Quick Tips: Which Casters Do I Need?

Higher-end chairs usually mean more options for the user. Many of these choices are pretty self-explanatory—“What color do I want?” “How tall should my seat go?”—but one area that tends to trip our clients up is the choice of hard surface or carpet casters for their new task chair. Here’s a quick way to remember which you will (typically) need:

Hard floors = Soft casters
Soft, carpeted floors = Hard casters

Standard hard casters are made out of either plastic or nylon, allowing the wheel to roll easily through high-pile residential carpet.

For both HAG and Humanscale seating, the hard surface casters (also known as “soft casters”) have a rubber ring around the outside of the caster which helps protect hard wood, while offering rolling resistance on other types of hard floors.

One notable exception to these rules is that we almost always suggest the hard surface casters with industrial low-pile carpet or if you are using a chair mat over your area rug. If you have questions about these recommendations, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Quick Tip: Adding desk height

Our last Quick Tip looked at adding height to your desk to accommodate your chair. This week we have a great tip for you taller standing desk users: just add wheels.

The Adjustable Desk 129 (found here) is one of the tallest desks on the market, rising to 51”-52” or more depending on the thickness of your desk top. If your standing elbow height is greater than 51” one way to add another 3” of height to your desk is simply to add casters. This of course will work for anyone looking to add a little bit of height to their desk, not to mention mobility. As we mentioned last time, ESI makes desk risers to give your fixed-height desk a lift and they can be used on your height-adjustable desk as well.