Packaging, Parts, and Features
Features
Courtesy of Clutch Chairz
- Heavy duty base
- 4D armrests
- Non-marking castors
- Multi-function mechanism
- Infinite tilt lock
- Tubular steel frame
- Class 4 gas lift
- Free headrest and lumbar support cushions
- High density foam
Packaging and Parts
The Clutch Chairz Throttle Series Gaming Chair ships in a large, heavy duty cardboard box with the corporate logo in large font across the box top. There is also a warning about using a box cutter to open the box. Heed this warning unless you wish to cut through the leather of your new gaming chair. The box itself is heavy and unwieldy because of its large size, coming in at over 60lbs. So the manufacturer was not joking about finding a buddy to help with lifting the box. I purchased the chair directly from Clutch Chairz and they shipped it promptly from their Houston affiliate. I received the chair via Fedex in 2 days (impressive since I live in Dallas).
After carefully opening the box, it quickly becomes apparent why the box cutter warning is in large font on the box top. The chair seat back is placed at the top of the box, resting against the underside of the box top when sealed. If you cut into the top too deeply, you would slice right though the leather and foam layer in the back of the chair back. The box itself is packed densely and securely, ensuring the contents do not shift in shipping and remain safely protected. Once you unpack the box contents, you can see that all leather parts are individually packed in protective plastic and the aluminum base is covered in Styrofoam padded sleeves to protect the finish of the base. All small parts are packed into a small cardboard box to keep them from "wandering" during shipping.
The chair back is covered in soft dyed leather, in my case with a red and black pattern, The Clutch corporate logo is stitched into the top front side of the chair back above the upper holes. The two upper holes are sealed with plastic caps in front and back to seal the leather around the holes. The front of the chair is U-shaped with the sides bent in at a 45 degrees angle so that the chair hugs your sides while sitting. However, the folded in sides are not tight enough to be uncomfortable, even for a large person like myself. This is one of the bonuses of the Throttle Series chairs, they are built for the larger sized gamers. The other series are more constricting in their dimensions, meant for the more petite sized persons. Along the lower to mid back of the backside of the chair back is a U-shaped zipper path, allowing for access to the chair innards if desired.
When you unzip the zipper in the chair back, you expose the foam and steel guts of the chair's seat back. You can see how the frame is constructed with thick foam and elastic straps stretched between the steel frame running along both sides of the chair. This construction makes for a soft, yet supportive design for your sensitive lower back area.
The seat assembly consists of the base support frame, two arms, the attached memory foam cushion, and the seat back attachment points. The seat support frame and cushion are covered by soft leather with aesthetics matching that of seat back. The support frame is a U-shaped structure with wings angle up at approximately 45 degrees, framing the cushion sitting in between the two sides. The Throttle Series seat design is wider than those of the other series chairs, making the seat comfortable to sit in, while not feeling confining despite the design of the curved sides in the support. The armrests extend vertically, front to back movement, side to side movement, and rotating capabilities. On the left side of the seat along the back is the lever for adjusting the angle of the seat back. The lever only controls the seat back support mount on the left side of the chair. The seat back support mount on the right side of the seat is free moving with its position locked by the position of the left support mount with the seat back attached. The seat cushion sits in between the two angles wings of the support frame, but is not removable despite its appearance. The design of the base and thick cushion make for a very comfortable sitting experience.
The bottom up view of the seat assembly shows the construction of the seat's support frame and the arm attachment points. The chair arms are attached to the frame by three nuts that fix to threaded rods in the support frame. The support frame has steel bars across the bottom along with elastic straps, giving the seat strength as well as flexibility for a comfortable seat. The leather overlay is held in place by rings attached to rods running along the four sides of the seat bottom, making for a tight fit. The attachment points for the chair's base are the four threaded rods with nuts on the upper and lower support bars in the support frame.
The seat base is consists of a black powder coated steel assembly, housing the chair height adjustment (right) and tilt lock (left) levers and a tilt adjustment resistance knob. From the top view, you can see the four attachment points that line up with the threaded posts in the bottom of the seat support frame. The tilt adjustment resistance knob sits toward the front of the seat with the hole behind it used for interfacing with the gas lift. Turning the knob counter-clockwise increasing the tilt resistance, giving the chair a much firmer tilt, while a counter-clockwise turn decreasing the resistance and results in a looser tilting motion. Pulling up on the height adjustment lever will increase or decrease the chair height. The tilt lock lever locks the chair in place at the current tilt level when pushed down.
The seat's aluminum base is powder coated black, giving it a scratch resistance surface. It was designed with 5 support arms and a 70cm (27.5 inch) diameter, giving it a large area to keep the chair stable and grounded. The plastic aesthetic adornments go into the fake bolt holes along the top center and into the arrow-shaped holes along the outside of the arms. The bottom portion of the base is ribbed for additional support, giving the base its 2000lb rated capacity. The chair's five castors snap into the holes at the end of each of the arms on the underside of the base.
Bundled Hardware
Clutch Chairz included the following hardware and accessories in the accessory box: five castors, five arrow-shaped inserts, five fake nut inserts, two chair back attachment support covers, five bolt covers, the gas lift, the gas lift cover, the instruction manual, and the screw and bolt pack. The screw and bolt pack contain the hardware for putting the chair together, including an allen key fitted for the included bolts.
Glad you’ve had a good
Glad you’ve had a good experience so far, can’t say the same for me. I bought one of these when they were on massdrop a few months ago and after only about a month of use it started to tilt backwards without using the seat tilt adjust level, and now it’s stuck all the way tilted back. This shouldn’t be that big an issue, it does have a good warranty, but they want me to ship the whole chair back to get a replacement. Even breaking it down into individual parts UPS wants to charge me close to $70 to package it to send back, and other people on the massdrop thread from the drop have said that if it’s returned damaged Clutch hasn’t been so great about honoring the warranty so I’m not so confident in packing it myself. I liked the chair but it was already expensive enough without adding another $70+ to get it fixed.
You probably tested out their
You probably tested out their initial supply. They’ve improved much since. I tested both of them out at the the showroom in BC. I would give them a try again, they are killing it now.
at $469, it’s not a good
at $469, it’s not a good deal. If you are going to spend that much
on a chair, then better to go with Maxnomic chairs that have adjustable lumbar support built into the backrest as opposed to pillows, those chairs start out around $400.
http://www.needforseatusa.com/computer_chair_office_comfort
A fat people chair?
A fat people chair?
not necessarily. I actually
not necessarily. I actually found these at Fry's before purchasing online. Fry's had quite a few manufacturer's chairs and most of them felt confining to me when sitting in them. This one didn't and is actually quite comfortable.
But the rule for these is to physically try one before buying…
I’d love to see a follow up
I’d love to see a follow up on this review in the future regarding how the castors hold up. I find that on many chair reviews, that’s what gives out the most.
Not a fat people chair,
Not a fat people chair, though they do have those. I have the Crank edition, which is smaller and cheaper. It’s been the only chair I can sit in comfortably for work and play hours on end. Saved my back. I love that PCPer got a review up on this. Really a fantastic chair.