What To Look For In a Standing Desk?

When looking to purchase a sit-stand desk for work or home, which in relative terms can be expensive, it is essential to make the right choice for your personal requirements and circumstances. Below we set out the key considerations, features and benefits of sit-stand desks.

Is This the Right Standing Desk Solution for Me?

Let’s start at the beginning, do you even need a sit-stand desk. If you spend long periods of time sat in front of your monitor tapping away on the keyboard you are almost certainly not doing any favours to your posture and stiffness and tightness can lead to pain. Sit-stand desks can help with all these areas along with providing a feeling of wellbeing. Standing has also been shown to boost productivity levels - a surprising side benefit. 

Sit-Stand Desks : Features and Benefits:

Height Adjustment

You need to make sure the desk has the minimum and maximum height ranges so it can adapt to all your needs and provide the most comfortable position.  A typical range would be 650mm to 1300mm.  Consider who will be using the desk when making this decision - for example, children, wheel-chair users, those who are over 6ft fall - all of these groups have different requirements that may challenge the ranges available with some (typically lower prices) desks.  The desk legs themselves will either be "two-stage" or "three-stage".  This refers to the number of extending sections of steel that make up the leg.  Three-stage desks are more expensive, but typically have a greater height range and are more stable because the distance each section needs to cover is shorter.

Desk Top Size

If looking at the home you may be tight for space, so something small but fully functional may be key and if you have the space maximise with a corner desk.  There are as may desk sizes as spaces to fill so you should always be able to find the perfect fit.  You want to achieve the most desk real estate in the space available.

Colours and Finish

You are unlikely to style your room/office around your desk so the desk must have a wide range of styles and finish to blend into your existing environment.  Desktops range from office standard functional to real wood or veneers.  Choose carefully and where possible request samples. Consider durability if the desk will be used in a demanding environment.  Desk frames also have colour and style options with some ranges offering custom finishes.

Weight Capacity, Speed and Stability

Make sure your desk can handle the weight of your equipment, especially where you are going to attach multiple screens on a monitor arm.  Don't forget that a desktop computer held in a CPU holder, attached to the underside of the desk, should also be included in this load.  Remember what you use it for now may change, so higher capacity builds in future flexibility.  In general, the lower cost desks are single monitor, and this affects the weight capacity.

You will also want the desk to change height quickly and quietly, so check    on and compare the frame specifications. You do not want height adjustment to interrupt your video / audio calls - silence is golden. If the desk retailer has your needs at heart, they will quote the 'operating noise level' to help you make comparisons.

When standing, you will find that you tend to lean on your desk more than    when sitting. At a high setting, there will be more movement (less stability)    than at lower settings. This is countered by solid construction of the desk      frame, precision engineering to negate the points at which the frame can flex, and quality, rigid fixings of the desk to the frame. Cheaper desks will      compromise on these points. For instance, you may see thin, flimsy legs or the lack of steel fixings underneath the desk.

For greater stability, three legged corner desks have obvious advantages over two legged desks. For maximum stability, there are four-leg sit-stand desks in the marketplace. These will be more expensive due to the additional engineering required - but the trade off may be worth it if your desk is high use and stability is important. 

Safety

With any motorised moving device there is a risk of injury of breakage and with a fully loaded desk safety and personal protection is an essential feature. Check how the desk auto detects any obstruction and how quickly it reacts. This feature is called anti-collision. There are various sensitivities that this can have. Savv-e desks have high level anti-collision built in - which uses the same sensitive detection technology that your mobile phone uses to detect changes in screen orientation. 

Quality

This can vary significantly and is not always easy to identify. However, in this market, price can be used as one of the quality markers due to the very competitive nature of this sector. As a general rule, look at the factors outlined above to help judge this and also the length of guarantee that the manufacturer is prepared to offer on the equipment. Standing desks are not a disposable item - you should expect them to last for many years. Question why the cheap ones only have a single year guarantee. As with everything, there is a cost to quality - and you will judge what is right for your requirement.

Using Your Height Adjustable Desk

After the expense of purchasing a sit stand desk against a standard desk it is essential you get the benefits in health and wellbeing. Make sure to use the sit and stand positions regularly during the working day and to take regular breaks. The key to success is making standing a habit. This typically takes a number of weeks to achieve - so be prepared to focus on changing your behaviours during this transition time.  Consider setting timers on your phone to remind you, there are a number of free apps to help you with this. Once achieved, standing will be part of your natural routine. 

Also, make sure the chair you are using is comfortable and supportive for the times when you are using the desk in the sitting position. Remember to use the pre-sets on your desk, if available, for both your perfect sit and stand heights to always remain comfortable.

Making Your Choice : Conclusion

There are as many sit-stand desk solutions as reasons you have for needing one and you should always be able to find the perfect solution without compromise. However, due to the breath of options and suppliers, it can be challenging to find your solution in the crowd. Write down your key requirements first and make sure your final choice meets them all considering all the points we have detailed here.