MASSAGE CHAIR BUYERS GUIDE

By the Comfort Consultants of Furniture For Life®

A Different Kind of Massage
Chair Buyer’s Guide

There’s a vast amount of information out there about massage chairs and how to ensure you buy the best one: buzzwords, industry jargon, comparison charts, and feature lists that go on and on. Unfortunately, most of what you find online can leave you feeling more confused, rather than less.

We have a different take on how to find the best massage chair — or more accurately, the best massage chair for you. We’ve been researching, designing, selling, improving, and practically living in massage chairs since 2006, and if we’ve learned one thing in all that time, it’s that no one should choose a massage chair based on how it stacks up on a features list or comparison chart; it’s all about how the chair makes you feel and how it improves your life. And there’s no better way to discover that than to TRY different chairs for yourself. So rather than give you a glossary of a bunch of technical terms (which you can easily find elsewhere), this guide suggests what to look for and what to ask when you’re visiting stores to shop for a massage chair.

It All Starts With You

To begin, make sure you can clearly answer what you want out of a massage chair. It might not be a bad idea to write it down. Are you looking for a relaxing escape after a stressful day of work? Are you in pain and seeking relief? Are you generally healthy and happy, and looking for a proactive way to keep it that way?

Goals: How can the right massage chair improve your life?

• What has inspired you to shop for a massage chair?

• What health or lifestyle benefits are you looking for from a massage chair?

• Do you have medical conditions you hope a massage
chair can address?

Experience: What do you already know that can guide your decision?

• If you have had previous experiences with massage chairs or massage therapists, what did you like or dislike about your experiences, and why?

Habits, Home & Family: Finding a chair that fits your life

• How frequently and at what time of day do you imagine using your chair?

• Where do you imagine this new massage chair will be located?

• Who else will be using the chair besides you, and are their goals and preferences similar to or different from yours?

Trying Massage Chairs

Now that you’ve clearly identified why you want a massage chair and how it can improve your life, it’s time to test some out. Why? A massage chair is more than the sum of its parts. It can have the newest mechanism, the most air cells, the longest list of features, but there’s no way to tell how good a job the designers and engineers have done to bring all those moving parts together for a holistic massage experience. Add to that the fact that your body is unique, so even rave reviews from owners can’t tell you how a given massage chair is going to feel to you.

You don’t need to sit in every massage chair on the market, but you should try several to get a feel for the range of different experiences massage chairs can provide.

What to Look for When Trying a Massage Chair

Intensity

All massage chairs run along a spectrum from low-to-high intensity (or light to deep massage), and though most chairs can be adjusted to cover more than one part of this spectrum, certain massage chairs do certain intensities better than others.

If you want a massage chair to help you relax, you will likely want a chair that is designed for low-to-mid intensity. If you are looking for a more therapeutic experience, you might (but not always!) want a chair designed for mid-to-high intensity.

An Eye To The Future: After you purchase and regularly use your massage chair, your body will adapt, and what you initially thought of as the perfect intensity may feel too light. Consider choosing a massage chair that delivers a good massage at a slightly higher intensity than you’re looking for today.

Coverage

Many massage chairs offer “full body massage,” spanning from your feet, to your hands, to your neck. But different massage chairs will have different ways of delivering massage to these areas. For example, your foot massage experience will differ greatly if it is delivered by air cells vs. a mechanical roller, or both. If you suffer from stiff fingers, it’s important to think about whether the air cells in the massage chair’s arms reach all the way to your fingertips to provide relief. Heat coverage is another important consideration — contemplate if the chair offers heat in the places you need it.

Many massage chairs have programs that focus on particular areas of the body. If you have pain in a certain area, does the chair have an appropriate focus program, and how effective is it?

Design

A chair’s exterior design is often overlooked during the shopping process. Then when the chair is delivered to the proud new owners, they realize it clashes with the design of their living room or den, and it needs to be hidden away somewhere that makes it less convenient to use. A massage chair is a significant purchase and major home fixture, so choose something that works with your home’s look and feel, and that you’ll be proud to show guests and visitors.

Quality, Reliability, and Post-Purchase Support

A massage chair is a big investment, and if you use it even once a day, your chair will rack up a lot of miles. You want a chair that will last, and you want to know that the retailer and manufacturer are there to support you if something ever goes wrong.

For any massage chair over $5,000, accept nothing less than a 3-year warranty that covers both parts and labor. But even that doesn’t matter if you can’t get someone on the phone to schedule a service visit. When looking at reviews, don’t just focus on how owners rate the chair itself. Look for what they say about the customer support they’ve received when dealing with service and warranty issues.

A Final Word on Features

We’ve given features a pretty bad rap so far — after all,
they can add to the confusion of shopping for a massage
chair. But there’s nothing inherently wrong with a feature-rich chair. Even peripheral features that don’t directly
affect the quality of massage, like Bluetooth® audio or a
slick tablet controller, may be legitimately important to you
and meaningfully contribute to your experience.

Just be careful not to be swept away by a long features list or a sales associate who focuses on features and specifications rather than your needs and questions. Remember why you wanted a massage chair in the first place, what you want it to do for you, and make your choice on those factors first.

Go Ahead, Take a Seat

Nothing beats the real experience of sitting in a chair and personally getting to know what it has to offer. If you live near a Furniture For Life store or gallery, we hope you’ll stop in. If not, look for other massage chair retailers in your area, call us at 720-709-1150, or chat with one of our Comfort Consultants on FurnitureForLife.com. The things to consider and questions to ask discussed in this guide are still pretty useful when you’re shopping online or talking with an expert on the phone.

We hope this guide makes your massage chair shopping experience less stressful and more enjoyable, and above all, that it helps you find the right massage chair to improve your health and happiness.

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