In a Nutshell:
The ScanSit 110 Leather Recliner and Ottoman is an outstanding design and close cousin to our top pick, the Fjords Muldal. Almost as good, for a lot less money. Recommended for anyone who wants a Fjords Muldal and can’t afford one. This is a superb second.
Value for the Money
Comfort
Aesthetic Flexibility**
Overall Rating
4.6/5
Benefits
Drawbacks
Recommended For: Anyone who wants a Fjords Muldal and can’t afford one. This is a superb second.
Do you suffer from back problems? You’re not alone. Chiropractors and doctors around the country will tell you that they treat more people for chronic back pain than any other ailment.
The sad thing is, there are plenty of things we can do to mitigate, if not outright prevent back pain from slowing us down and diminishing our quality of life. A big part of that comes down to posture, and unfortunately, most of the furniture you have in your house works against you. It’s just poorly designed and fosters poor sitting habits, which makes your back pain worse.
It’s great if you have an ergonomic office chair at work, but any good it might be doing is undone by all the time you spend sitting on poorly designed furniture at home.
Fortunately, the furniture landscape is beginning to change, and there is an increasing number of companies offering ergonomically designed living room furniture. ScanSit is one of these, and while the ScanSit 110 Norwegian Ergonomic Recliner didn’t win top honors in our recent roundup review, it placed a strong second.
ScanSit vs Fjords Recliners
Throughout this ScanSit 110 review, you’ll see us make constant comparisons between ScanSit’s products and Fjords’ products. There’s a reason for that. The chairs these two manufacturers produce are virtually identical (and both companies are owned by Hjellegjerde).
Their core features are identical, with the major differences manifesting in ScanSit’s slightly inferior production quality and a smaller number of customization options.
Those are fair trades, given that Fjords’ furniture is a fair bit more expensive. ScanSit’s offerings give you the opportunity to get essentially the same chair, minus a bit of durability and a slight hit to quality, for a lot less money.
In the sections that follow, we’ll go into more detail about the Hjellegjerde Scansit 110, so you can decide for yourself if this is the model you want, or if it’s worth saving your money to upgrade to the Fjords Muldal. Let’s get to it!
Hjellegjerde ScanSit 110 Ergonomic Recliner Chair and Ottoman
The first thing you’ll notice about the ScanSit 110 Leather Recliner and Ottoman is that it’s a beautifully designed recliner with unmistakable modern European styling. The cool thing about the design is that it manages to be both beautiful and understated, which means that it will have little difficulty blending in with most any home décor scheme.
If you’ve spent any time at all researching ergonomic recliner options, you’ll notice something else fairly quickly too. It’s almost identical to the Fjords Muldal recliner, but it costs hundreds of dollars less. We’ll get into the specific reasons for the price difference in the next section, but for now, suffice it to say that the similarity is unmistakable, and because of that, comparisons are inevitable.
When you place your order, you can select either a “large” or “small” model. The dimensions are as follows:
Large: 41” x 32.25” x 32” with a seat depth of 20”
Small: 39.25” x 30” x 31” with a seat depth of 19.25”
Whichever size you opt for, both have a seat height of 17.75” and both models weigh in at 75 pounds. The ottoman (for both size configurations) measures 19 3/8” x 16.5” x 18.5”.
Upholstery & Finishing Options
The major difference between ScanSit and Fjords chairs is expressed in terms of finishing options. The 110 Norwegian can be ordered in either Cappuccino, Sandel, or Havana leather, and for the base, you can choose between Walnut, Teak, or Espresso finishes.
Fjords offers a much broader range of upholstery options, including three different custom finishes: Their Nordic Line, Softline, and Astro Line. The best ways to consider these are as follows:
You get the Nordic Line finish on the ScanSit 110, with no option to change it. Note that some websites display the three finish options in pictures (probably taken directly from the Fjords site), but there does not appear to be any way to actually order them when buying a ScanSit.
Comfort & Adjustability
Upholstery options aside, while there are some additional differences in terms of quality control, from a comfort perspective, ScanSit chairs and Fjords chairs are mostly identical.
Both are padded with cold-cured foam, which is superior to standard block foam padding in that it offers a more comfortable seating experience and won’t deform over time, which means that this chair will age well, even with daily use.
Like their more expensive cousins, ScanSit’s chairs also use an innovative glide rail system when reclining. There’s no lever to activate the recline function. You simply grip the arms of the chair and lean back. Your body weight does the rest. It’s an interesting approach in that the weight of your body determines the ultimate angle of recline, so it’s unique for each person who sits in the chair.
All that to say the ScanSit 110 ergonomic recliner chair and ottoman offers a blissfully comfortable seating experience. Once you try it, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it!
Storage & Extras
We’ll keep this section of our Hjellegjerde ScanSit 110 review short because there are no “extras” or built-in storage features to talk about. As we mentioned in our review of the Fjords brand, adding extras of any kind would only serve to detract from the aesthetic of the chair in any case and wind up working against the design. All that to say, there are no extras and you wouldn’t want them anyway. Not with this model, at least.
Some Assembly Required
Unfortunately, when you receive your chair, it won’t be ready for action. Instead, you’ll get a box and a collection of pieces. While there isn’t an excessive number to deal with, putting furniture together can be tricky because, at some point, you’ll inevitably wish you had an extra hand (or two).
You can certainly assemble it yourself, but it’ll go faster with an assistant. In either case, from unboxing to sitting in the chair should take you no more than an hour, although you’ll find that ScanSit’s quality control isn’t quite as good as Fjords so you may hit the occasional snag where pieces don’t fit together quite as precisely as they should.
Even so, these aren’t insurmountable problems, and if you encounter them at all, they’ll only slow you down a little.
Pros & Cons of the ScanSit 110 Leather Recliner and Ottoman
We like everything about the Hjellegjerde ScanSit 110 chair. It’s got the same elegant, understated styling as our top pick, and it’s less expensive. The tradeoff, of course, is quality.
Make no mistake, this is a great chair, but it’s not a Fjords’ chair, and the quality isn’t quite on that level. Even so, we consider the modest reduction in quality to be a fair trade for the savings. With everything going for it, and no disadvantages to speak of, it’s the one you want, if you can’t afford a Fjords.
Hjellegjerde ScanSit 110 Review Conclusion
We love the Hjellegjerde Scansit 110 ergonomic recliner chair and ottoman. While not quite as good as our top pick, the Fjords Muldal, it’s an extremely close second, and it costs a lot less money, to boot.
We highly recommend this model to anyone. Consider it to be a more budget-friendly Fjords Muldal.
References & Resources
- Hjellegjerde Lounge Chair, Official Brand Website.
- Fjords Leather Information, Unwind.
- Back Pain, University of Washington.
- How to Sit to Increase Circulation, Livestrong.