Alera ALEEL42BME10B Elusion Series Review

Performance Comparison

Comfort

The first — and most important — round of tests was our series of comfort evaluations, which is responsible for half of the Alera's overall score. We had a panel of different testers try out each chair for a while, then rate how comfortable the various aspects of each one are and figure out how long they could sit in it without undue discomfort.

A handful of our panel felt they could easily sit in this chair for eight to 10 hours a day without any cause for complaint, but a few testers felt they would only want to sit in this chair for four to six hours a day at the maximum.

When it came to judging the different parts of the chair, the seat cushion was almost universally rated on the more comfortable side, with only a single judge scoring it more on the mediocre side.

The response to the backrest was a bit more split, with half the testers rating it highly and the other half scoring it average or below. The Alera's favor fell even more when it came to its armrests, with a majority of our testers giving them uninspiring scores with regards to comfort.

Adjustability

Next, we compared how adjustable each chair's backrest, seat, armrests, and reclining mechanism is. We also rated each chair on how easy it is to configure it, so you are seated in a proper ergonomic position. Altogether, these tests are responsible for just a bit over a third of the Alera's overall score. The backrest is reasonably high and can be moved up and down to adjust the location of the lumbar support. However, we weren't terribly impressed with it, as the small protrusion that was purportedly for lumbar support didn't seem to do all that much for many of our testers.

The armrests have about half the adjustability of the top models, only allowing you to move them in or out and set the height, not change the depth or angle. You can't do much to the seat besides set its height, and the reclining tension knob doesn't have the largest response, with even the lowest setting being on the stiffer side. We did like that the Alera has a tilt limiter to lock you upright. It's also fairly easy to get this chair set up pursuant to proper ergonomic seating guidelines.

Durability

Our durability metric assessed how well constructed each office chair is. We based the score on our own experience with the chair's wear and tear during our testing process and looking for commonly encountered problems or component failures by researching other user experiences. The Alera earned a slightly above average score here.

The backrest started to stretch out after a few months of testing, so we could see it wearing out quickly. We found a handful of other user experiences online that backed this up, noting that the backrest on their chair had completely stretched out so that your back was resting against the plastic frame. We also found a group of user reviews complaining that the chair began to squeak after a while or that they broke off one of the adjustment levers.

Ease of Assembly

We looked at the amount of effort it was to get this chair unpacked from its shipping carton and assembled for this metric. We also took into account the quality and helpfulness of the supplied instructions and other documentation. The Alera Elusion Series earns an average score for a somewhat involved process when it came to building it.

This chair took us 35-45 minutes to assemble, as you have to build most of it before sitting down. The instructions aren't especially great, and the photos could be a lot better, but you can still follow them without too much difficulty.

Value

This chair isn't a great value, with less expensive options significantly outperforming it.

Conclusion

The Alera screamed mediocrity in almost all of our tests, and there are other chairs that we preferred much more in the same or lower price range, making us reticent to recommend it.