As most of my readers know, I have a very nice Aeron chair that I got when I was working at home full time. The decision to invest $600 in a single piece of furniture I was going to use day in and day out wasn’t lightly taken, but I needed something comfortable, durable, and designed for my size and weight. An Aeron size C from ebay fit the bill nicely. I’ve had my share of problems with it, including a broken ‘pan’ seat and a damaged lifter. The seat was covered under warranty, and I was able to replace it myself, but the lifter needed a trip to a local repair shop. The last couple weeks, the chair has refused to recline. The levers on the left side that allow forward and backward motion were ‘locked’ in position, and I couldn’t undo them. It was making me not want to sit at my desk – and even though I’m not working fulltime at home, I know that if there’s something that makes an experience less than enjoyable, I’ll avoid it. So I was sitting on the couch with my laptop or working downstairs.
Last night, I decided to haul out the toolbox and see what could be done… First and foremost, I don’t recommend anyone who isn’t comfortable crawling around on the floor, and possessing a decent set of tools to attempt these sorts of repairs. The Aeron chair is built with an eye toward long term maintenance and durability. It has Real Live Parts in it, so you should use Real Live Tools to work on it. Since the problem I was having was with the recline mechanism, I traced the cables from the levers. They disappear into that formless box underneath the seat. After some wriggling around, I decided I needed to remove the seat to get better access to it. Much of the chair is held together with allen-head bolts, so having a good set of standard-sized allen wrenches is required. Remove the two bolts from the sides of the pan, and remove the two bolts at the end of the arms under the mechanism box. They came out easily for me, but they were obviously snugged in. Once those bolts are out, pull the seat out and set it aside.
The next step is getting the box open. It’s a plastic housing that has only 2 screws visible on the outside – a set of phillips head screws on the bottom. Don’t undo those yet. The plastic housing is one of those ‘snapped together’ arrangements. I had the benefit of having the housing loose already, so a little prying and wriggling with a large flathead screwdriver, and the whole assembly popped apart. This is fairly rigid plastic, so don’t twist, you could break off the tabs, but gentle pressure around the joining edges will win out, and the top will pop off. Once the top is off, you can see the mechanism inside. For the problem I was working on, I needed to reach the underside, so I undid the two phillips head screws, and pulled the bottom cover off. These screws, by the way, are sheet metal screws, not mechanical screws. They thread into the metal of the chair. The chair mechanism is remarkably simple, and made sense once I looked at it. It was obvious that the two levers control the distance the chair can tilt one way or the other, using a set-bolt on one side, and a rotating cam on the other.
The rotating cam designates how far back the chair will tilt, the bolt sets where the forward tilt stops. While wiggling the cables around, I realized that the tilt mechanism had gotten jammed with the forward tilt saying “FURTHER BACK” and the back tilt saying “FURTHER FORWARD”. The only way to unjam these was to take pressure off one side of the mechanism so they could rotate. But how to do that? The answer came in the set bolt under the forward tilt. There’s a massive assembly there (for a chair) obviously taking all the pressure for the forward tilt. It has a large (allen-headed) set bolt, accessible from the bottom, that can be used to adjust the ‘stop point’. I set my largest wrench into that bolt, and backed off the tension 1, 2, and… Looking to the other side of the tilt mechanism, I had relieved enough tension that the recliner cam had snapped back to where it was supposed to be. Now the levers were operating properly! I could slide the recline lever up and down and see the cam rotate from one side to the other.
After puttering around inside for a little, getting an idea how the tensioner for the recline mechanism works (it’s a lateral screw driving a spring – maybe I’ve worn out my spring, because running the tension from stop to stop via the knob on the side never really did anything), I decided it was time to pack up. Reassembling was relatively easy, except for getting the panel screws back in place. Remember, not mechanical screws, and in an awkward location. The answer came when i figured out you could see through the mechanism to where the screw was attempting to thread into the mount. A bright light down there and I was able to line up the screw properly. Reassembly was easy – two screws to put back on the lower housing – be careful to lay the control cables back into their slots, or else the housing won’t go together correctly. 4 bolts to put the seat pan back in place, and I was done. I am very impressed with the construction of the chair. It has solid, well designed parts all the way through it.
