Techo Sidiz T50 - A Personal Review

Back again for another non-Tableau post, this time, its my personal view on the Techo Sidiz T50 Office Chair and available from this retailer (no affiliations).

I like to “shake the tree” every so often, see what comes up, and this week its - “Am I still happy with my chair?” and “Has the market improved?”

Having just re-designed my working space I’m questioning whether my Techo Sidiz T50 is still the most perfect chair

To summarise: At the time of writing, I've had my T50 for more than 8 years, and have spent more than 15,000 hours in it in that time, and still absolutely love it. I can't recommend it enough, it is so very comfortable, has a host of well thought-out adjustments, really does enforce great posture, and the seat pad can be removed and changed, and the seat cover can be washed as well (I do mine a couple of times per year)
Although I do have one personal gripe in that I could really do with some neck and shoulder support, although very few office chairs seem to have this.

I bought my T50 in March 2017 - a little over 8 years ago, and this was only because my then employer - Expedia had these on all 6 floors of their two London offices so more than 1200 chairs. I reasoned that I was spending 7+ hours on the chairs whilst in the office and came away feeling pretty good, so that'll do for me.

And, whilst we're on it, Expedia had a number of (hugely expensive) Herman Miller Aeron's too, although I hadn't realised that they were the Aeron at the time, and I was very annoyed when my T50 kept being switched for the Aeron, it was so damned uncomfortable. So I guess this means that I wasn't a fan of the Aeron.

At home, I use my T50 for work, so this is 7+ hours per day, and then for gaming after work, which when I'm playing can easily stretch to more than 3 hours and more than 10 hours per day in the chair.

Of my body and general posture: I'm 180cm (5'11"), and weigh anything between 80Kg-90Kg (176-198lb) - it varies with my exercise level. I do regular aerobic exercise (self-powered treadmill and cross-train) which seems to increase my weight, but this soon drops, and I also sail. I have a naturally strong core although this is enhanced by the sailing, so don't slouch, even when reclined. But I do have a wide arc in my spine leading to a very pronounced curve - sticks my belly out like Santa.

Chair Adjustments include:

• Chair height on the gas-lift; • Seat depth; • Seat tilt; • Arm height; • Arm length (backward/forward); • Back recline and position lock; and a nice feature for increasing the tension of the recline, this means you can rock into the recline position at your comfort.

Starting with my con, and why 8 years after purchase, and more than 11 years of sitting in the chair, I'm looking around:

• I have a long-term shoulder and neck injury affecting C5 & C6 in my neck so I might be more susceptible to this than most, but as my T50 has no head rest, and the waterfall back places such a distance between my upper back/shoulders/neck, that whilst 7 hours is fine, 8,9,10+ hours really begins to hurt my neck.

As for the pros, well, if its not in the cons, then its gotta be a pro right?

I don't have the lumbar support version, but my wife does. Sometimes I feel like I need some additional support, so a cushion can help here, but I'm not a fan of my wife's lumbar version, but this might be due to my exaggerated spinal curve more than anything, as the slope of the waterfall coupled with the tension of the mesh back perfectly conforms to my back to be supportive but really, really comfortable.

Add to this the seat depth and seat tilt adjustments, means I can properly configure for my hip alignment, and so the chair encourages excellent posture and discourages slouching (its quite hard to slouch, you really need to try), and my seat impression ensures that I'm seated on my sit bones. And yet despite this, it still remains so damned comfortable.

The seat is wide enough to accommodate some larger sizes - I have around 5cm either side of me before I hit the arms, and my wife sits cross-legged in hers. The waterfall back really helps to prevent too much man-spread, without cocooning like a bucket-seat.

Onto the rest of the spec:

• Arms: are really nicely padded with a soft foam-gel feeling, with a similar compression to the inner forearm, and are at background temperature so always comfortably warm. They can only move up/down and forward/backward with a good lock between ensuring they won't move unless you want to.

• Gas lift, its supportive, but with a degree of dampening/cushioning moving with you as you adjust your posture

• Sits on an aluminium base on five castors that work best with hard / short-pile carpets. Can roll smoothly over medium-pile with a little effort, although this will mark the carpet.

• The seat pad is very comfortable, but its also a foam pad, and can quickly heat-up, although this can be easily replaced to a better cool-foam which is what my wife has done. And that the cover is held-on with hook-and-loop means this can easily be removed for washing, and will air dry in under an hour.

Finally in terms of loading, and flex, the chair will easily support more than 150kg (330lb) mine and my wife's combined weight (you can use your imagination as to how we were testing this)