In a Nutshell:
The USJ 9000 Massage Chair is a good chair that falls short of greatness. It has the potential to be exceptional with model upgrades. Provisionally recommended for users up to 6’5” tall.
Overall Massage Quality
Customization options
Ease of Use
Performance
Overall Rating
3.8/5
Benefits
Drawbacks
Recommended For: Users up to 6’5” tall, but with provision.
Do you suffer from chronic pain?
Are you looking for a top-quality massage chair packed with powerful therapeutic features designed to help you feel better fast?
The USJ 9000 Massage Chair is pricey and not perfect, but it’s got a powerful combination of features you don’t find in many other models, and that just might make it the perfect model for you.
In the sections that follow, we’ll outline everything this design has to offer, so you’ve got everything at your fingertips before you make a purchase decision. Let’s jump right in!
Features of the Massage Chair USJ 9000
S-Track Design & Quad Rollers
The 9000 has unmistakably good bones, being built around an S-Track, and equipped with quad rollers.
The S-Track is the current industry standard. It allows the model’s quad rollers (which closely mimic the feel of human hands) to track along your body’s spine, resulting in a fantastic basic massage experience.
As you will see, the chair employs other technologies that enhance the core experience.
3D Body Scan
This isn’t quite an industry standard, but it is becoming increasingly common.
When you first sit down in the chair, the onboard computer takes a scan of your body and makes as-needed adjustments to the rollers to ensure they hit all the pressure points in your back.
Should that fail, the touchpad also includes buttons that allow for manual adjustment. This two-stage approach to roller position and massage field width ensures you get a world-class massage, every time you use the chair.
Zero-Gravity Seating
Inspired by NASA, Zero-G seating gets its name because when you activate the position, it really does leave you feeling weightless.
Its real value, though, is that by placing you in a position such that your knees are elevated slightly above your heart, most of your body’s weight is pressing against the rollers, which allows for a deeper, more penetrating, and ultimately more satisfying massage.
Unfortunately, the US Jaclean Massage Chair USJ 9000 only offers a single Zero-G seating position. We’d expect to see at least two, and preferably three in a design offered at this price range, which makes this a relatively weak feature implementation.
Nonetheless, the fact that it is present in any form has to be counted as a win overall.
A Disappointing Number of Options
We regarded this as a real missed opportunity for the 9000.
Sure, it’s got all the basics covered, offering the following techniques:
And it offers a few pre-programmed options too, including:
All this is fine, but you can find chairs costing half as much that offer this kind of feature set. At a minimum, we’d have expected to see at least one additional advanced technique, and preferably more.
The total number of massage combinations is below average for a top-end model, even with six different intensity settings, so as with Zero-G seating, we rate this as a weak implementation.
Air Massage Mode
We’ve seen other USJ 9000 massage chair reviews refer to this chair as having 50+ airbags. It would be great if that were true. However, on Amazon, the company answered this question specifically, and the answer they gave was 41.
These are Second Generation Airbags, so 41 airbags is certainly acceptable, and is more than capable of rendering an excellent massage. Then again, you can find other models for less money that have a greater number of airbags.
One thing we must call particular attention to here, though, is the fact that the 9000’s air massage is surprisingly strong, even on the weakest of its three intensity settings.
It’s not overbearing. But if you’ve used other massage chairs in the past, you will find that the 9000’s air massage is notably stronger than just about any other model on the market today.
Therapeutic Heat
We wish this feature was an industry standard, but sadly, only a minority of chairs being sold today offer therapeutic heat of any kind.
The 9000’s implementation here is fairly standard. Provided in the lumbar area only, with no option for temperature adjustment, we rate it as an average execution, but a welcome addition that adds solid therapeutic value to the design.
Body Stretch Plus Inversion Therapy
This is far and away the best feature of the model. Its body stretch is superb and made even better by virtue of the fact that it combines body stretching with inversion therapy for maximum therapeutic benefit.
It should be noted, however, that the stretch is quite intense. Depending on your pain threshold, it may be more than you can handle.
