In a Nutshell:
The Westinghouse WES41-700S is a somewhat pricey massage chair with a good (if a bit basic) set of features, offered by a great company. Recommended for anyone weighing up to 250 pounds who wants a non-specialized massage chair, offered by a well-respected company.
Overall Massage Quality
Customization options
Ease of Use
Value for the Money
Brand Reliability*
Overall Rating
4.1/5
Benefits
Drawbacks
Recommended For: Anyone weighing up to 250 pounds who wants a non-specialized massage chair, offered by a well-respected company.
Do you suffer from chronic pain that sees you paying frequent visits to a chiropractor near you? Do you come home stiff and sore after a long day’s work, wishing you had a good massage chair in your living room that could help take the edge off?
If you answered yes to either of those questions, then you’ll like what you read in this—our Westinghouse WES41-700S premium massage chair review.
You’ve almost certainly heard of Westinghouse. The company has been in business since 1886 and offers a wide range of well-designed products. However, it has only recently ventured into the massage chair market.
This is the first time we’ve reviewed one of their Westinghouse massage chairs. And while we’ll admit that it’s not perfect, the company did surprisingly well in what we regard as a hard market to thrive in.
In the following sections, we’ll walk you through everything the WES41-700S-black has to offer and quickly point out its weak points. That way, you’ll have everything you need to decide for yourself if this model is a good fit.
Before we begin, there is one thing we should point out. This chair ranks a bit low on the value scale. We strongly suspect that the company relies on its brand’s strength to offset the design’s shortcomings.
Nothing inherently wrong with that—we’ve seen plenty of other companies do it before. And if you’re a fan of Westinghouse or want to buy from a company with a stellar reputation, then the brand recognition premium might be something you’re willing to pay a little extra for.
With that introductory text out of the way, let’s dive in and see what makes this model tick!
Key Features of The Westinghouse WES41-700S Premium Massage Chair
The first thing we’d draw your attention to about the Westinghouse WES41-700S is that the design team behind the chair didn’t take any chances. They kept it simple and stuck to the basics. Thus, by outward appearances, this chair looks pretty similar to most other massage chairs on the market today and does not try to hide its true function.
That’s not a bad thing, but it does mean that it will probably clash with the other furniture in the room where you place it.
In terms of basic stats, here’s what you’re looking at:
As you can see, this chair isn’t enormous by massage chair standards, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a permanent home for it—even if you live in a smaller home or apartment.
Even better, the chair was designed with space-saving technology and only needs 4″ of clearance between the seatback and whatever wall you place it in. This is very good and not surprising, given Westinghouse’s excellent engineering chops.
Unfortunately, the stats above highlight the first weak point in the overall design.
If you take the average of most massage chairs on the market, they support around 300 pounds of user weight.
This one doesn’t quite measure up to that. If you weigh less than that, you’re not going to care. But if you happen to weigh more, then this one is going to be a non-starter for you—no matter how much you may like the overall design.
3D S-Track Paired With Quad Rollers
Although there aren’t many Westinghouse WES41-700S premium massage chair reviews published at this point, when you start seeing more, we’re sure everybody will agree that Westinghouse did a good job here broadly. Their chair is built on good bones.
While the most popular chairs on the market today invariably sport the longer L-Track, there are still plenty of models offered for sale that sport the shorter S-Track. This track provides a massage that starts at the user’s neck and shoulders and extends to the base of the spine.
The track design allows the quad rollers to move along the X-, Y-, and Z-axis, which makes the chair capable of rendering a deeper massage than its 2D counterparts. That’s another point in this model’s favor and one we’ll have more to say about later in this review.
No Body Scanning Tech (And That’s Okay!)
Most massage chairs sold today offer body scanning tech, and when we find one that doesn’t, we describe it as a “fiddly” chair and usually subtract a bit from its final score.
In this case, however, it’s just a good design. The chair sports three memory slots. So yes, it’s true that you initially have to fiddle with the settings and the positions of the rollers, but once you’ve got everything the way you want it, save your massage settings in one of the memory slots for one-touch recall later on.
Adding body scanning tech would reduce the “fiddle” by a little, but probably not enough to justify the added cost. So, in this particular case, we have to say kudos to Westinghouse for the solid, efficient design work.
It’s Got The Basics Covered Where Massage Options Are Concerned
This is a strictly average component of our Westinghouse WES41-700S premium massage chair review. It covers the basics but doesn’t try to offer more than that. In terms of massage techniques, you’ll find the following:
In addition to these options, you’ll also find the following pre-programmed massage routines:
All of that is decent, but it falls short of being exceptional. Finding a less expensive massage chair that offers as much or more in techniques and pre-programmed routines is pretty easy.
On the other hand, it’s not uncommon to find more expensive chairs that only offer about as much, so we’d rate the Westinghouse offering as strictly middle of the pack in this regard.
Before we leave this section, it’s also worth mentioning that this model does offer spot and partial massage modes. So when the rollers hit a particularly tender spot on your back, you can use the spot function to focus on that specific location or the partial mode to have the rollers roam in a roughly 3″ diameter around that spot.
You’ll also find three different speed and intensity settings on offer. At maximum intensity (especially when paired with one of the Zero-G seating options, which we’ll talk about next), you can get pretty close to getting a deep tissue massage, which is one of this chair’s therapeutic features.
