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One of the best bits of furniture every home office needs is an office chair. After all with more of us working from home than ever before, we need to be comfortable while we sit for 8+ hours a day. One of the most surprising questions I’ve always had then is exactly how many wheels do office chairs have?
Office chairs have 5 wheels. This is the most common number of wheels that office chairs have. This is because five-wheeled chairs have the most stability with the fewest amount of wheels. Office chairs with fewer wheels would need much longer legs for an equally stable chair.
So is there a link between how many wheels an office chair has, and how much weight it can support? And are there office chairs that you can get with fewer than five wheels? Keep reading to find out more!
Now if you’re interested in learning more about my choice for office chair check out my recommended chair here.
(It’s worth mentioning that this post has a lot of information and so if you’re curious about the best equipment needed to work remotely simply go to my resource page here. )
How many wheels do office chairs have
So once you see this, you’re probably not going to be able to unsee it for the rest of your life but pretty much all mainstream office chairs that you use on your home office have 5 wheels.
Don’t just take my word for it, I’ve listed the top five best-selling home office chairs on Amazon alongside the number of wheels they have in the table below:
| Brand | Number of wheels |
| Smugdesk | 5 |
| Furmax | 5 |
| NobleWell | 5 |
| Flash Furniture | 5 |
| Amazon Basics | 5 |
Whilst all these chairs fall under different price ranges from $50 all the way to $200 the number of wheels stays the same.
Why do office chairs have 5 wheels?
Office chairs have 5 wheels as it the ideal number of wheels that will also give the most amount of stability. Office chairs that have fewer wheels will be less stable or will require longer legs, taking up a lot of room in an office.
As a lot of people will be buying office chairs for their home office, having a two-wheeled office chair with legs that extend for 3 meters isn’t going to be very practical hence why having a five-legged chair will be the perfect compromise of:
- The size that is taken up by the chair
- Easier to maneuver
- The highest amount of stability
- Reducing the chances of hitting into other items
- Cheaper cost of the manufacturer than 6 wheels
Let’s explore these further:
The size that is taken up by the chair
Let’s say your office chair had three wheels instead of five, this would mean that your office chair would have fewer legs and take up less room right?
Not exactly.
One of the biggest things that people have to worry about is falling over on their office chairs.
If you were to just have two legs on your chair, these legs would need to need to be about twice as long when compared to a five-legged office chair to distribute the weight evenly.
As a lot of us are buying these office chairs for our home office, which are usually the smallest rooms in our house, it means that they will be more practical to use, and take up less room.
Easier to maneuver
Have you ever been to an airport, about to go on vacation only for a wheel in your trolly suitcase to break off?
A challenge trying to maneuver that around as you walk right, almost like it has a mind of its own!
Now imagine if your office chair had two wheels how difficult that would be to move around if one of your wheels broke.
Having five wheels in an office chair then means that even if one or two of the wheels cease to work, you will still be able to maneuver your office chair effectively without too much effort.
The highest amount of stability
Possibly the biggest reason why office chairs have five wheels is that it has the highest amount of stability.
Most of us will fall over backward on our office chairs, I mean if you have fallen over forward… that’s impressive.
As such, having 5 wheels in your office chair will drastically reduce your chances of slipping over.
I mean if you think about it, your weight will be spread evenly across five points of contact as opposed to two or three meaning it is a lot easier for your chair to grip the floor if you do go head over heels.
Reducing your chances of hitting into other items
If you do decide to get an office chair with less than 5 legs, be prepared to hit into stuff around your office … a lot.
As mentioned, office chairs with fewer wheels will have to have longer legs, making the process of moving around a lot more difficult.
On top of this, you are likely used to sitting in a chair that already has five-wheeled legs and so you may find yourself needing to take some time to acclimate to the new size.
Think of it as needing to familiarize yourself with a new car before you start driving it.
Cheaper cost of manufacture than 6 wheels
So if five legs are the most stable, won’t having six legs be even more stable.
Yes and no.
You see whilst having six legs will be more stable than having five, the benefits of a shorter leg length are minimal at this stage, only shaving off a handful of CM depending on your chair.
As such the cost to add an extra leg is going to be a lot higher, not only for customers but manufacturers too, and so shaving one leg of office chairs can potentially save certain manufacturers thousands in the production process.
Can office chairs have less than 5 wheels?
So reading this post today you’re probably thinking that there are no office chairs on the marketplace that have less than five wheels.
Not exactly true, I’ve compiled a list below of some of the more popular office chairs that have less than five legs in the table below:
| Brand | Number of legs |
| Wagner | 4 |
| Herman Miller | 4 |
| 1st dibs | 3 |
| Artnet | 3 |
The scientific benefits of having 5 wheels for an office chair
So what exactly does the science say about the benefits of having 5 wheels for an office chair?
The main reason why office chairs have five wheels, outside of the financial incentive for manufacturers is the amount of wobble and stability an office chair with 5 legs will have.
To give you an idea imagine you are sitting on a traditional four-legged chair.
If the floor is uneven then one of the legs will typically be lifted off the ground (think about that awkward wobble on an old chair)
This is because the wobble will usually travel from the center of gravity which is usually slap bang in the middle of where you are sitting.
Now compare this to a five-wheeled chair.
If your five-wheeled chair is on an uneven surface, the center of gravity is already displaced from the direct center, meaning that it will take a lot more energy to make your chair wobble.
This is especially true if your office chair has a plastic or mental center unit to hold your chair down with.
Now whilst I wish I could take credit for this, a user over at the physics stack exchange came up with the mathematics which you can check out below:
Full reference: Floris (https://physics.stackexchange.com/users/26969/floris), Why do most office chairs have 5 wheels?, URL (version: 2020-06-11): https://physics.stackexchange.com/q/230759
“This shows that indeed the structure with five legs needs the lowest mass to support a certain torque – if we can equate “mass” with “cost”, and stability is indeed the main driver, this proves that a chair with five legs is optimal.”
Are there any legal limits on wheels on office chairs?
Now whilst a lot of you reading this are only interested in purchasing your office chair for your home office, a good option, if you go to a traditional office, is to read up on the OSHA guide on office chairs.
They too used the science above to find that in order to have a sturdy office chair for your employees, 5 legs with wheels works best.
Wrapping things up
So to summarize, office chairs have 5 wheels. This is because they will give the optimum amount of support with the least amount of wheels.
Should office chairs have fewer wheels then you would have to have longer legs which would be impractical,
Having more wheels would add extra cost without any real additional benefits in terms of support or leg length reduction.
If you liked this post I would defiantly recommend having a look at the following:
A lot of people reading my blog want to know what products I recommend for a home office/remote working. You can find out my recommendations here and learn how I make money whilst working remotely on the side here.
The content on this site has been written by Fehed Nicass who has over a decade worth of experience in sales and has worked remotely for the past 2 years.