How To Repair Herman Miller Aeron Chair

The Herman Miller Aeron is an iconic office chair that is uncommonly adaptable and extremely well made. The ane in the RainyDay office had been in service for a long time only afterward twelve years, the pneumatic cylinder for adjusting the height finally gave way.

At first nosotros weren't quite sure what to practice because at that place didn't seem to exist an obvious way to remove the cylinder. Did we demand some special tool? Did we have to send the unabridged chair in for service? Go a whole new chair? Whaaat?

We somewhen came to the determination that the cylinder was probably a standard item and that information technology would not be hard to swap it out ourselves…and that in that location would be a YouTube video on how to practice it 🙂

The Part Oasis

A search on Amazon led u.s.a. to The Role Oasis, which provided us with everything we needed. Not only did they offer instructions on how to practice the repair, the packet we bought from them included both the right function AND the tools to the chore!

The Office Oasis'south Cylinder Replacement Bundle contained:

• Class-iv pneumatic piston cylinder
• Cylinder removal tool and gloves
• Detailed stride-past-step installation instructions
• Money-back guarantee
• 6 year warranty

Considering we ordered this from Amazon during Christmas, the package arrived in a few days without having to pay extra for the fast service!

BTW, information technology seems to usa that whatever is ordered around this time of the year gets 2-day aircraft, whether you pay extra for it or not…

Stride 1: Remove the wheeled base

With the cylinder extended every bit much as possible, brace the base and then it will non move when you whack the lesser of the cylinder…yes, whack information technology! (The bottom of the cylinder is the night slice sticking out of the bottom of the base.) The instructions suggested a rubber mallet, but any hammer would exercise. If you have people around, accept them turn the chair upside down and concur the base while you whack the cylinder, and let gravity give you a hand.

The key here is to non let the base move when the cylinder is existence whacked. After a few strikes, the cylinder should slip out the top of the base as information technology is simply wedged in place by a plastic collar at the pinnacle of the base. Don't lose that 🙂

Step ii: Remove the old cylinder

With the base separated, remove the cylinder from the cavalcade. Sounds uncomplicated (if you lot were the HULK), merely a "special tool" was supplied for this stride (for everyone who is not the HULK), then…it wasn't. Was. Kinda.

The tool consists of two collars and two long bolts. The collars have ii halves that clamp around the stalk of the sometime gas cylinder.  When the collars are fastened to the old cylinder, rotating the long bolts will push the 2 collars autonomously (the two collars, non the two halves), thus "pushing" the seat away from the cylinder.

The start collar needs to exist fastened loosely so information technology can slide along the cylinder. This collar is meant to push the seat off the cylinder, and clamping information technology tightly around the cylinder would forestall that. The ball end of the hex key is used to adjust the commodities, as there may not be enough room for the other (long) end.

This next step was trickier for us, but hopefully you lot will be able to acquire from our experience.

Attach the second collar right up to the starting time one, but rotate it 90º and then the holes of the 2 collars are non aligned. This is so the long bolts that go through holes of the simply-attached collar do nonfinish upward going through the holes of the loosely-attached collar. You want the those bolts to PUSH ON the that first collar, non Get INTO that get-go collar.

If you see a long bolt threading into the collar but don't see the 2 collars moving apart, then the commodities is GOING INTO the other collar…which is not what you desire.

Besides, it is IMPORTANT that the second collar be on the stalk AS TIGHT as possible. This second collar, dissimilar the first one, should remain unmoving on the cylinder, or this method will never work.

DO NOT use the ball end of the hex key or you lot will break information technology off! Trust us on this. Utilise the short end of the hex key for this tightening pace. (The ball end is good for odd angles, but cannot have the stress of being twisted)

Alternate betwixt the 2 bolts when turning them. Y'all might run out of room on the commodities with the seat is still on. We had to reposition the bottom collar twice before we could push the seat off. Make certain that lesser collar is clamped onto the stem TIGHT each time later on moving it! After moving the neckband a few times, we finally were able to get the seat off the one-time cylinder.

Step 3: Install the new cylinder

Slide the plastic ring (which you saved from step one) onto the new gas cylinder, identify said cylinder on the wheeled base, and finally sideslip the seat onto the the top. Done and done!

Step 4: Examination

Of course, the proof of a successful DIY repair is the "live test." Passed with flight colors!!!

This DIY is do-able by anyone. The only tool not supplied with the package is the hammer. It took us nearly twenty minutes to consummate the projection just because it was our first time. If nosotros had to do it again, we could probably do information technology in five minutes…information technology is really that easy, if yous become what we got for the job 🙂

Amazon links to items mentioned:

• Herman Miller Aeron Part Chair
• Office Chair Cylinder Replacement
• Hex cardinal set

Source: http://rainydaymagazine.com/wp/2018/12/30/diy-herman-millers-aeron-chair-repair/

Share this post