Zero-G Seating Options Too
If you do a broad survey of the market, you’ll find that about a third of the chairs on offer these days feature at least one Zero-G seating position.
Inspired by NASA, it’s a very good therapeutic feature that increases the overall quality and intensity of your massage fosters improved blood flow, and speeds up healing, especially for people who have recently had some type of surgery.
Most of the chairs that offer the feature only have a single Zero-G seating position, so we were thrilled to see three different Zero-G options available on the Westinghouse WES41-700S massage chair—another job well done by the fine folks at Westinghouse.
A Middle-of-the-Road Air Massage
This is another slightly underwhelming portion of our WES41-700S review. For the money, this model has a disappointingly small number of airbags—just sixteen in all.
The good news is that the chair makes good use of those airbags, and the design team placed them well, so the air massage you get is pretty good—though if the company had seen fit to expand the total number, the quality would have been even better.
As it stands, you get a good airbag massage that falls short of greatness.
You can select from three different intensity levels and, at your preference, choose a Full Air massage, arms only, or legs only.
A Very Good Calf and Foot Massage
The calf and foot massage offered by the Westinghouse is better than we were expecting, with the calf massage being rendered by airbags and the foot massage being handled by rollers moving beneath acupressure pads at the bottoms of the footwells.
For the price, we would have loved to have seen heated footwells, but Westinghouse’s design team did a good job implementing this feature, and it’s one of the design’s stronger points. We love it, and we think you will, too, especially if you spend several hours each day on your feet and are looking for some relief when you get home.
Generous Back Heat
This is far and away our favorite feature of the WES41-700S. Although the specs indicate that the chair offers lumbar heat, the reality is that the heating elements extend farther than that. And when you’re sitting back in the chair, you’ll feel the heat up past your mid-back, which is superb.
Heat is a powerful therapeutic feature because although it is excellent, a massage is out of this world when paired with heat. This makes three well-implemented therapeutic features (something close to deep tissue massage, Zero-G seating options, and heat).
Just The One Extra
Early on in this review, we mentioned the one “extra” this chair comes equipped with. It has three memory slots, which we love and, oddly, are still quite rare in the world of massage chairs. It’s an easy feature to add, so we’re not sure why so many manufacturers steer clear of it, but we love that it’s present in this design.
Unfortunately, that’s all you get in terms of extras. There’s no built-in USB port, Bluetooth speakers, or chromotherapy, and you can’t adjust the length of your massage beyond the default 20-minute limit.
That last item isn’t the end of the world because if you decide you want a longer massage, getting one is as simple as pushing the button again, but we would have loved to see a massage timer included—at the very least.
Even so, it seems clear that the company wanted to load up on therapeutic options and kept the total cost as low as possible by cutting most of the design fluff. We can’t say we disagree with this approach, but if you’re looking for a chair with lots of finishing touches and design flourishes, this model will leave you wanting.
Pros & Cons of Westinghouse WES41-700S
Westinghouse took a bit of a chance here. Although the company has been around a long time, they haven’t historically had anything to do with the massage chair market, and it’s not an easy industry to break into.
However, the company displayed its engineering excellence, making several very good design decisions. They’ve made a surprisingly good massage chair that focuses more on therapeutic benefits than features that hobbyists and casual users would gravitate to.
We love all three therapeutic features (Zero-G, Deep Tissue Massage, and Heat). But we readily admit that the short massage track and the lack of design flourishes—combined with its somewhat low maximum supported user weight—make it a chair that not everyone will love.
Westinghouse WES41-700s Premium Massage Chair Review Conclusion
The ideal user for this chair would be someone who:
If all three of those apply to you, then this chair is on your shortlist of options.
If only one of those applies, or if none of them do, then you’re almost certain to be underwhelmed. On that basis, we give this one a provisional recommendation.
It’s much better suited to a certain subset of chronic pain sufferers than it is to the broader market of casual or hobbyist users.
Other Options To Consider
If you like the overall shape and direction of the Westinghouse design but it’s not a perfect fit for you, regardless of the reason, here are some other options you may want to consider:
Recommended For: Hobbyist/casual users, chronic pain sufferers, and taller users, almost anybody, will love this chair!
We mention this model all the time because, in our view, it is easily the best value on the market today. It’s offered by one of the biggest and most respected names in the massage chair industry and is positively brimming with features that will make both therapeutic and casual users smile.
While the offered heat isn’t as extensive (it’s limited to the lumbar region of your back), it’s got one of the best body stretches in the industry. Paired with things like Bluetooth speakers and other design flourishes, this makes this a fantastic chair for both chronic pain sufferers and casual users alike.
Recommended For: Anyone who suffers from aching feet and legs provided that the modest weight limit isn’t a dealbreaker.
This is an awesome chair offered by another big and well-respected company. It’s slightly more expensive than the chair we just reviewed, features a longer massage track, and has several features you’ll love.
The biggest drawback here is that the Admiral only offers a single Zero-G seating position. So you’ll give up two with this option, but you gain many pre-programmed massage options, including a very aggressive Thai stretching routine.
References & Resources:
- Westinghouse, Official Brand Website.
- Westinghouse WES41-700S User Manual
- Massage Therapy for Chronic Stiff Neck, Spine-Health.
- Chronic Pain, NHS Inform.
- Lower Back Massage, Physio.co.uk.
