Osaki OS-4D Pro Ekon Plus Massage Chair Review 2024

Are you tired of bending backward to keep those regular appointments with your local chiropractor? Are you looking for an alternative that will allow you to manage your constant pain any time you like, or are you just looking for a world-class, soothing massage from the comfort of your own home?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, keep reading because you’ll love what you find in this—our Osaki OS-4D Pro Ekon Plus review.

The Ekon is an exquisitely well-designed chair offered by Osaki, one of the best-known and most well-respected brands in the industry today. Click here to read our Osaki massage chair reviews.

In the following sections, we’ll examine the design of this chair in-depth and explore its many features.  

While it’s not a perfect design, it brings so much to the table that it’s genuinely hard to find fault with it, though there are a couple of limitations we’ll point out along the way so you’ll have a complete picture and be in a position to make an informed purchasing decision. If that sounds good, read on, and let’s look closer!

Key Features of the Osaki Pro Ekon Massage Chair

Before we discuss the specific features of this model, we need to introduce one caveat. This is one of Osaki’s chairs that the company keeps on sale at a significant percentage of the time at a deep discount. Every time we look at it, it’s on sale, usually at a 40% discount and sometimes more than that!

Given that “on-sale” seems to be the default state for this model, that’s the lens through which we’ve reviewed it. If you go to the manufacturer’s website and it’s not on sale, and you’ve already decided that this is the one you want, we advise waiting and checking back in on it so you can get yours at the best possible price.

With that out of the way, the first thing you’ll notice about the Osaki OS-4D Ekon is that the design team responsible didn’t make any special effort to disguise the chair’s true nature. It looks like most of the other massage chairs on the market today, which means that it’s egg-shaped and has a vaguely futuristic look.

If you’re specifically looking for a massage chair that looks like a conventional recliner unless you’re sitting in it and getting a massage, you’ll be pleased to know that such chairs are on the market. Unfortunately, none of them are made by Osaki. If that’s the case, you’ll probably be happier with something made by Human Touch.

If you like the overall aesthetic of the Ekon, it’s available in white, brown, or black, so you’ll have at least some flexibility when it comes to blending it in with your existing home décor.

The chair measures 34” W x 64” L x 48” H (72” L x 45” H when fully reclined) and weighs 335 pounds, so it’s a hefty piece of furniture and likely too big for one person to maneuver into position on the day it arrives at your doorstep.

That leaves you with two options: either have an assistant stand by to help you get it where you want it or pay a premium for White Glove service if it’s available in your delivery area.

We can’t in good conscience recommend White Glove service for most people. The chair’s just not that difficult to get ready for first use, but if you don’t have anybody who can help you get it set up on the day it arrives at your door, it may be a good option for you.

However, we need to highlight one weakness in Nikon’s design. While there’s no formal industry standard where the maximum supported weight limit is concerned, if you do a broad survey of massage chairs on the market today, you’ll find that most of them support at least 300 pounds, with many models supporting much more.

The Ekon doesn’t quite measure up in this regard, with a maximum supported weight of 280 pounds. Granted, it doesn’t miss the mark by much, but you should keep it in mind because the supported weight limit is an absolute deal breaker if you weigh more than 280 pounds.

Before we leave this section covering the basics, we also want to mention that the Ekon is designed as a wall hugger, so it only needs 1” of clearance between the seatback and whatever wall you decide to place the chair near.

That’s a very good thing because chairs not designed in this fashion often require a foot or more of space to recline fully, and it does make it easier to find a permanent home for a sizable piece of furniture.

While all of this is interesting, the basic stats defining the model will only get us so far. Now, we need to look deeper at the core technologies used in Ekon’s design. 

That’s up next!

Good Use of The Latest Technology

This is a strong component of our Osaki OS-4D Pro Ekon Plus review. Osaki is generally quite good at keeping up with the latest industry tech, and the Ekon is a very good case-in-point example.  

For a start, this chair utilizes the company’s stellar body scanning technology, which virtually guarantees a world-class massage whenever you sit in the chair. 

You don’t have to do anything to activate body scanning. It happens automatically when you take a seat. The chair quietly takes a scan to reposition the rollers so they hit your pressure points perfectly.

In practice, you won’t have to do a thing the vast majority of the time, but every once in a while, the Ekon might not get the rollers exactly where you want them, and something will feel off. Should that occur, there’s a simple fix. The company has included manual controls on the remote that allow you to tweak the position of the rollers.

It’s a one-two punch that allows you to experience the best massage the Ekon can give every time you sit down, and that’s awesome.

