• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
Help At My Home

Help At My Home

Helpful Tips and Guides for Your Home

  • Buying Guides
    • Best Air Compressors
    • Best Home Garbage Disposals
    • Quietest Fan For Sleeping
    • Best Deer Fence
  • About
  • Show Search
Hide Search
Branch Ergonomic Office Chair Review (Update: 3 Years Of Use)
We select and review products independently. If you buy through affiliate links, we may earn commissions, which help support the site.

Branch Ergonomic Office Chair Review (Update: 3 Years Of Use)

03/18/2024 by HelpAtMyHome Staff

When my Knoll Life chair, which had served me well for over 10 years, finally broke down I was in a tough spot. It was time to buy a new office chair in order to make my work-from home life as comfortable and healthy as possible, but I had to pay for the chair myself and I didn’t want to spend a fortunate.

Instead of buying a Knoll, a Haworth Zody (the chair I had before that), or yet another Herman Miller, I opted for a Branch Furniture Ergonomic chair.

Note on timeline: I original wrote this review in December 2021 after using the Branch chair for a few months. I’m now updating it in March 2024 with my thoughts after another 3 years of use. The chair is still for sale and seems to be a mainstay of the Branch offerings.

Table of Contents show
1 Who Is Branch Furniture?
2 Why The Branch Ergonomic Chair?
3 Assembly
4 Branch Chair Review
5 Verdict
6 FAQs

Who Is Branch Furniture?

Branch Furniture was founded by Greg Hayes in 2018 with the stated goal of selling high quality office furniture direct to consumers for fair prices. Classically, buying office furniture has been an awful process if you aren’t buying dozens of chairs and desks. The sellers were always middlemen who were not interested in selling to individuals, so people had to buy lower quality products from Amazon, Staples, and Office Depot. Alternatively you could spend $600-$1500 on a brand name chair from someone like DWR, but this isn’t practical for most people.

This process has gotten a lot better in the last 10 or so years, but it’s still not great and individual consumers are left with high prices and limited options when compared to corporate buyers.

Branch wanted to offer professional-grade office furniture to consumers and work-from-home professionals without the hassle and mark-ups. It’s very much like an “Everlane for Office Furniture.”

Why The Branch Ergonomic Chair?

First of all, let’s be 100% clear: The Ergonomic Chair is the name of Branch’s rolling office chair with lumbar support. It is an ergonomic (small “e”) chair named the “Ergonomic Chair.”

After considering some of the top sub-$1000 office chairs, like the:

  • Herman Miller Sayl
  • Steelcase Bodi
  • Herman Miller Setu
  • Herman Miller Embody (too expensive but perhaps on sale?)
  • Herman Miller Mirra 2

… and any number of other office chairs in the $300-$600 price range, I ended up with the Branch Ergonomic. Why did this happen?

First of all, I was really impressed with the price. I originally went into this purchase thinking I would need to spend $1000+ on an Aeron, Embody, Steelcase Leap, similar high-end chair. After doing some research I determined that the mid-level chairs, like the Sayl would be fine for me. In fact, I had previously used a Herman Miller Setu thought that might be a good pick.

After my initial research I learned about Branch and determined it looked like a really good deal for $300. Free shipping to my home would be just 2-3 days and the company offered full refunds (less return shipping charges) within the first 30 days if I wasn’t happy with my purchase. So it as a low price as well as minimal risk.

The Ergonomic Chair has a limited warranty of 7 years on “parts and components” which was good enough for me. Less expensive office and task chairs often break down with age and their low price doesn’t seem so great when the chair collapses after 2 years!

Assembly

The Branch chair arrives in a fairly large, heavy box with the chair components inside. You have to assemble the chair yourself, which takes about 15 minutes. All the tools you need are included.

The instructions were quite clear and no technical skill or real strength was required to put the chair together. In fact the hardest part was lugging around the cardboard box before even assembling the chair. After that everything went together smoothly. The chair weighs about 35 pounds, which really isn’t that bad for an office chair — any less and I’d be concerned.

Branch doesn’t include directions, but links you to a PDF and assembly video via an included postcard in the box. This made things easy and saved some paper.

Sturdy plastic construction lacks polish

Branch Chair Review

Having used the chair for a few weeks, I have a number of thoughts about it. I’ve been using it full-time, for work and some leisure, so it’s gotten some miles already. Normally I’d want to wait a few months before posting a chair review, but I wanted to put something down while my memories of my previous chair were still fresh.

The Ergonomic Chair’s build quality is good. I wouldn’t say that I’m blown away, but given the price it’s impressive what Branch did. The base piece is a 5-point piece of metal (probably aluminum with 5 casters and no plastic on it is at all. It looks great — really high-end and classy. The wheels are hard, black plastic, not quite as nice as the soft, clear casters that many chairs have moved to, but totally fine.

The arms and some other important components are entirely plastic, so they have a little flex, but they don’t feel cheap. Also I don’t feel like they will break over time — it’s heavy duty stuff.

