What can be more irritating than a wobbly chair? It not only disturbs your peace and eats away your patience but is also highly uncomfortable. Does your gaming or office chair also have this issue? When you sit on it, it isn’t any more a steady chair, instead, it tilts to the sides or shakes and jiggles. Well, you’re in the right hands. You do not have to throw away your chair and buy another one. We will share some ways to fix your wobbly chair and answer some frequently asked questions to clear out all your queries about your wobbly gaming or office chair.
Why Your Chair Wobble?
There can be many reasons why your chair wobbles; first of all, get to the roots of the problem. The problem can be in your chair’s casters, seat, mechanism, or cylinder. Examine the different parts of the chair and see what is causing the problem.
Examine the Wheels
See the casters of your chair. Place it upright and notice if all the wheels are perfectly intent with the floor or not. Suppose one of the wheels is slightly above the ground or deformed; that is the cause that your chair keeps leaning towards one side. If not, and your chair caster is perfectly fine, and in contact with the floor and balanced, then the problem is somewhere else. The second step is to check whether the wheels are okay or not. Turn the chair upside down and examine the wheel. They should be aligned perfectly and not bend or broken. If you see a problem, you need to change the castor of your chair because a bent or broken wheel can cause this issue.
Check The Base Plate
The base plate of the chair has screws and bolts to hold it tight in place. Examine the screws and see if any of them are loose or missing. If they are loose or have popped out, then the problem is in this part of the chair. Also, check the plate thoroughly if it’s broken or not. A broken base plate is not a good sign, and it will definitely cause the problem of a wobbly chair.
Faulty Cylinder
The cylinder and the control mechanism that lays at the bottom of the chair, which helps you adjust the chair up and down, can also be faulty. Check the cylinder; if you find the cylinder showing movement, you have to change the cylinder of the chair to get rid of the problem.
How To Fix A Wobbly Chair
After thoroughly diagnosing and knowing the cause of the problem, let’s see the remedies you can apply to fix your wobbly office or gaming chair and enjoy working and gaming on it with fun and not irritation.
Solution For Wheels
If you see a problem with the wheel, it is a very easy process to change the wheel of your chair. Follow these instructions to fix the uneven or broken wheel of your chair, which causes wobbling.
Proper Casters
The first step is to find suitable casters for your chair. For this, you can contact the manufacturers and give them the details of your chair number and model information. Wait for them to deliver you the matching new casters set. Do not rush and go to market and buy any of the casters of your own choice. The caster must match your chair’s model; otherwise, it will be a waste of money.
Remove The Old Ones
Once you find the proper matching set of new casters, remove the old one. Removing the casters is easy depending on the type of chair you have. Most chairs have the wheel snug in the caster socket without any screw, so you simply have to hold the base of the casters tight to support it with one hand and pull the wheels out firmly with your other hand.
If you find it difficult to pull them out with your hands, you can also use the flat head-shaped screwdriver. Place the blade of the screwdriver between the space in the caster and the caster plug. Slowly move it in back and forth motion to loosen up the wheel out of the socket. Once they get a little bit out of the socket, pull them out. In the third scenario, rare, some companies put the wheels in the sockets and secure them with screws. For this simply remove them with the screwdriver.
Put The New Casters
Removing the casters is easy than putting them back. To make the process easy, put a little bit of the lubricant so the caster easily fits in the sockets. Take a lubricant WD-40 and spray it in the socket. If you don’t have the specific lubricant, then no need to worry. Take basic petroleum jelly and apply it to the socket; this will do the job too.
After lubrication, take out the new casters and place them in the sockets. Take a rubber mullet, and hit the caster with it to fit it in the socket properly. Do it slowly to insert the wheels fully and properly and not break them with your aggressive hitting.
Test The Chair
See the result for which you did all this hard work. Flip the chair over, sit on it and check if you feel the wobbling now or not. If the problem was in the casters, then it won’t lean to the side anymore. However, if you still find it tilting and wobbling, then the problem is in the base plate.