It gets better. The excellent body scanning tech is paired with industry-standard quad rollers moving along an S-L track. The track starts at the top of your shoulders, travels down the length of your spine, then turns and continues under the seat, allowing the rollers to massage your glutes and the backs of your thighs.

Combined with the leg massage ports, this effectively gives you a full-body massage—or as close as you’re likely to get from a massage chair.

Here, though, we should pause for a moment to talk about the different types of rollers. You will likely encounter 2D, 3D, or 4D rollers in the massage chair world.

There was a time when 2D rollers were the industry standard. They move along the X- and Y-axis of the massage track and can give a pretty good massage.

You still find these on the market, usually offered by discount brands or low-end chairs. They’re not awful but can’t give a deep, penetrating massage because there’s no Z-axis motion.

The advent of 3D rollers corrected that, and you will find 3D massage chairs at all price points in the market today. It’s fair to say that they’re still the industry standard for the moment, but they’re being ushered out by the cutting-edge 4D rollers, which the Ekon brings to the table.

These are similar to 3D rollers in that they can move along the X-, Y-, and Z-axis, but as they do so, they’re programmed to move with varying speed and intensity, depending on where they are on your body. This gives them an almost shockingly human-like feel and makes for an even better and more relaxing massage experience.

This collection of technologies puts Ekon at the leading edge of the massage chair market.

Generous Massage Options

This is another strong component of our Osaki OS-4D Pro Ekon Plus review. Starting with the massage techniques on offer, you’ll find:

The first three are basic techniques; you’ll find those on almost every decent massage chair today. Music Sync implies the existence of built-in Bluetooth speakers, and we’ll talk about those a bit later on. For now, it’s enough to acknowledge that they’re present and used by the chair to facilitate a music sync massage.

Shiatsu is a good advanced massage technique and the most commonly implemented one. Survey chairs on the market today. You’ll find that where advanced techniques are present, Shiatsu is almost always represented, with other advanced techniques like Swedish, for example, being represented much less often.

Given this, we wish Osaki had offered 4D Shiatsu and other advanced techniques as their second option.

This isn’t a serious complaint that detracts from the chair’s final score, but it is a bit of a nit. 

If we could ask for one change in the design, substituting Swedish for “regular” Shiatsu would be high on our list. It’s not a dealbreaker, but it is something to keep in mind as you compare this model to other options.

Even though we’re very slightly disappointed in the techniques on offer for the above reason, we love the pre-programmed massage options. These are:

There’s a lot to like here. 

Most of these are self-explanatory, but there are more detailed descriptions in the well-written user manual. 

What we really like is that there are three different yoga programs of varying intensity levels.

Granted, Osaki isn’t world-class when it comes to stretch routines. For that, you’re almost always better off with a chair by Kahuna, as they’ve got one of the industry’s best stretches, but Osaki’s routines aren’t bad by any means.

Even better, by breaking them into three different routines, you can dial into the exact level of intensity you’re looking for. In all three cases, what you get is akin to the “chiropractic adjustment” you’d get when you visit your local chiropractor.  

All three of these and the back and spine routine have genuine therapeutic benefits. If you suffer from chronic pain, one of these is almost certain to become your go-to routine—the one you gravitate automatically to at the end of a long day.

By itself, the techniques and pre-programmed massage options would make this a really good design, but there’s so much more here, including:

These modifications and personalization options to the massage techniques and pre-programmed massage options listed earlier give you many possible combinations to experiment with and enjoy. If you invest in this machine, you won’t run out of new things to try soon!

If all of this wasn’t enough, the Osaki Ekon Plus also has airbags strategically located throughout the chair, providing a good airbag-based massage. You can customize this massage via the remote, selecting from five different intensity levels.

We like the airbag-based massage, but we don’t love it. It’s good, but nothing special about it would prompt a potential buyer to pick this model over some other. We’d say that it’s competently implemented but by no means extraordinary. However, it is cool that you can selectively activate the airbags by the following body regions:

Again, interesting but not next-level good.

Zero-G Seating Options Included

This will be a short but compelling section of our Osaki OS-4D Pro Ekon Plus review. 

The Ekon has not one but two different Zero-G seating options! That sounds great if you’re familiar with the massage chair feature, but if you’re not, you might be asking yourself, “So? Why is this important to me?”

Let’s address that by defining exactly what Zero-G seating is. It’s a seating option inspired by NASA, and as the name implies, it does make you feel weightless. This is accomplished by placing you in a position where your knees are elevated slightly above your heart.

In addition to the aforementioned feeling of weightlessness, it’s also incredibly relaxing and offers genuine therapeutic benefits in several different ways.

First, any massage you order from the chair will be deeper and more impactful if you put the chair into one of the two Zero-G seating positions. This is because your body weight will press you more firmly against the chair, making the rollers press more firmly against your back.