The seat cushion is pretty nice too – not too hard, not too soft. It’s a mesh-type fabric that breathes well and prevents sliding. I don’t have a whole lot to say about it, which is perfect because it’s supposed to be something you don’t think about!

The seat cushion is pretty nice too – not too hard, not too soft. It’s a mesh-type fabric that breathes well and prevents sliding. I don’t have a whole lot to say about it, which is perfect because it’s supposed to be something you don’t think about!

The back is a lightweight double-layered mesh, similar to many modern office chairs, with some give to it. It breathes incredibly well and looks nice. It has a sort of hammock feel to it as it flexes and lets you sink into it, but you never do back too far. It reminds me a lot of my Life chair, which is great for me.

There is a lumbar support, which is the one part of the chair that I’m not overly happy with. It’s a small plastic piece with a firm pad that faces the small of your back. It can be adjusted up and down but not in and out (though it can tilt to accomodate different backs). For me it’s a bit too far out and a bit too hard. It does work — it keeps my shoulders back and my spine aligned, but it’s just not that comfortable.

The chair has a nice set of adjustments given the price:

  • Arms: up/down, in/out, forward/back
  • Seat: up/down
  • Seat Depth: forward/back
  • Seat Tilt: full or lock upright

You are missing some high-end adjustments like seat tilt tension, seat pan tilt, and seat back angle, but those aren’t found on many chairs.

From a comfort standpoint the Ergonomic chair is good. I’m not sore or achy after a long sitting session (for me this would be about 1.5 – 2 hours). This isn’t a lounge chair and it’s not an Eames padded Aluminum Group chair. The Ergonomic chair really does seem to be designed to keep your ergonomic and healthy, even if it comes (slightly) at the expense of being more comfortable in the short-term.

Lastly, the chair has no creaks or groans at all. It’s totally silent while I’m sitting in it.

Verdict

I’ve had a number of office chairs over the years, from $50 Staples chairs to top-of-the-line stuff from Herman Miller, so when I saw a well thought out chair for about $300 I was curious. Having purchased the Branch Ergonomic chair and used it for some months, I have to say I’m quite happy with the value it delivers.

Sure, the looks are a little bit boring (perhaps a bit like the Steelcase Gesture?) and the comfort isn’t best-in-class, but my seating is ergonomically sound and the chair seems to be built to last.

For me, this is an ideal chair for the work-from-home era, where $1000 office chairs simply aren’t practical or necessary.

Learn More At Branch

FAQs

  1. Where is Branch Furniture based?

    Branch is headquartered in New York, NY. Their address is 45 W 28th Street New York, NY 10001.

  2. Where are Branch chairs made?

    Branch doesn’t state specifically where their chairs are made but the company has said that they work with manufacturing partners with factories in both the US and China.

  3. What is the weight limit of the Ergonomic Chair?

    The chair supports people up to 300 pounds.

  4. Branch Ergonomic Chair vs Steelcase Gesture, what’s the difference?

    The Branch chair looks quite like the Steelcase Gesture, but the two aren’t the same. The Steelcase costs about 2x as much and it has a hard plastic back where the Branch has a breathable cloth backrest. The Gesture also supports a headrest as well as a tall stool version, neither of which the Ergonomic chair offers. The Gesture has a lifetime warranty while that of the Branch is 7 years.

Filed Under: Work From Home Last Modified: March 18, 2024

Primary Sidebar

Table of Contents
1 Who Is Branch Furniture?
2 Why The Branch Ergonomic Chair?
3 Assembly
4 Branch Chair Review
5 Verdict
6 FAQs
About Our Site And Expertise

Recent Posts

  • Which Sodastream and Soda Makers Have Stainless Steel Bottles?
  • Which Sodastream and Soda Makers Have Glass Bottles? [2024 Update]
  • The Quietest Fans For Sleeping and Working At Home
  • Branch Ergonomic Office Chair Review (Update: 3 Years Of Use)
  • Are Wera Screwdrivers Worth The Money?

Categories

  • Air Purifiers
  • Baking
  • Bathroom
  • Bedding
  • Cars
  • Children
  • Coffee
  • Computers
  • Cooking Equipment
  • DIY
  • Food and Drinks
  • Furniture
  • Garage
  • Garden
  • Glue
  • Health and Wellness
  • Home Appliances
  • Home Improvement
  • Kitchen Appliances
  • Kitchen Tools
  • Laundry
  • Lighting
  • Linens
  • Mattresses
  • Organization
  • Outdoors
  • Security
  • Storage
  • Tools
  • Water Filters
  • Work From Home

Links

  • Affiliate Disclosure

Archives

  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • September 2023
  • April 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • October 2018
  • September 2018

Copyright © 2025 HelpAtMyHome.Com

  • Affiliate Disclosure
  • Le Creuset
  • Coway AP-1512HH Mighty
  • FIOS Battery Beeping?
  • Best Wire Strippers