Many people think that an office chair is just a chair and buy them based on price, but there is a lot more to think about than just price. A decent chair will have a mechanism that assists your muscles to support your body. The main principle is that the backrest of the chair is under tension, but is free floating, so you can move about freely, whilst the backrest supports you. The tension is adjustable to suit your weight, so you can find the right balance of support you need.

In an ideal world the seat base would also tilt as the back rest tilts, for additional comfort, but this is where the problems starts. This type of mechanism is called a synchronomic or syncro-mechanism, as the back and seat pad movement is linked together, and it is more expensive to produce than a standard free floating backrest mechanism, where the seat base doesn’t tilt at all.

So most buyers go for the cheaper free floating mechanism, not understanding how to use the better one. They find that leaving the backrest in a free floating mechanism is uncomfortable (it pulls your shirt out of your trousers) so they just adjust it to a certain rake, and leave it locked in that position. Then they just lean on it and eventually slouch into it, always in the same position.

And ergonomics or health and safety consultants will tell you that this is the worse thing you can do, and after many years, it can cause back pain and future problems.

Even if you do understand how to use the syncro mechanism, the quality between different chairs, due to price, is staggering, as you will be, after a few years on a cheap office chair.

You wouldn’t play in the company golf tournament with clubs from Woolworths, so why would you decide that you need a better mechanism, and then go for the cheapest one available.

In general an ergonomic chair is one which has been specifically designed to support the user correctly, and will have numerous adjustments on it in order to suit the different shapes, weights and heights of users. You have to ask yourself how can an £80 chair in your local shop be suitable for the wide variety of people in the country. Quite simply it cannot, in the same way as the phrase “one size fits all” really means it never fits anybody.

A typical ergonomic chair will have the standard gas lift mechanism and seat back tilt, but it will also have a synchronomic mechanism as well as a lever to alter the seat base tilt, independently to the back- rest. The backrest itself will be height adjustable, and there will be a seat slide mechanism which is useful if you are very tall. Armrests will be an option and they will be height and width adjustable.

So as you will appreciate, a lot more adjusters means a higher price, but what you get is a chair which you can properly adjust to your size and height. The higher price will be money well spent considering how much time you will spend in the chair and how long you will keep it.

With regard to prices a basic free floating operator chair will cost between £60 and £140 depending on style. The next level is a synchro chair which should cost around £200 for a half decent one, but we have seen some Chinese imports in the market for around £150 to £160. You would need to verify the quality of these items yourself. Spend more than £300 and you will get decent quality European adjustment mechanisms in a well designed, comfortable chair; a decent warranty and after sales service, and a wide range of upholstery options.

If you are lucky enough to be able to spend over £500 then you will be looking at the best fabric or leather upholstery, slick and positive adjustment mechanisms ( usually cable operated so that everything is adjustable from a seated position), and a level of comfort you will not believe.

As with most things in life, you get what you pay for with office chairs, and only you can decide how much your back is worth.