Solution For Loose Screws And Bolt
If you found the screws of the chair base loose or missing, then the cure is very easy. Turn your chair upside down. Take a screwdriver and tighten all the screws and bolts of the chair. This will fix the issue. However, if you find some of the bolts missing, then take the size measurement of the bolts and look for them in the hardware store; take one of them as a reference. You can also call the manufacturers, giving them the information about your chair so that they send you or suggest the correct type of screws you would need to fix your chair.
Solution For Faulty Seat Plate
If your seat plate has all the faults, then there is one right option to change it to a new plate. How would you tell if they are faulty? Firstly, after tightening all the screws and bolts, the seat plate seems to be checked next. The metal plate is placed right at the bottom of the chair that holds the seat and supports all the seats. The plate is attached with a rod to the seat and the caster base. That rod is known as the leg of the chair. See if any part of the plate is broken, damaged, has a dent, or is worn out. If you find any of these signs then it is time to change the base plate. Follow the instructions and be careful as well so that you don’t hurt your hands.
- The first step is to lay down the chair to the side or turn it upside down and place it on a table. Take a rubber mallet and hit the chair’s leg, with 2 to 4 hits the cylinder and caster base that holds the wheels will separate from the base plate. After removing the leg and caster base from the seat plate. Take the screwdriver and remove the screw of the plate to separate it from the seat.
- You can do it in two ways. You can remove the plate off the seat by removing the screw that attaches the metal plate to the seat and then removing the plate’s cylinder and caster base. Or you can also remove the cylinder and caster base first and then remove the plate from the seat of the chair.
- Take the removed plate and look for the identical replacement for the chair in the store supply. You can also write the model number and brand name for the chair for reference to get the exact replacement for the chair plate. Or order it from the manufacturer. The plate should be according to your chair’s model; otherwise, you will mess up your chair.
- Once you get the suitable model of the seat plate, place the plate in its place. Take the screws and put them in the hole, tighten up the screws with a screwdriver.
- Attach the cylinder and base of the chair to the new plate. To do this, place the cylinder on the ground straight, hold the upper body of the chair above it. Line the new base socket with the cylinder plug and press it with force. The chair will assemble again. However, if you find it difficult, you can use a little lubricant to make it easy to fit. Once you fit it in the place, you are finished.
- The last step is to test out the chair. Sit on the chair and examine it; after all this effort, it should lean to the side anymore if you see a positive result, then congratulation, you’re saved from investing money in a brand new chair.
Changing The Faulty Cylinder
The next thing that can become an evil that causes a wobbly chair is the faulted cylinder of your chair. The cylinder lies in the leg part of the chair below the seat and above the caster base. When the cylinder moves in its place, it fails to hold the chair in a steady position, and that is why the chair wobbles. To change a cylinder of a chair is pretty easy, which you can do yourself without any help.
You need a flexible pipe wrench, a screwdriver, and a rubber mallet. Buy a perfect cylinder according to your chair’s model to replace it effectively and make it work in the end. To remove the cylinder from the chair, take the rubber mallet and hit the castor base to separate it from the cylinder. Take the wrench and secure it at the top part of the cylinder which is near the mechanism. Turn the wrench to loosen the cylinder and remove it when it is released. You can also do it another way by removing the mechanism from the chair by removing the screws with a screwdriver and then hitting the cylinder with a rubber mallet to separate the both. You can choose any of both methods according to your convenience.
Now that you removed the cylinder, it’s time to replace it with the new one. Take the new cylinder and fix it in the castor base. Put the upper part of the chair over the cylinder and push it down to fit both parts of the chair. If you find it difficult to fit and secure the sockets of the cylinder in the mechanism, use a lubricant to ease the process.
In the end, sit on the chair and check whether the problem is resolved now or not. Satisfy yourself by checking the chair altogether. We assure you by following the procedures rightly your problem will fix 100%.
Wrapping It Up
The gaming and office chair provides long-life running guarantees, but that does not mean that the chairs will work appropriately until eternity. With prolonged usage, you will find some defects in the chairs, but there are always ways to solve the problem. We have this article that helped you with your wobbly gaming or office chair, and you found solutions.
