Last updated: January 3rd, 2024
The Kedrom KD9060 is a cheap office chair that retails on Amazon for about $280. On first glance, it looks the goods. An attractive hybrid chair with a mesh back and fabric base, and a review average of 4.3 from a mind-boggling 900 reviews.
Too good to be true? I’m always sceptical about cheap Amazon products, so I bought one and took it for a test drive. Here’s what I found.
(Related: What Is The Best Office Chair In Australia?)
Reasons To Buy The Kedrom KD9060.
Above: Kedrom’s seat pan is surprisingly comfortable. I expected a lot worse from a sub-$300 office chair.
Let’s start with the assembly process. The Kedrom KD9060 is easy to put together and doesn’t require a second set of hands.
The instructions cleverly point out that you can use the box as support during assembly, which makes the process much easier, but they could have been written in a larger font. The text is crowded and requires some squinting to read.
You get 5 points of adjustment:
- Seat height.
- Recline with tilt lock with tension, courtesy of a centre-tilt mechanism.
- Two-way lumbar support.
- Armrests that flip upwards (but don’t adjust for reach, width, height or angle).
The armrests do deserve a special shout-out.
Above: Armrests are thin, which makes digging your elbows into them tricky.
The option to raise them is a clever and uncommon (and clever) feature that allows you to create an armless office chair.
The fabric seat pad has a memory foam inlay and is medium-firm.
It’s definitely comfortable and well-proportioned. Smaller people will be able to sit cross-legged, while larger people won’t feel like they’re spilling out of the chair.
Above: You can tuck the Kedrom under your desk after lifting the armrests.
Expert Tip.
Softer seat pads are not more comfortable. The softer the seat pad, the more prone it is to sagging, and is more likely to make you sweat. A medium-firm seat pad that doesn’t bottom out is best.
Two-way adjustable lumbar support in a $280 chair? You better believe it – and don’t fall out of your own chair, dear reader. While the mechanism is uncomplicated and somewhat cheap-looking, it works – and the support it provides is not pokey.
If you live in an apartment, people living underneath you will appreciate that the Kedrom glides quietly on its rubberised wheels.
Kedrom’s design is above par for a $280 office chair. Available in black and white colours, it has an attractive shape that will look great in a typical Australian home office.
Above: The Kedrom is one of the best-looking cheap office chairs in Australia.
The contrast of white on black is particularly nice on the white version; the retro-styled write-rimmed castors remind me of cars Elvis drove back in the 1960s.
No, it doesn’t feel as rock-solid as an Aeron or a Leap, but that would not be a fair comparison.
You get an all-plastic chair that feels sturdy and does not feel cheap and nasty. In fact, parts of the $600 Sidiz T50 feel more flimsy.
Reasons To Avoid The Kedrom KD9060.
The Kedrom KD9060 is available in one size only, so it will fit people at the height bell curve (around 160 cm – 175 cm).
Expert Tip.
People taller or shorter than this should consider the ErgoTune Supreme, available in 3 sizes for those at the extremes of the height distribution.
Above: the chair is made entirely from plastic and fabric; only the gas piston is made from metal.
Kedrom’s KD9060’s tilt tension knob is located under the seat base.
Hunting for a knob you can’t see under the seat pan is not as convenient as having a clearly visible, side-mounted tension adjustment that’s always within reach.
The flip-up feature is nice, but the complete inability to adjust Kedrom’s armrests for height is a huge strike on the ergonomic front.
I’ve already alluded to my other two quibbles above, so I won’t elaborate on them again:
- Assembly instructions are crowded, with small fonts that lack clarity.
- Lumbar support mechanism is on the flimsy side. I recommend you “set and forget” rather than change it every day – it’s not a design that will survive years of abuse.
Above: Even though it’s very basic, the adjustable lumbar support is a welcome surprise.
How The Kedrom KD9060 Stacks Up.
We evaluate all office chairs using our 5-point criteria. The scores are adjusted for price, to ensure we compare fairly
| Ergonomics | 3/5 |
| Comfort | 4/5 |
| Aesthetics | 4/5 |
| Build Quality & Warranty | 4/5 |
| Cost | 5/5 |
| OVERALL | 4 |
My Verdict On The Kedrom KD9060.
The Kedrom KD9060 is a great deal for $280.
If you’re about to transition from working on your dining table to your first home office setup, and don’t want to spend a lot of money, it’s the perfect chair.
It has a few flaws, namely the suboptimal armrest adjustability and the less-than-inspiring lumbar support mechanism, but I’m prepared to overlook them at this price point.
I was expecting this office chair to feel unstable and cheap, but was surprised to that it’s well-built, with a nice mesh back and a comfortable fabric base.
This is my cheap office chair pick for under $300.
Steven
