Ootori RL-900L Massage Chair Review 2024

Do you suffer from chronic back pain? Do you have some money to spend on a decent massage chair, but to this point, have struggled to find something that had the perfect mix of capabilities? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then what you read in this review is bound to make you smile.

The Ootori RL-900L massage chair offers a spectacular mix of features that run the gamut from convenience flourishes and finishing touches to hard-hitting therapeutic features. There’s a little something for everyone, which makes it a superb generalist chair.

Granted, there are advantages and disadvantages to that approach. While it appeals to a broad spectrum of users in the center, those who are looking for a pure hobbyist chair won’t find quite enough of the features they love to wow them, and those who are looking for something to meet purely therapeutic needs will also be a bit underwhelmed.

For the vast bulk of the market, though, this chair hits just the right note. Is it right for you? By the end of this review, you’ll know for sure.  Read on, and we’ll tell you all about it!

An Overview of the Ootori RL-900L Massage Chair

The first thing you’ll notice when you see the Ootori RL-900L massage chair is that it’s definitely a massage chair. There’s no mistaking it, and the design team made no effort to disguise it. Some companies (Human Touch comes immediately to mind here) design many of their massage chairs such that their true function isn’t apparent at first or even second glance.

Ootori isn’t one of those companies. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is worth mentioning because it’s going to be a prominent fixture in whatever room you place it in. Having said that, let’s take a closer look at the core stats that define the model. Here are the basics:

There are a few things to talk about where these numbers are concerned. First, this is a big, hulking chair. If you live in an apartment, it’s probably going to be a nonstarter. In fact, if you’re cramped for space at all, you’re likely going to struggle to find a place to put this thing.

If there’s a silver lining at all, it is the fact that the chair was designed with space-saving technology, and it only needs 2” of space between the seatback and whatever wall you place it near in order to recline fully.

Next, there’s the track. As an L-Track chair, it’s capable of rendering a massage that starts at the tops of your shoulders and goes under the seat to massage all the way to the backs of your thighs. At just over 51” in length, the massage track isn’t the longest on the market, but it’s certainly respectable and, together with the leg ports, is capable of rendering something close to a full body massage for users ranging in height from about 5’1” to 6’3.”

While the chair doesn’t lay completely flat, it does come pretty close, and we’ll have more to say about that a bit later in this review.

Finally, note the weight limit. While it’s sufficient to make the chair useful to the vast majority of the market, this is not a chair that’s been optimized for big and tall folk. If you’re taller than 6’3” and weigh much over three hundred pounds, the RL-900L isn’t going to work for you.

Quad Rollers With a Below Average Number of Massage Options

One thing that Ootori doesn’t offer is a ton of massage techniques. This chair is fairly typical of their work, and has the following basic techniques on offer:

As you can see, it’s got the basics well-covered. It does offer one advanced technique in the form of Shiatsu, but there are plenty of other chairs on the market today that offer many more techniques than this, including multiple advanced massage techniques.

In addition to the basics, you’ll also find the following pre-programmed massage routines on offer:

On top of that, you can modify both the speed (3-speed choices) and intensity (3 intensity levels) via the remote, which gives you some ability to customize your experience.

Finally, note that the RL-900L utilizes 3D technology, which allows the rollers to move slightly away from the massage track, rendering a deeper massage. When set to maximum intensity, it’s not quite a deep tissue massage, but it comes reasonably close and has real therapeutic value.

3D Body Scan

Ootori’s body scanning technology is pretty solid, and this chair makes use of it. You’ll find that it works more than 95% of the time, dynamically adjusting the position of the rollers to hit the pressure points in your back with precision.

On the rare occasions when it doesn’t work, there are controls on the remote that allow you to manually tweak the rollers to optimize their positions, which will ensure you have the best massage experience the chair is capable of delivering.

Zero-Gravity Seating

Another thing worth talking about here in our Ootori RL-900L Massage Chair review is the fact that this model offers not one, but three different Zero-G seating options. You don’t find Zero-G on every massage chair on the market today, and when you do, many companies content themselves with offering only a single position.

We have to give a shout out to Ootori for going the extra mile on this front because relatively few companies do. It matters because Zero-G doesn’t just feel great and offer a more relaxing massage experience; it actually enhances it by using your body’s own weight to press you more firmly against the rollers.

In addition to that, the Zero-G seating position has been documented to help reduce blood pressure and improve blood flow. Not only it helps people with heart conditions but promotes faster recovery if you’ve recently had surgery of some kind. This is an excellent feature addition and expertly implemented.

Awesome Air Massage Too!

Sporting an impressive sixty airbags, the RL-900L delivers a top-notch airbag-based massage that you can modify via the remote, choosing from three different intensity levels. In addition to that, you can selectively activate airbags by the following body zones:

This gives you tremendous flexibility and begins to make up for the rather underwhelming number of options offered by the roller-based massage. We love it, and we think you will too.

Lumbar Heat Too!

Although the chair’s heat function is described as lumbar heat, it’s actually more extensive than that, extending to your waist and hips, and even inching up to your mid-back. Unfortunately, heat is something that Ootori struggles a bit with.

