Gaiam Adjustable Balance Ball Chair with 55cm Yoga Ball - Ergonomic Stability Ball Seat for Home Office, Work & Fitness - Includes Air Pump & Exercise Guide - Perfect for Active Sitting, Core Workouts & Posture Improvement

Concept: 5/5 starsDesign: 4/5 starsQuality: 2/5 starsI really do love the idea of a bouncy chair that forces you to move a bit more and making you sit up straight. It's like a multi-functional inflatable chair! The design is quite decent as well. Adjustable legs, adjustable back, and a exercise ball that serve as both your seat and a regular exercise tool for when you want some spontaneous exercising! Just pop it out and give it a go! What's not to like? Well that'd be the actual manufacturing quality of this product. Although it is made in Taiwan rather than China, which I presumed would have slightly better quality control... I was wrong. The welding for this chair has been the worst ones I have ever seen. Super super lazy. The welds look like they were slapped on as if they were Play Dough... They are lumpy, uneven, and the absolutely worst ones are the two welds from underneath the back padding of the chair. They weren't even complete. The welding wasn't even covering the tube all around, there are gaps! Even stuff I buy from Taobao has better quality than this. It's a bit unfathomable how Gaiam managed to not see these things. With this quality of welding I am not surprised when I see a couple customers here complaining that their chair's back broke apart. Gaiam would then make the excuse saying that the back was not meant to actually be used during seating but only for occasional exercising. But really with this level of quality I don't think you're even supposed to put any amount of pressure on it at all. Not to mention only one of the two tubes for the back actually has the connector, so the whole back is only held on by only one of the two tubes. Making the back wobbly. Another sign of extreme laziness. The black paint chips incredibly easily as well. From the pictures of the listing, the chair has a more glossy finish, a bit like powder coating. This chair's paint is quite thin and thus gets chipped quite easily. All I can say about the quality of the chair is that it works as intended, but the poor quality may the life-span of the product. The ball itself is the best quality out of the entire product. Feels a bit foamy and thick enough that I don't feel like it would burst on me. I do wish they allowed customers to choose their preferred color like the Balance ball chair does. Alas they don't, but I'll be sewing a cover for the ball myself so it's not too much of an issue for me.I did experience similar problems with the wheel locks locking too easily when my feet swiping pass them as other customers noted. It's not the worst issue of this chair for me. I plan to cut the taps into a shorter length to make them more difficult to snap down by accident.It really is a shame. The idea of this chair is great, the design is quite good although still has room for improvements, but the quality of the product just ruined the whole execution. Gaiam, please check with your manufacturer and talk to them about quality control. I do believe this is a great chair if the quality issue is fixed, and it is definitely fixable. Taiwan is known for great bikes with great welding, it's odd that something this basic that's made in Taiwan can be this poor in quality. The price would have been very fair if the quality wasn't so disappointing, but not for now. The problem is there really aren't any alternative to this chair unless you want their plastic Balance chair, so I can't recommend people to try something else. So sadly if you want an exercise ball chair with a metal frame this is your best bet. There is a company called Isoskinetics with the same chair as this, but I'm pretty sure they source from the same manufacturer and would have the same quality control problem anyway. If you're trying to choose between the Gaiam Custom chair and the one from Isoskinetics, just go with whichever one is cheaper.TL:DR - Excited about the concept of the chair. Relatively good design, but quality is worse than the bad stuff from China. But there are no alternatives to choose from so take it or leave it.Is it perfect? No, the casters are indeed subpar plastic nonsense and somhow always get switched not move, which can be annoying. But given there's no a whole lot of options for those who love a pilates ball chair but didn't fit in the 3 sizes they generally come in, or don't want to constant inflate when it maybe gets depressed, I think it deserves 5 stars. The adjustable chair height makes a good thing great.Bonus- I didn't expect to use the back rest, as I never do in most poorly fitting chairs, and it seems so fat back! But on days when i want to work at desk and I have cramps so I really need to recline, combined with a foot stool it works great and is surprisingly stable. Really helps my occasional pelvic and hip pain.For reference I'm a petite woman with a tendency towards hypermobility (easily bent out of shape! hah!) so I do it all- split keyboard, height adjustable desk, etc. The ball is the main time I'm able to lose myself in work (programming type) without distraction from pain.I just got it, I'm still on the first day and haven't deflated and re-inflated the ball yet.Pros:* Sitting on the ball is pretty comfortable* It's got a large ball and is adjustable in height. From reviews of other products it seemed like they would be too low for me. This chair has a larger 55cm ball and is adjustable. It's right for my desk height on the second lowest setting. I don't know who would use it on a higher setting, if you're that short your feet probably wouldn't touch the floor.* It was pretty easy to put together, it took me about 15 min with a couple of issues in cons below.Cons:* First, the 'backrest' isn't like in the pictures. The angle is much further back. I don't think you're supposed to actually lean on it, from the pictures it just looks like it's supposed to keep your butt from moving backwards off the ball. Mine is about 8-10" away from the ball, not the 3-4" like in the picture. This makes it useless for that purpose. I think if I actually sat back on the ball and used it on my back it would bend and break.* Putting the backrest on took some effort, the part that goes in didn't quite line up with the bottom and I had to put quite a bit of pressure on it to bend the bottom together so it would go in. Sliding it in was scraping paint off and difficult, it was a tight fit. Had to put a screwdriver through the holes and wiggle it around to get it lined up. The bolt that goes through doesn't quite go all the way so some of the pressure is taken on the screw that goes into it.* One of the legs has trouble sliding in. I was going to try on the lowest setting, but couldn't get it down and I was afraid I was going to break the wheel off trying to pull it out, they are pretty flimsy.Notes:One of the reviews said the ball was too small. There's no good guide to see how much it is inflated, I think I'll have to find a measuring tape and try to rig some level to make sure it's the correct size when inflated. I'm wondering if they just stopped inflating when it looked round, you can keep inflating quite a while after that.Brilliant, I use this as my office chair whilst working from home. I don’t get anywhere near as much back pain now.The idea is great, but in practice the backrest of this chair is completely useless: it ends too low and too far back. You would have to sit on the back the ball to reach the back rest. The back is adjustable, but not adjustable enough. Also, when the back rest is extended to the max, it is really wobbly - it shakes and moves a lot at the slightest touch, let alone if you actually rest against it. Otherwise the chair seems to be fine, but I returned it - no point to keeping a chair with a pointless design feature that performs poorly and just takes up space.I purchased this chair in August, and have had issues with the wheels automatically locking since I first started using it. I managed to tape the locking mechanism up so it no longer happens.Then in November, one of the wheels just fell apart! One side popped off the axle and would not stay reattached despite attempting everything from tools to glue. The other side of the wheel soon popped off the axle as well, unable to take the strain alone. Had to move the dead wheel to one of the side back positions so that my chair wouldn't fall forward, which is where the weight gets distributed when sitting upright at my desk.Today, a second wheel has given out, and it will also not pop back together.I did look into replacing the wheels, but they are in one piece with the adjustable legs, and I cannot replace them, unless I get new legs, which I cannot find to purchase anywhere.Very disappointed, this frame will soon land in the trash and I will need to purchase a whole new chair.The ball is okay.I am pretty disappointed with this chair. I have had it not even 6 months and already there are 2 wheels that are broken. For over $100 it's definitely not worth the money!Fácil de armar, tamaño ideal, resistente !Lleva año y medio de uso continuo y está en perfectas condiciones