This sort of repair / issue with a cheaper office chair would have meant me throwing it out and likely replacing it with a new one, but Herman Miller did well with these things, and repairs are quite possible and worthwhile. My chair is back to being it’s normal comfy self. Attempted to do a search on here, but couldn't turn up anything. I've found some Eames Armchair shells on CL for pretty cheap lately, but with upholstery. I was wondering if Lloyd or anyone knew how easy it was to get the upholstery off, and potentially refinish the shell? Is it even worth it, or is the adhesive impossible? I’ve had the classic Herman Miller Eames Plastic Chair for quite some time. It’s an iconic chair in many households across the world, often purchased as a style-first piece of furniture to modernize home decor But it took a recent non-normal event for us to learn that the Eames’ true purpose isn’t necessarily style. I now believe the Herman Miller Eames Plastic Chair is the perfect dining room chair for young families.
It’s super stylish and modern, but it’s also very easy to clean when disaster strikes. If not for the price, I’d have six of these chairs around my dining room table. Nearly all of Herman Miller’s designs are timeless, but the Molded Plastic Chair ranks near the top of that list. Its minimal curves have been duplicated, replicated, and emulated thousands of times over, yet the true design is a pure lesson in minimalism. There are no corners or sharp edges on the Eames. From the base of the chair to the backrest, every curve flows effortlessly into the next. This makes sitting on a hard plastic chair still relatively comfortable, even for long periods of time. The Chair’s plastic isn’t perfectly smooth. It’s slightly textured, making for a matte feel and look. I like how it doesn’t give off a glare in direct sunlight, especially since it’s the all-white model. The plastic is made of 100% recyclable polypropylene, which is a change from the Molded Chairs of old.
During the 1950s, the original design was made of fiberglass. Now, thanks to new knowledge about the environmental impact of fiberglass production, Herman Miller only produces plastic chairs. The plastic is notorious for creating intense static electricity when changing positions. No matter the material I am wearing, I consistently find myself shocking the first piece of metal I touch after getting up from the Eames Chair. Although hard plastic, the backrest has good flex and lets you lean back a few inches. Leaning back and bending the plastic slightly doesn’t change the permanent shape of the classic design thankfully. The base of the Eames Molded Plastic Chair comes in two designs: the wire base and a wood dowel base. Generally you’ll see the wire base referred to as the “Eiffel” base, because it takes some design cues from that great tower in Paris. You’ll also usually see the wood dowel base in many home decor photos, as the wood dowel legs add some more color and life to the room.
My wife and I opted for the Eiffel base because of price and because we felt it would fit our home’s style more appropriately. The Eiffel base has a chrome finish and is pretty shiny in direct light. We’ve had no issues with the wire base breaking or needing to be re-welded over time. I am quite disappointed with the Eames feet, however. The feet themselves are just hard black plastic, but the felt covers on the bottom of the feet are poorly applied. One of the felt covers has almost slid right off the foot itself, which means the chair may scratch the floor if I’m not careful. The felt covers also pick up a pile of dust and hair if you don’t pull off the gunk every now and then. Like a few other Herman Miller designs, the 1950s Molded Plastic Chair still looks and feels modern today. You can pick up the chair in many (many!) different colors, satisfying any design or style you prefer. The white model can be seen in many Scandinavian-styled homes and fits in no matter the time or place.
The Plastic Chair’s timeless design isn’t the reason for this review, however. In fact, I never felt a simple dining or guest chair would be a product that fit on Tools & Toys. After seeing the Plastic Chair’s actual utility in action though, I’m convinced this chair would fit the needs of many young families. My wife and I don’t have kids, but we do have four nieces and nephews under the age of five. In the span of a week, we had all four of the munchkins running around and eating whatever we had laying on the counter. To add to the chaos, my wife made spaghetti and meat sauce for supper one evening. And our cloth dining room chairs were destined to be magnets for the meat sauce. Realizing the potential horror, we put our youngest niece on the Eames Molded Plastic Chair. As expected, she spilled some meant sauce on the seat of the chair while shoveling in some fabulous pasta. And all it took was a paper towel to wipe every bit of meat sauce off the chair.
Sure, you can purchase any traditional wood or plastic chair and never have to worry about stains and spills with young kids. But I’m willing to bet those choices and designs don’t measure up to the timeless design of the Eames. The Eames offers a timeless and childproof solution for any furniture worries you may have. Every Herman Miller product comes with a premium price, and the Eames Molded Plastic Chair really isn’t any different. The least expensive option comes in at $339, while the pictured model goes for an even $349. You can add an upholstered shell for an extra cost, or you can upgrade to the wood dowel base for an extra $110. Without a doubt, this isn’t the least expensive dining room chair option on the market. But it’s one of the least expensive Herman Miller products you can buy for your home. The Herman Miller name imbues quality — products such as the Embody chair, the Eames Lounge Chair, and the Noguchi Table are well known as some of the highest quality furniture you can purchase.