HON Ignition HIWM3

[stephen2002]

After buying a Steelcase Leap, finding that the back didn't have enough padding for me, and sending it back my quest for a new chair continued. I visited an office furniture showroom, sat in quite a few more chairs, and settled on the HON Ignition. It is a mid-range chair with a fabric seat and either mesh or padded fabric back. You can custom order with a wide variety of fabrics and mechanisms, however I picked one of the standard configurations that are available online in a few different colors. The standard configurations are a little under half the price listed on HON's site. Mine has the configuration code HONIW104NT10. Here the feature list:

• Black fabric seat and back.
  
• Seat depth slide
• Syncro-tilt, back reclines and the seat tilts from the middle at a reduced rate. However the recline range is very limited, no leaning back and putting your feet up in this chair.
• Recline tension, goes from "somewhat hard to recline" to "very hard to recline", no super loose setting here.
  
• Back angle adjustment, lets you change the back angle from a standard upright to slightly tilted forward.
• Back height adjustment. The back has a slight curve to it for lumbar support and can be put in one of six different positions so you can choose where on your back the curve lands.
  
• Tilt (recline) lock. Can be locked in two positions, upright or fully reclined.
• Width and height adjustable arms. Top surface is quite firm with a small amount of give. The minimum width is tied to the width of the seat base, or sticking out about and inch. The height range is good, going low enough to not hit a desk surface. They are pretty standard T arms sticking out from around the middle of the seat base.
  
• Pneumatic height adjustment with a good range. They can easily be removed.
  
• Plastic base with standard hard casters. They roll well but have no cover so any dirt they pick up will be easily visible.
• Padded fabric seat, black.
• Padded fabric back, black. The back of the back is also fabric.

It's a good padded fabric chair, something hard to find in a world full of mesh, plastic, and leather. I really like it.

• The fabric is pretty basic. It has an interesting pattern to it made out of small rectangles with different amounts of reflective. The fabric feels sturdy but is quite rough.
• Everything except the arms and the top edge of the back is well padded. Firm but not hard. No pressure points or hard surfaces can be felt through the padding.
• Looking at the seat from the side there is a slight contour to reduce pressure, with a bigger curve down at the front edge. Looking at the seat from the front it is largely flat so you can shift around without your legs being pushed together or feeling like the chair is forcing you back into the middle.
• The back has a gentle curve top to bottom for lumbar support. There is also a gentle curve side to side, but like the seat it is not so much that it is only comfortable if you sit in the middle.
• Minimal branding, just a small fabric tag with "HON" embroidered on it that can easily be cut off.

My only complaint is the packaging. The fabric back of the chair is against the bottom of the box and protected by nothing more than a plastic bag. A thin piece of foam against one side of the box is the protection for the base and adjustment handles. Mine arrived with a tear in back fabric where something must have poked through the box. I'll update later with how they handle this.

Update: They sent me another chair and I can keep the damaged one, so a good response. However the packaging and carrier were the same so the new one is damaged too. This one was busting out of the side of the box. Instead of a thin piece of foam protecting the base there was a single sheet of bubble wrap. Of course the bubble wrap was flat (popped) because a sheet of bubble wrap is no match for 40lbs of metal chair mechanism.

 

[MavericK]

I don't have this chair but I have the HON Wave Big & Tall executive chair. Thing is rock solid and has been for at least a couple years now. Previously I was buying chairs once a year because of the gas lift failing or the finish peeling (shitty bonded leather usually), but this thing feels incredibly solid and has been great so far.