If that’s the case, then you have two options. You can either warm up with a standard back massage plus heat, or make use of the Seat Twist function (described below).
Seat Twist Function
This feature has tremendous synergy with the 9000’s Body Stretch function by providing all of the same benefits in a gentler, less intense package. Both features work in much the same way as a chiropractic adjustment, providing almost immediate pain relief by taking pressure off compressed discs in your spine.
At first glance, it may seem strange that the model would offer both. However, this is a cunning design decision because they allow you to use the one best suited to your current pain level, and switch back and forth as needed.
This is a tremendously useful feature combination, and if you suffer from chronic pain, will be far and away the most attractive feature of this model.
Foot and Calf Massage
This is an above-average implementation that could have been made better by the addition of heat in the foot wells.
As it stands, the calf massage is rendered by airbags, and the foot massage is delivered via a combination of airbags, foot rollers and the presence of a stationary massage pad in the bottom of each foot well.
If you spend several hours of each day on your feet, you’ll enjoy and appreciate this feature.
(Somewhat) Adjustable Timer
One thing that sets the 9000 apart from most other massage chairs on the market today is that all massage programs default to a 45-minute duration. The control panel allows you to adjust any massage duration down to either thirty or fifteen minutes so you can customize the length of your massage to align with your schedule.
We would have preferred to see more fine-grained controls that allow you to adjust the massage time in five-minute increments, but most massage chairs sold today don’t offer anything in the way of time adjustment, so we’re happy to see this in any form, and the default duration is excellent.
Extendable Ottoman
The USJ 9000 has an extension module built into its ottoman that allows the chair to accommodate users up to 6’5” in height. This is another excellent feature and makes the chair accessible to a broader segment of the market.
MP3 Support
While not critical to the overall massage experience, this feature is always a welcome addition. The chair has a USB port that enables you to plug in a flash drive and listen to music from the speakers built into the headrest.
This is a standard implementation, but once again, we found ourselves underwhelmed. At the price point the 9000 is offered at, we’d expected to see Bluetooth compatibility. Nonetheless, music support in any form is always welcome.
About the USJ 9000 Massage Chair Manual
We’ve gotten a few questions about the 9000’s user manual, and apparently, the manufacturer has too.
When asked, they referred their customers back to their website, but unfortunately, the user manual is nowhere to be found on their website either. That’s a disappointment, but the company did not respond to our requests to get a copy.
No Remote
This is a bit of an oddity. Almost every massage chair sold today offers a remote. This one doesn’t. All the controls are accessible via the touchpad, which is built onto an extension arm on the chair.
That’s not terrible, but given how common remote controls are, we were a bit mystified as to why it’s not included in this model. It would have been an extremely easy, low-cost addition, and added a nice convenience touch to the design.
Pros & Cons of the US Jaclean Massage Chair USJ 9000
As you can see from our detailed review, the USJ 9000 massage chair offers a lot of capability and provides tremendous therapeutic value. Unfortunately, too often, we found ourselves wishing that the features were better implemented.
We didn’t find anything lacking in the model, but here’s a short list of things we’d like to see improved:
USJ 9000 Massage Chair Review Conclusion
We liked this model, but not as much as we wanted to. It’s a great start, but at the price it’s being offered, we feel that it is a bit unrefined at this point.
Even in the state, it’s currently in, it is a great therapeutic chair, and people who suffer from chronic pain will especially appreciate the powerful body stretch, seat twist, and heat.
Our view is that it doesn’t have enough polish to make it a good choice for hobbyist or casual users at this price. It is a good chair, and it could be a great one, but it’s not quite there yet.
REFERENCES & RESOURCES
- USJ Massage Chair, Official Brand Website.
- Foot massage: The Pause That Refreshes & Is Good For You!, Harvard Health Publications.
- Foam Rolling: Total Body Benefits, Muscle and Fitness.
- Shiatsu, Taking Charge of Your Health & Wellbeing, University of Minnesota.
