Don
I recently bought a HERO to replace my rather tired director's chair. Here are my thoughts on it.
First, let's talk about the delivery. I placed the order on Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday morning I had the chair in my hands. Excellent service from Overclockers as always.
The box took me a little by surprise due to the weight.
Once I had manhandled the box in to my living room I started opening it. Very well packed with every part individually wrapped in plastic and with foam protection wrapping the metal parts.
Once I had the parts laid out on the floor the quality was immediately obvious. Everything from the embossed logo to the red stitching was superbly made. No fraying threads and no bad stitching here.
The instructions are clear and printed on a stapled, card booklet. Lots of diagrams to follow but seeing as there are only two types of screw it's difficult to assemble it incorrectly.
The version I bought was the PU version with red stitching. The facing although not leather looks very thick and feels good to the touch. Better than many real leather chairs I've seen. It feels like it's going to last.
Looking at the underside of the chair is always a good way to tell the quality with many having rough stitching, plastic padding, or stuffing showing. Not this chair. The bottom of the seat is a metal plate with metal struts running around the edges. The covering is attached to this metal structure and believe me, it looks very strong. It's certainly heavy.
Moving on to the wheel base. Normally these are plastic and eventually warp or snap where the casters attach. Not this one. It's cast metal! The casters snapped in with a satisfying click. Casters look to be good quality too.
Moving up from there, the gas strut weighs a ton so I'm guessing that it's made of some pretty thick metal tubing. It's located in to a very substantial looking housing that contains the base tilt and lift controls. Again, these levers are high quality and look like they will take some serious abuse.
By the way, the screws that you will use to build the chair have spring washers on them so that they won't come loose. It's little details like this that make a product shine in my opinion.
The chair took me about 30 minutes to assemble, and then another 30 minutes to get adjusted. There are so many adjustments I'm going to be fiddling for days! This both a good point and a bad point. It can go from bolt upright to nearly completely flat.
Off the top of my head you can adjust: height of the chair, tilt of the base, strength of the spring on the base, tilt of the back, width, length, and angle of the arm rests, and the position of the lumbar support. There are cars with fewer adjustments than this on their seats.
So, how does it feel? It's firm and it's upright. This took me a little by surprise to begin with but I soon found a very comfortable position. I think it's going to take a while to break in because the padding is pretty solid. This is both good and bad. Bad because it is quite hard initially, especially if you are used to a very soft executive chair, but good because it supports your back in the right places and won't sag after a few months use.
Good points:
Build quality
Speedy delivery
Adjustability
Aesthetics (I mean, look at the thing. It's awesome!)
Comfort
Bad points:
Very firm to begin with
Side covers were annoying to attach
All in all I'm happy with the chair. Time will tell how well it holds up to the abuse I put chairs through but first impressions are good. You can always tell a chair that's going to last because it's overly firm at first. This means it's filled with proper upholstery foam rather than the cheap stuff you get on £100 chairs.
First, let's talk about the delivery. I placed the order on Wednesday afternoon and by Thursday morning I had the chair in my hands. Excellent service from Overclockers as always.
The box took me a little by surprise due to the weight.
Once I had manhandled the box in to my living room I started opening it. Very well packed with every part individually wrapped in plastic and with foam protection wrapping the metal parts.
Once I had the parts laid out on the floor the quality was immediately obvious. Everything from the embossed logo to the red stitching was superbly made. No fraying threads and no bad stitching here.
The instructions are clear and printed on a stapled, card booklet. Lots of diagrams to follow but seeing as there are only two types of screw it's difficult to assemble it incorrectly.
The version I bought was the PU version with red stitching. The facing although not leather looks very thick and feels good to the touch. Better than many real leather chairs I've seen. It feels like it's going to last.
Looking at the underside of the chair is always a good way to tell the quality with many having rough stitching, plastic padding, or stuffing showing. Not this chair. The bottom of the seat is a metal plate with metal struts running around the edges. The covering is attached to this metal structure and believe me, it looks very strong. It's certainly heavy.
Moving on to the wheel base. Normally these are plastic and eventually warp or snap where the casters attach. Not this one. It's cast metal! The casters snapped in with a satisfying click. Casters look to be good quality too.
Moving up from there, the gas strut weighs a ton so I'm guessing that it's made of some pretty thick metal tubing. It's located in to a very substantial looking housing that contains the base tilt and lift controls. Again, these levers are high quality and look like they will take some serious abuse.
By the way, the screws that you will use to build the chair have spring washers on them so that they won't come loose. It's little details like this that make a product shine in my opinion.
The chair took me about 30 minutes to assemble, and then another 30 minutes to get adjusted. There are so many adjustments I'm going to be fiddling for days! This both a good point and a bad point. It can go from bolt upright to nearly completely flat.
Off the top of my head you can adjust: height of the chair, tilt of the base, strength of the spring on the base, tilt of the back, width, length, and angle of the arm rests, and the position of the lumbar support. There are cars with fewer adjustments than this on their seats.
So, how does it feel? It's firm and it's upright. This took me a little by surprise to begin with but I soon found a very comfortable position. I think it's going to take a while to break in because the padding is pretty solid. This is both good and bad. Bad because it is quite hard initially, especially if you are used to a very soft executive chair, but good because it supports your back in the right places and won't sag after a few months use.
Good points:
Build quality
Speedy delivery
Adjustability
Aesthetics (I mean, look at the thing. It's awesome!)
Comfort
Bad points:
Very firm to begin with
Side covers were annoying to attach
All in all I'm happy with the chair. Time will tell how well it holds up to the abuse I put chairs through but first impressions are good. You can always tell a chair that's going to last because it's overly firm at first. This means it's filled with proper upholstery foam rather than the cheap stuff you get on £100 chairs.
