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Office chair cylinders come in two versions: pneumatic or hydraulic. Pneumatic cylinders are the most popular. In fact, some even refer to all height-adjustable office chairs as “pneumatic.”
Despite some dissimilarities, these cylinders operate in the same fashion. So, can you swap your current office chair cylinder with any option? And are office chair cylinders universal?
Many office chair cylinders are universal, though the main difference arises in their stroke and body lengths. The sizes of gas cylinders for desk chairs are four to about ten inches. That said, you measure a replacement office chair for gas based on your leg height in different footwear.
Table of Contents
Are Office Chair Cylinders Universal?
Even though most office chair cylinders fit your chair’s mechanism and base, you shouldn’t simply pick any option.
Without disassembling your chair or removing its cylinder, you may quickly identify the best replacement.
A typical desk chair’s gas cylinder contains two significant pieces.
Gas Spring
The upper part is the gas spring. The compressed nitrogen gas with some oil for lubricating remain in position thanks to the gas spring.
The actuator or trigger that raises or lowers your chair is at the cylinder spring’s top end. This part inserts into the chair’s mechanism hole on the seat’s underside.
The gas spring’s top end has a mild taper. The typical spring taper of an office chair’s cylinder is 17-4.
The other gas spring’s end contains a piston that travels within the cylinder, lowering and raising the desk chair.
The Column
The column is the second component of the hydraulic cylinder. It has a diameter of about two inches, and it’s the one that enters the chair’s wheelbase. Most columns emerge beneath the wheelbase.
Gas cylinders vary in stroke type. In a nutshell, the stroke is the movement of your seat from its highest to lowest position. An 8-inch stroke pneumatic cylinder indicates that your seat travels eight inches from its minimum to the maximum position.
Taking measurements is the most straightforward approach to calculating your desk chair’s cylinder stroke. Plus, you don’t need to detach the pneumatic cylinder to determine the stroke.
How to Determine the Cylinder’s Stroke
To begin, lower the desk chair all the way and position it adjacent to a door or wall. Make a mark of the arms or chair back tip against the adjacent surface.
Now extend your chair’s height to its maximum position and note the second position from the arms or backrest tip, based on your previous mark.
Find the dimension between the two marks, and you have your stroke.
Get the Column’s Protrusion
The second factor when selecting a desk chair hydraulic cylinder is to examine under the wheelbase and determine the extent of column protrusion.
Once you’ve got these dimensions, it’ll be simple to locate the appropriate pneumatic cylinder replacement.
What are the Sizes of Gas Cylinders?
Most chairs have five-inch cylinders as standard, but lifts range from four to ten inches depending on the office chair model. The majority of task chair makers provide four to six-inch hydraulic cylinders.
Most people require a chair cylinder size that matches their stature. Often, you need a four-inch cylinder if you are under 5’4′′, a five-inch cylinder if you are between 5’4′′ and 6’2′′, and a six-inch cylinder if you are beyond 6’2′′.
How Do I Measure a Replacement Office Chair for Gas?
Begin by determining your seat height when seated in the desk chair. Rest your feet correctly on the floor with thighs parallel to it while seated. Maintain knees at 90-degrees.
Establish your seat height based on the distance from the kneecap to your floor. Wear different shoes, from flats to high heels, while determining the seat height.
To check the height of the cylinder itself:
- Disassemble your office chair base. Either unclip the base’s center using a flathead screwdriver or gently hit the base of your office chair with a mallet.
- Remove the telescope cover to expose the column.
- Get the dimensions of the cylinder body from the base of the mechanism. Add one inch to cater to the cylinder’s part held within the mechanism, plus the activation button. Ensure you don’t include the piston rod measurement (the part protruding backward from the cylinder’s center).
FAQs
Are All Office Chair Cylinders the Same?
All office chair cylinders are not the same. They vary in body size and stroke lengths. Moreover, their coloring differs, with some coming in brushed steel while others are black.
Your chairs have pneumatic or hydraulic cylinders, which work similarly but use different substances. Pneumatic cylinders have nitrogen gas moving in a single chamber. On the other hand, hydraulic cylinders have fluids shifting in two chambers.
Nonetheless, both cylinders only go down after pushing the lever and sitting on them.
Can You Replace the Cylinder on an Office Chair?
You can replace the cylinder on an office chair provided you note the right size for your demands. The process of replacing an office chair cylinder is a bit tricky and requires some care to avoid destroying your cylinder.
However, with the right tool and instructions, you should replace your cylinder without issues when your lift mechanism stops working.
Conclusion
What do you say now? Are office chair cylinders universal? Yes, but you need informed selection. These lifts vary in sizing, stroke length, operational mechanism, coloring, and more.
People’s leg heights vary, and this impacts suitable cylinder elections. Plus, there is no method to establish the lower leg length in relation to a person’s height.
Also, shoe type impacts total height and so is the seat height.
The gas cylinder’s size may be similar between two office chairs. However, the upholstery density and thickness, base design, and caster size impact the ideal cylinder size for you.
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