How To Fix An Office Chair That Won’t Stay Up In 5 Easy Steps

What Causes A Chair To Sink Or Fail To Stay Up?

A chair that sinks down to the ground can have one of many causes.

The most common reason for sinking chairs is that they’ve been overloaded with too many people. Give your chair a few minutes to see if it pops back up on its own, or remove some people from the chair to see if this solves the problem. If, after waiting a few minutes and removing some weight from the chair, it keeps sinking, then you have an overbearing load issue.

Another cause of an office chair sinking is that the gas cylinder has become loose. The simplest way to solve this is to replace the gas cylinder and tighten things up. 

A chair that is not stable will cause the user’s weight to be unevenly distributed. That can lead to backache, stiff neck, and sore knees. The chair has to provide good support and stability for the person sitting in it. It also has to offer a good level of comfort to find it comfortable for an extended period.

How To Fix A Sinking Office Chair

Fixing an office chair can be challenging, but it’s still can be done if you’ll follow these steps below.

Replace The Gas Cylinder

The gas cylinder is a joint that connects the seat to the base of the chair. When the gas in the cylinder expands, it pushes against an internal spring and lifts the chair’s seat bottom. But if something happens to this mechanism- like a leak, corrosion, or because nobody has turned off the valve after using up all of its gas- then there can be nothing pushing up on your chair’s seat bottom, and it will start sinking again over time.

For this reason, you’ll want to replace the gas cylinder every two years or so. This involves removing the chair’s seat bottom by unscrewing it from its base, removing the old cylinder, installing a new one, and screwing everything back together.

Install A Chair Saver Kit

If you are not the type of person that enjoys putting in a lot of effort to fix things around your home, then you may want to consider investing in a chair saver kit, as this is one of the easiest ways to improve a sinking office chair.

Some kits are pretty cheap and easy to install too. This involves taking a hollow tube used for some other purpose and attaching it to the chair’s base. The hollow tube will then act as space for your chair’s seat bottom to move freely within.

Add A Plastic Pipe

You can also use a plastic pipe to fix a sinking office chair so that the seat bottom can move freely within it. The benefit of using this is that it does not require you to invest in any special tools or any other equipment.

To do this, you will need to remove the gas cylinder from your chair and place it someplace where you will be able to access it quickly (the cylinder could be found at the bottom of your chair, or it could have a hose attached to its stem). You will then need to cut a piece of tubing long enough for the seat bottom of your chair to move freely within.

Then, attach one end of this piece of tubing to the cylinder using a hose clamp (this will keep it from falling out), and attach another end to your chair’s base using another clamp. Another option is to secure the tubing in place using duct tape.

Add A Hose Clamp Or Clip And Duct Tape

Another option that can be used to fix an office chair that sinks all of a sudden is to use duct tape in combination with a clip or hose clamp. The benefit of this design is that the clamp will never let go of the chair’s seat bottom, no matter how much tension is put on it, so even if you do not have enough strength to hold it up, your chair will still stay up.

To do this, you will need to disconnect the chair from its base and then remove its gas cylinder and place it somewhere safe where you will be able to access it easily (the cylinder could be found at the bottom of your chair, or it could have a hose attached to its stem).

Then, screw one end of a piece of duct tape onto the clip or hose clamp.

Use A Chair Riser

You might want to consider upgrading an office chair with a seat riser such as this one. Essentially, these are inserts that will raise the height of the chair’s seat so that it does not sink down once the user sits on it.

You can place these inside your office chair, or you could purchase an extra one and attach it to your base. They are usually very cheap and easy to find too. They are also very effective when removing all of the parts from an office chair before installing another set.