Office chair repairs
Office chairs fail in predictable ways, and almost all of them are cheap, fast fixes. Before anyone in your office throws out a chair — or spends $500 replacing it — check here. A $30 part and 15 minutes solves the majority of these.
Office chair keeps sinking
The pneumatic gas cylinder has lost its seal and can no longer hold pressure. This is the single most common office chair failure — and one of the cheapest, easiest fixes in the entire office.
Office chair leans or tilts to one side
Either the tilt mechanism under the seat has worn/bent, the seat plate is cracked, or (most overlooked) a caster or its socket is damaged, dropping one corner.
Office chair won't recline (or is stuck reclined)
The tilt-lock is engaged or the tilt-tension knob is at an extreme, mechanically blocking recline — or on knee-tilt mechanisms, the lock pin is jammed.
Squeaky office chair
Metal-on-metal friction at a pivot, spring, or the cylinder-to-base joint — annoying, universal, and almost always fixable in ten minutes.
Casters not rolling / scratching the floor
Hair and debris have seized the caster bearings, or the wrong caster type is meeting the wrong floor (hard casters on hardwood, soft on thick carpet).
Wobbly or loose armrests
Armrest bolts loosen with daily load cycling; on height-adjustable arms, the internal spring-loaded pin and notched bar also wear over time.
Backrest won't stay up / keeps dropping
Here's the twist: on ratchet-back chairs, a back that keeps dropping usually is NOT broken. Raising the back past its top notch intentionally releases the ratchet so it drops to the bottom for repositioning — people then raise it all the way again and repeat the cycle forever. The fix is free: reset, then stop one notch below the top. Actual failures (worn mechanism, sheared bolts, cracked attachments) are the minority case.
How to replace an office chair gas cylinder (complete guide)
The full walkthrough of the most valuable 15-minute repair in office maintenance — applicable to nearly every task chair regardless of brand.