REVIEW – Vari is known for their standing desks and also their VariDesk standing desktop converters for ordinary desktops. But did you know they have a whole line of seating too? I have a Vari Performance task chair to review that has seven independent adjustments. Read on to see what I think!
What is it?
The Vari Performance Task Chair is an office chair that has rolling swivel casters and a pivoting base that allow the user to spin around to their heart’s content when no one else is looking. The seat has adjustable height and adjustable seat depth, allowing the seat to be adjusted perfectly to fit a wide range of leg lengths. The seat back is made from a tensioned mesh material and offers excellent support while also being very breathable. The back reclines while the seat remains mostly level, offering a controlled recline without a rocking chair feel. The back may also be fixed in place using the tilt lock function. The arms on the chair can independently be adjusted for height, front-to-back position, narrow-to-wide position, and angle. The chair can support up to 275 lb (125 kg).
What’s in the box?
- Vari Performance Task Chair
- Allen wrench
- Assembly and use instructions
Hardware specs
- Breathable Mesh Lumbar and Back Support System
- Molded Seat Cushion with Cooling Gel and Memory Foam
- Adjust Armrest Height, Width, Angle, and Position
- Counter-Weighted Tilt for Smooth, Balanced Recline
- Hard Casters Glide on Carpeted or Wood Floors
- Supports up to 275 lb
- Tested to BIFMA X5.1-2017 and Meets or Exceeds BIFMA’s Durability Standards For Office Furniture
- Assembles in minutes with included tools
- Chair Height Range: 40 ¼” (102 cm) – 44 ¼” (112.5 cm)
- Seat Height Range: 18 ½” (47 cm) – 22 ½” (57 cm)
- Back height: 23″ (58.5 cm)
- base diameter: 24″ (61 cm)
- Seat cushion width: 20 ½” (52 cm)
- Seat cushion depth: 19 ¼” (49 cm)
Design and features
Unboxing
The Vari Performance Task Chair comes in a giant box that weighs 53 lb (23.7 kg) 17″ high 29.5″ wide and 27.6″ deep box. The precision of the dimensions underscores that the box just fits through the frame of a standard door without rotating it on its side. The directions suggest that two people help assemble the chair.
Inside the box, the chair is well-packaged in styrofoam inserts. The assembly is less experiential than the assembly of the AndaSeat Kaiser 3 gaming chair that I reviewed in August 2022.
Setup
Setting up the chair is a breeze. The first step listed in the instructions is to insert the pedestal into the base, but since the pedestal is at the bottom of the box another option is to secure the chair back to the seat.
The instructions suggest inverting the seat on a table, but since the seat already has the arms attached and I didn’t have a table narrow enough to support just the seat, I used a could of the styrofoam blocks in the package to support the seat base on a stool and then installed the seat back according to the directions.
The bolts that the seat back is secured with have a 5 mm Allen driver slot in the middle and are also surrounded by a 12 mm hex driver, this arrangement is great for being able to use a socket driver for the installation. The kit comes with a 5 mm Allen and there is an extra bolt too in case one is misplaced.
The bolts are driven into steel nuts that are anchored into the plastic. To be on the safe side I didn’t apply too much torque to the bolts to avoid shearing one of the nuts free from the plastic.
After installing the seat back I installed the pedestal into the base and pushed on it some. While the seat was still inverted, I installed the pedestal and the wheelbase into the seat bottom. Then, I inverted the entire chair and sat in it to secure the three components together. The whole assembly process took less than 10 minutes.
Design
The chair is very well designed. The five casters have softer plastic wheels that are useful on carpet, wood or tile. The stems of the casters are 7/16″ (11mm) diameter x 7/8″ (22mm) length, and can be changed out with other styles at the user’s discretion. I think the ones that Vari provides are great, but there are some more elaborate options.
The wheelbase is entirely plastic but doesn’t seem to flex at all. The top of the wheelbase is a textured plastic that should be easy to clean and should be resistant to corrosion from salt or other items that may be on the soles of shoes.
The seat lift is responsive. The lever to adjust the height can also be pushed down and it seems like, by the feel of it, that this is doing something. However, the lever only works by twisting it up. This is a little confusing but after it is used once or twice it is no longer an issue.
The seat of the Vari Performance Task Chair is very comfortable. The combination of the two technologies used in its design, cooling gel and memory foam, provides a firm, yet supportive seat that can be sat in for hours without feeling hard and without feeling hot.
The seat depth adjustment allows the seat to be placed a couple of inches behind the knees for an ergonomically correct sitting posture. The front of the seat has a waterfall design to prevent pressure on the thighs.
The seat back looks to be a monolithic design but is actually cleverly designed as a two-piece unit. There is a pivot point at the lumbar region and another at the top of the seat back. 
These pivot points allow the seat back to tilt back when leaning back and increase the overall angle at which the seat can retract.
The shape of the seat back is contoured to provide counterpressure at the lumbar but the rest of the seat is taut, strong breathable fabric stretched across a frame. There is a subframe of a plastic trestle that protects the fabric from being stretched too much while leaning all the way back in the chair. The lumbar position is not adjustable but seems to fit me fine. People who are shorter or taller may have different opinions.
The Vari Performance Task Chair does have one major recline function but is also missing another major recline feature. The seat functions so that the recline of the back is counterbalanced by the pivot of the seat. When the back reclines the seat tilts forward. In this way, the Vari Performance Task Chair is less like a rocking chair and more like a movie theater recliner. On the downside, there is no recline tension adjustment. The amount of support that the chair provides actually feels perfect to me, but it may be too much for a lighter person or too little for a heavier person. One good thing is that the chair has a recline lock that can support the seat in at least four positions, from fully upright to full recline.
The armrests are very adjustable. They move up and down, left and right, forwards and back, and pivot in and out. My only complaint is that if you are using the armrests to sit back in the seat you may accidently push them forwards.
Performance
The Vari Performance Task Chair is a joy to sit in. My body is well supported by the foam seat and the back support mirrors my spinal profile and provides excellent support. My daily driver seat at work is the Steelcase Amia Task Chair. I will say that the seat is more firm on the Vari Performance Task Chair, but that this feature provides a more “active” sitting experience that improves posture and enables longer sitting periods without fatigue.
What I like
- Cool
- Comfortable
- Supportive
What I’d change
- lumbar adjustment
- recline adjustment
Final thoughts
I’m 5′ 11″ and 175 lb, and this seat is comfortable and supportive. While this seat doesn’t include a lumbar or recline adjustment I’m not sure these things are necessary in order to fit a person who is 110 lb and 4′ 11″ or a person who is 250 lb and 6′ 6″. The bottom line is that this seat has 7 adjustments, a great-feeling recline, and high quilty supportive cushions. The Vari Performance Task Chair also costs about half of what some other high-end seating options sell for and includes nearly all the same features. I really like that the seat cushion is firmer than the one in some other chairs I have sat in; it makes for a more active sitting posture which translates into being able to sit for longer periods and getting more work done. If you are looking for a high-quality seat, I recommend the Vari Performance Task Chair.
Price:
Where to buy: Vari and Amazon
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Vari.
