What Should We Consider When Choosing a Stand-Up Desk?

Sitting all day long isn’t a good option since prolonged sitting will increase the risk of physical wellbeing and mental health. In modern society, more than half of the time we spend a day sitting, such as commuting, having meals, watching TV, and most of all – working at the desk. Thus, turn your workstation into a place that promotes health and productivity can be extremely important.

A standing desk or stand up desk or sit-stand desk converter can easily convert a regular seated workstation to an active and movement-friendly one, which helps combat the sitting diseases. There are so many choices for ergonomic furniture that finding the best to fit your needs can be a challenge. So, here in this article, we will summarize some tips in choosing a stand-up desk.

Before purchasing a stand-up desk, we should make your specific demands clear. Firstly, consider whether you will change the posture frequently. A height-fixed standing desk significantly reduces the sitting time, but prolonged standing is no better. By contrast, a height-adjustable standing desk solves the problem efficiently and provide more comfort and ergonomic workstation.

Once you decide to invest a height-adjustable standing desk, ask if you need a whole new sit-stand desk or a unit that can set on the top of the existing desk, and take your available space and cost into account. If you prefer a large desk surface and want to have a more natural transforming experience, a full sit-stand desk can be a better choice. While, if you're going to keep the current desk and turn it into an adjustable standing desk, then the desktop sit-stand converter may be a good option.

Regards to the adjustment mechanism of sit-stand desks, there are electric, hand crank, and pneumatic ones. Hand crank adjustment allows you to adjust the desk height by turning a crank manually. It takes about 35 turns to fit a guy of height 175 cm (about 5.74 ft) from seated to standing. So, it is a little complicated than the electric and pneumatic ones, and you had to remember how many times you turn to get the perfect height each time. Electric sit-stand desks are the most popular choice among them, with just a touch of a button, you can change the height easily. Also, it usually features a memory controller, which allows to preset and save your desired height. Of course, the electric and pneumatic sit-stand desks generally cost a little bit more than the hand crank one. Therefore, if you want to save some money and still want to get the sit-stand desk feature, the manual adjustment is a good option for you.

Besides, the weight capacity of the desk is another important factor that we should take into consideration. As a professional supplier and manufacturer of ergonomic office furniture, LUMI provides our customers a full line of sit-stand desks, weight capacity of which range from 50kg (110lbs) to 250kg (550lbs), all for meeting your customized needs.

To get the ultimate experience of a sit-stand desk, we recommend adding the following accessories to your workstation.

Monitor arm – gives you a range of vertical, horizontal, and rotational adjustment to flexibly change the heights and angles of the monitor to the perfect eye-level viewing position whether you are sitting, standing or leaning. It makes a great pairing with a sit-stand desk, which helps relieve eye strain and improves comfort.

Keyboard tray – is often overlooked ergonomic office workstation accessory. It helps adjust and tilt the keyboard to improve wrist comfort while typing; in the meanwhile, it enlarges the work surface.

Footrest or standing mat – same as prolonged sitting, standing for an extended period is no good, either. Moreover, the hard surface where you stand fatigues your feet, so, you might also need an anti-fatigue footrest or standing mat. 

As a supplier who designs and manufactures professional ergonomic office furniture and accessories, LUMI attended Neocon this year. We showcased our latest products which are widely praised by our customers. If you haven’t got a chance to visit our booth this year, please click here for more information. Also, feel free to contact us if you have any questions, our professional team members are always here for you and looking forward to meeting you next year.