Sadly, after trying out the new recliner chair for a few days, it isn't working out. I had to move it from the TV room to the living room and put the better of the older chairs back in front of the TV.
I should have bought locally after trying many recliners at different stores. I wasn't really intending to buy a large recliner chair. As I mentioned previously, I had it in my Amazon cart as a "maybe" and forgot it was there when I ordered a couple of other items and hit "1-click" purchase. And by the time days later when I discovered that, Amazon said it was out of their hands being a 3rd party purchase. The manufacturer said the chair was already in production. Amazon, in turn said I could refuse delivery, but the returns policy was up to the 3rd party. The manufacturer, in their turn at emails, said I would be responsible for return shipping in the original shipping container.
The deliverer had ripped the shipping box apart because it seemed damaged and wanted to be sure of the condition of the chair. There was no damage, and after going further than he had to (inside front door delivery or garage only), we brought the 2 pieces of the chair up the front stairs to the main level. He took the ripped up box away, and I wrestled the chair into place and attached the back to the base.
It is a rocker recliner (but not swivel). When I sat back in it, it was very comfortable with a high soft back, soft wide arms, and with the footrest up it was very comfortable. But then I started discovering some negatives about the chair.
1. You can't rest any weight on the arms, there is no structure in them.
2. If you lean back, you go all the way back.
3. The lever that lifts the footrest is one way. You can't move it the other way to lower the footrest. You have to push down hard with your feet and lean forward at the same time.
4. If you lean forward without the footrest up (and this is the killer), it tilts downwards to the point where you start to slide off. My old existing rocker swivel chairs had a positive forward stop at forward "level".
5. When I sit level on the new recliner, it takes a bit of balance, but also, my feet don't reach the floor! I'm not used to that. OK, I'm short, but my legs are even a bit short for my height (I have to have all pants shortened to a 25" inseam. Not having my feet on the floor is uncomfortable.
5. I am mostly a "percher", meaning that I mostly sit on the front of a chair. At my old chair, I sit on the front edge to eat dinner from a TV tray and to type on my laptop while watching TV. I can't do that in this new chair.
So I'm kind of stuck with a chair I don't want and can't return. I suppose I will try to sell it for 1/2 price and write it off as a bad decision. It isn't the manufacturer's fault. It was up to me to decide if it suited me. It isn't Amazon's fault; they offerred it, I bought it. The chair seems to work as designed.
Sometimes, you just make a poor purchasing decision and deal with it.
But I now have a greater appreciations for small rocker recliner chairs that would suit my body shape better and have features I want (like a positive forward stop at level"). I have learned a lesson here. I can adapt to a lot, but there are limits. And I'll sure check my Amazon cart before hitting
"1-click purchase" again...
Meanwhile, some of you may notice that my old chair lacks the worn out spots on the front of the arms in future pictures. That's because I had 2 and took the other one as the new TV/Dinner/Laptop chair.
It is almost funny that I went for a recliner. As I said, I'm mostly a percher. But the backs of the old chairs are 4" short of supporting my head properly when I DO lean back. So I still want a replacement chair with a higher back. I have seen a few online (but from local stores). So I think I will be doing some actual physical testing.
I've gotten too used to shopping online. Time for some real-world testing for a chair!
