surprise in those heated rollers.

We have no issues with this chair in its current form. Sure, we’d love to see all sorts of things on it, but we understand that the designers made a deliberate, conscious decision to limit the feature set to keep the cost down.

They succeeded in their goal. This is a surprisingly good basic massage chair that includes one important extra. If they started adding a bunch of features, the quality of the chair would increase, but so would its price, and then it wouldn’t be a budget offering anymore. We’re happy with it as it stands.

Homedics HMC-100 Massage Chair Review Conclusion

Given that this is a basic, value-priced massage chair, we’re very pleased with what the Homedics team was able to create, and we recommend this model.

We will say, though, that when buying a massage chair in this market segment, it’s important to go in with your eyes wide open and understand exactly what you’re getting. Just as important is a thorough understanding of what you’re not getting.

As long as you’re mindful of the chair’s limitations and assume you fall under the height and weight limits we mentioned at the start, we think you’ll be very pleased. It’s the best massage chair we’ve found at its price point, and it deserves to be on your shortlist for consideration.

Recommended Reading

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Official Manufacturer Support

References & Resources

• Homedics, Official Brand Website.
• Massage Chair Benefits That You Must Know, The Sports Daily.
• Using Massage Chairs During Pregnancy – Is It Safe?, Parenting.FirstCry.
• 6 Healthy Ways Getting a Massage Benefits Your Entire Body, Prevention.
• Local Back Massage with an Automated Massage Chair: General Muscle and Psychophysiologic Relaxing Properties, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.