Second, and perhaps even more compelling, is that sitting in a Zero-G position has been shown to reduce blood pressure, improve circulation, and facilitate faster post-surgical healing. It’s amazing, and we’re thrilled to see the feature included here. Kudos to Osaki for that!

Heat, Glorious Heat!

This is probably our favorite section of the review because we love massage chairs that incorporate heat into their designs. The presence of heat makes whatever massage you get from the chair better.

As with most of the chairs that offer heat, you’ll find it in the lumbar region of the seat here. 

What makes the Ekon different, though, is when heat is offered in most chairs, it’s binary. You can turn it on, or you can leave it off. That’s it.  

Here, you can control the temperature of the offered heat by selecting from three different settings. We love that, and we think you will, too. It enhances the overall massage experience, and heat, like so many other features offered in this design, has real therapeutic value. 

It’s quite possibly our favorite aspect of the design.

Exceptional Calf and Foot Massage

Second to the adjustable heat, this is our favorite aspect of the design and another incredibly important component of our Osaki OS-4D Pro Ekon Plus review.

Airbags and rollers render the calf and foot massage. Of significance, there are two rollers in the calf segment of the leg massage port and three more in the footwell to attend to the soles of your feet.

The combination of airbags and multiple rollers in the calf port makes it feel like a professional human masseuse gently kneads your calves. Honestly, the only way this feature could be improved is to add heating coils to the leg massage ports.

It feels amazing, and if you have a job that requires you to spend most of each day on your feet, this may be your favorite aspect of the design. Even without heat, this feature is good enough that it may be a reason to pick this model over some others, even without heated leg massage ports.

Extras Galore Included

Now, let’s talk about extras; there’s much to say!

First and foremost, earlier in this review, we mentioned the music sync technique. It’s time to discuss the Bluetooth speakers that make that technique possible. You can wirelessly sync your phone to them and listen to your favorite music (whether or not you plan to use the music sync massage technique) or queue up your favorite podcast while enjoying a relaxing massage.

In addition to that, you’ll find a secondary control panel on one of the chair arms, a wireless charger for your phone, and a cellphone holder.

The Ekon even has a massage timer that allows you to set the duration of any massage you order to 10, 20, or 30 minutes, as you prefer. If you want an even longer massage, it’s as simple as ordering another right after the first one ends.

We love all the extras on offer here, and they give the chair a “finished” feel, but we have one minor complaint. Given the many customization options available here, we wish the Ekon included memory slots enabling you to customize your perfect massage routine and save it for a one-touch recall later on. Sadly, this is not the case.

Another thing we’d love to see added in a future model update is voice controls, but to be fair, not many chairs on the market today offer that feature, so its absence here can’t be counted against Ekon’s final score.

Pros & Cons of Osaki Ekon

Honestly, the Osaki Ekon massage chair gets almost everything right. We did mention a few minor complaints above, and we’ll reiterate them here. Still, we must stress that the only serious potential deal breaker on the list is the somewhat disappointing maximum supported weight limit. The rest are what we’d consider “wishlist items.”

Here they are again in summary form:

Osaki OS-4D Pro Ekon Plus Review Conclusion

If you weigh 280 pounds or less and the chair is on sale (which it almost always is), the Ekon should be on your short list of options. We recommend this one without reservation.  

If you’re a hobbyist, you’ll find much to love; if you suffer from chronic pain, you’ll find a powerful array of high-value therapeutic features. It’s a great chair by any definition.

Other Options To Consider

If you’ve reached the end of this review and, for whatever reason, don’t feel this chair is a good fit, here are a couple of other options you may want to consider:

We’ll quickly say that this chair is more expensive than the one we just reviewed, but like the Ekon, it is sometimes on sale. It’s one of the best massage chairs if you can catch it on sale. Filled with bleeding-edge features, including a mind-blowing 8-roller array (heated rollers, no less!), heated foot wells, and the best body stretch in the industry, this one is not to be missed.

Not everyone is a fan of off-brands, but MassaMax is a breed apart, and their chairs are almost shockingly good. This one has a feature set comparable to the chair we just reviewed, plus voice control for less money. If you want to consider an off-brand, this one belongs on your shortlist.

Official Manufacturer Support

References and Resources:

• Osaki, Official Brand Website.
• Osaki OS 4D Pro Ekon User Manual
• 19 Different Types of Massage: Which Style Is Best For You?, The Good Body.
• The Rise of Massage Therapy in Pain Management, American Massage Therapy Association.
• Effectiveness of Massage Therapy on Fatigue and Pain in Patients With Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis, Sage Journals.