It’s not bad on this model, but it still doesn’t get quite as hot as we’d like, and there’s no way to modify the temperature to taste. It’s still a very good feature addition that adds yet more therapeutic value to the chair, but it’s not quite as strongly implemented as some of the chair’s other features. Even though it doesn’t get quite as hot as we’d like, if you suffer from chronic hip or lower back pain, this will likely wind up being one of your favorite aspects of the chair.

Excellent Yoga Body Stretching

Another excellent therapeutic feature this chair has on offer is its body stretch. Depending on who you ask, Yoga Body Stretching is either the best or second-best body stretch in the massage chair world, frequently swapping position with Thai stretching, which is the more aggressive of the two.

Personally, we prefer the gentler Yoga Stretching offered by this model. When you activate the feature, the airbags in the leg massage ports inflate, holding your legs firmly in place as the chair reclines, giving your spine a gentle, steady stretch that has the same basic effect as a chiropractic adjustment — a wonderful feature, and very well implemented in this chair.

A Good, But Not Great Calf & Foot Massage

This is a feature that Ootori normally does better than just about anyone. On many of their chairs, the calf and foot massage is rendered via a combination of airbags and an intricate system of foot rollers. Here, for reasons we’re not quite clear on, the company opted to dispense with the foot rollers, so the calf and foot massage in the RL-900L is rendered solely by airbags.

It’s still quite good, but it’s not up to their usual standards of excellence.

A Massage Timer, Too!

Most of Ootori’s chairs feature a massage timer, and the one offered on this model is pretty good, though not quite as flexible as the ones you’ll find on some of their other massage chairs. Here, you can set the duration of any massage to your choice of ten, twenty, or thirty minutes. That’s certainly not bad, but some of the company’s more expensive models give you more flexibility.

Chromotherapy

Shifting gears away from therapeutic features to finishing touches that hobbyist users will enjoy, this chair comes equipped with Chromotherapy lighting. Some people love it, others don’t care much about it either way, but essentially, it helps you relax by flooding the room with soft blue light from LEDs running along the sides of the chair when you’re getting a massage.

Even if you don’t think it adds anything to the massage experience itself, it looks cool and is a nice feature addition that gives the chair a bit of polish.

Bluetooth Speakers

Another nice touch is the fact that this model comes with Bluetooth speakers, allowing you to connect your smartphone to them and listen to your favorite music while enjoying a massage.

The speakers serve another function, too, because one of the basic massage “techniques” on offer is to synchronize the motion of the rollers with the beat of whatever music you’re listening to. While not a proper massage technique, this feature is well worth experimenting with because the roller action changes markedly depending on the type of music you’re piping through the speakers. It’s a fun addition that you’ll almost certainly enjoy experimenting with.

One thing to note here, though, is that this chair doesn’t come with a USB charging port.  That seems strange to us because almost every chair on the market today that has speakers built into it offers a charging port you can plug your favorite device into.

This is a small thing, but it is a minor annoyance.  Adding a charging port wouldn’t significantly increase the price of the chair and would be more in line with what most of the rest of the market is doing.

A Fairly Mild Learning Curve

This chair sports an impressive number of features, so there is a learning curve to master it, but it’s not as bad as you might think. It will probably take less than thirty minutes to get a good handle on its operation, but you won’t need to completely master the chair to start enjoying it thanks to the pre-programmed massage routines.

If you decide to order one, just have a seat, select one of those and relax! Even better, this chair will arrive at your door fully assembled, so there’s nothing to do but decide where you want it and plug it in. Kudos to Ootori for making it simple.

A Better Than Average Warranty

While Ootori doesn’t offer an industry-leading warranty, all of their chairs come with a comprehensive 3-year warranty, which is better than average. In addition to that, Ootori has an excellent reputation both for the quality of their chairs and their attention to customer service. So, if there is a problem, help is just a phone call away.

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Pros & Cons of the Ootori RL 900L Massage Chair

We like just about every aspect of this chair. It’s well priced and feature-rich, offering some hard-hitting therapeutic features like heat, yoga body stretching, and something quite close to a deep tissue massage.

On top of that, you’ll find a few nice convenience features like the massage timer, the LED lights that drive the chair’s Chromotherapy feature, and the high-quality Bluetooth speakers.

On the other hand, there are a few points of weakness, including:

We don’t regard any of these as being outright deal-breakers, and we don’t imagine that many potential buyers will either, which gives this chair a great many more positives than negatives.

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Ootori RL-9000L Massage Chair Review Conclusion

We regard the Ootori RL-900L Massage Chair as being a very good, well-priced massage chair. It does fall slightly short of greatness, however. Then again, not every chair can be a great design.

At the end of the day, we’d call this model a very good, versatile general-purpose massage chair with enough therapeutic features to make it valuable to a broad swath of the market and convenience features to make it attractive to casual users too. On that basis, we recommend it.

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Official Manufacturer Support

REFERENCES & RESOURCES

• Ootori, Official Brand Website.
• Ootori RL-900L Massage Chair User Manual.
• 3 Reasons Why Every Home Should Have a Massage Chair, Healthy Back.
• Easy Massage Routines to Share With Your Stressed-Out Inner Circle, Connect Health
• Color Therapy: How Chromotherapy Can Heal the Mind, Body, and Spirit, Think Tank Home.