The Aeron Chair is the iconic mesh back chair introduced in 1994 by Herman MIller which has single handedly changed the way the world looks at office chairs.
The arm pads on an office chair are a part that come in frequent contact with the user, and it's not uncommon for there to be pretty significant wear or damage to these arm caps with extended use of a chair.
Today we'll be taking a look at how to replace the arm pads on the Herman Miller Aeron Classic chair, and also taking a deeper dive look into our aftermarket replacement arm caps for the Aeron and how they compare to the OEM arm pads that came with your chair.
Aeron Arm Pad Installation Instructions:
These instructions are the same whether your arms on your Aeron chair have the pivot function or not, and do change change for the wheel or lever style height adjustment. These instructions are also the same across all three sizes of Aeron Chair - A, B, and C, as they all use the same arm pads.
Removal Instructions:
- With a #2 Philips Bit - remove the two screws holding the original arm pads in place.
- Once removed, the arm pad will come right off.
Re-Installation Instructions:
- To re-install, switch your bit to a T25 Torx Bit
- Set the new arm pad in place
- Fasten new arm pad into place using the two provided T25 Torx Bit screws
Aeron Crandall Aftermarket vs. OEM Arm Pads:
We spent a lot of time tooling and doing our best to try to improve on the original Aeron arm pad. When we look at the difference between our aftermarket Aeron Arm Pads vs the OEM Herman MIller arm caps, you'll see a few primary differences.
First - Construction:
The OEM arm pads are made with a plastic insert, that then has foam molded around it, and then uses a thick plastic / vinyl material boot that wraps around the outside of the foam, and then gets stapled in place to the plastic insert.
Our aftermarket arm pads utilize a recycled plastic insert (designed & made in the USA), which is then surrounded by a heavy duty polyurethane pad (also designed & made in the USA). This pad has a soft foam-like feel, but is also very heavy duty and durable.
Second - Feel:
The OEM arm pads have a very plastic-like feel due to the thick heavy plastic covering that goes over the arm pad. The result is a very stiff feel when in use, and you can see in the push test (pictures below) that when applying pressure, the pressure point gets spread out more. You can also see in the closeup pictures, the texture of the arm pads.
In our aftermarket arm pads, the polyurethane material provides a much softer, more foam-like feel to the arm pads, while retaining durability. In the push test, you can see how localized the pressure point is, which makes for a more responsive, soft feeling arm pad. You can also see in the closeup how much smoother and more subtle the texture is - again resulting in a smoother, softer overall feel.
Aftermarket vs. OEM Aeron Arm Pad Pictures:
Conclusion:
As you can see, replacing the arm pads on your Herman Miller Aeron Classic chair is quick and easy task that can improve the look and feel of your chair.
There are pros and cons to both the OEM style arms as well as our aftermarket replacement arm pads. The OEM arm pads may arguably be tougher due to the thick plastic outer layer, while our aftermarket polyurethane arm pads offer a bit of a softer feel, while retaining a pretty significant level of durability.
To our knowledge, Herman Miller has made their arm pads in various places since 2002, so we can't speak to which style you've got or where it is made, but our aftermarket arm pads are 100% designed and made here in the USA, which we are very proud of. Our aftermarket arm pads also carry a 2 year parts warranty.
We hope you found this information helpful! As always, don't hesitate to reach out via chat or on our contact page anytime with any questions.
Parts and Chairs Mentioned in this Article:
Crandall Office Furniture has been remanufacturing Steelcase & Herman Miller office chairs since 2002, and since then has grown to become the largest remanufacturer of high-end office seating in the United States. We see and work on thousands of these chairs every year, which gives us a unique insight into how they stand up to long term use, where they fail, and how to fix them. If you're looking to learn more about high end seating, you're in the right place!
Learn More About our Remanufactured & Refurbished Chairs and our process here:
https://www.crandalloffice.com/remanufactured-chairs/
