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Best Heavy Duty Office Chair Wheels & Casters

Best Heavy Duty Office Chair Wheels Casters

One of the best ways to enhance the strength of your computer chair is to add heavy duty office chair wheels. Underneath the weight of the chair and the weight of the user are 5 caster wheels which can be put under enormous pressure.

It’s no wonder that many stock standard office chair wheels deteriorate so quickly and break under heavy loads. Especially when you’re a heavy person. The last thing you want to do is buy a new 500 pound capacity office chair, only to find out the casters are cheaply made.

To really give you the peace of mind as a bigger person, its a good idea to consider upgrading the office chairs wheels. For how little they can cost, its certainly a worthy investment and one way to ensure your chair lasts longer while minimizing the chances of injuring yourself.

What Makes Caster Wheels Heavy duty

Caster wheels come in a number of sizes and designed for a number of uses, but when looking for heavy duty computer chair wheels, the requirements to be heavy duty are far simpler.

  1. Designed to be able to handle the heavy duty workload of a full time office worker without breaking.
  2. Have the ability to support heavy weights and heavier people.
  3. Tough enough to glide over surfaces such as carpets and rugs.

While most office chair wheels that come stock standard can glide over hardwood with ease, they struggle tremendously on carpet. Not too mention that there’s a high chance of the cheap casters marking up your expensive hardwood floors.

For the folks that have carper or rugs in their office, a larger diameter caster wheel is recommended to be able to plow its way over the carper. Smaller castors will be stuck and carpet fibers and hairs will get trapped in the moving mechanisms and cause all sorts of problems.

Keep reading to find out what the best heavy duty caster wheels are for a heavy person, and which surfaces they are best for.

Best Carpet Casters For Heavy People

Miracle Caster! Extra Large Chair Wheels. 4" Set of Five. Great for carpet. Replaces chair mat.

The Miracle Casters have long been a favorite of mine for gliding over carpet surfaces. This is due to the oversized office chair wheels, almost 4 inch diameter wheels. Which is pretty much double the standard size. They are also a great choice for heavy people as they have a combined weight capacity of 650 pounds.

Lets say you have a rather hefty and bulky office chair with a weight capacity of 500 pounds. The chair itself can weigh around 70 pounds and when you add a 450 pound person to the equation, you’re going to need some pretty heavy duty casters to handle the load. 

The Miracle Casters 650 pound weight capacity offers this and then some. Making them a great choice for most heavy people. Do note that on the Miracle Casters page it states they recommend users to be under 300 pounds. This is because the static weight of a heavy user on carper may deteriorate the quality of the carpet.

Miracle Caster! Extra Large Chair Wheels. 4" Set of Five. Great for carpet. Replaces chair mat.

Fits Standard Office Chairs Including The Aeron

The good thing about these caster wheels is that they use the universal stem sizing. Which means they can mount onto the popular 300 lbs size C Aeron chair by Henry Miller. Making the Aeron chair even better.

The universal stem size measures 7/8″ in height with a diameter of 7/16″. To measure what stem size you need, use a screwdriver and pop out your existing casters. The height of the stem can be up to 1.25 inches, but cannot exceed the 7/16″ diameter.

Built For Carpet

The Miracle Casters were designed primarily for taking the hassle of using a office chair over carpet, even thick plush carpet. Because of this, in most cases you won’t need a chair mat anymore over the top of your carpet.

In fact, its probably better to ditch the plastic mat as it can deteriorate the wheels quickly compared to the soft carpet. However the hefty warranty on these casters does cover this.

The same principal applies for using on hardwood floors and tiled floors. Because they are so bulky and heavy duty, they may end up leaving marks on your hardwood floor. As well as deteriorate the miracle casters themselves. So stick to carper with these casters and you’re good to go.

Miracle Caster! Extra Large Chair Wheels. 4″ Set of Five. Great for carpet. Replaces chair mat.


Best Office Caster Wheels For Hardwood Floors

Office Chair Caster Wheels by ATOMDOC, 2" Newly Revolutionary Quadruple Ball Bearing Design,Heavy Duty & Safe Protection for All Floors Including Hardwood, Set of 5


The problem with using heavy duty casters on hardwood floors that you spent thousands of dollars on to make look a million bucks is, they can damage the floors. This is where the AtomDoc casters come in.

Aimed predominately at hardwood floors, the AtomDoc casters are a blend of soft and hard polyurethane. The softness of the polyurethane mixture gives them the freedom to tackle most uneven surfaces while the nylon protective rubber ensures they don’t mark your floors. In fact they are 100% guaranteed to not mark your floors according to AtomDoc.

Being a polyurethane blend, the Atomdoc casters are the ideal all round office chair wheels. Rating fairly good on all floors including hardwood, vinyl and tiled areas.

Being a heavy duty caster wheel, they can handle a fair amount of weight. Including the weight of the office chair itself, these casters when set up on a 5 point base can hold up to 550 pounds. When you minus the typical weight of an office chair, you can expect a heavy person up to about 450 pounds can safely use theses casters.

Office Chair Caster Wheels by ATOMDOC, 2" Newly Revolutionary Quadruple Ball Bearing Design,Heavy Duty & Safe Protection for All Floors Including Hardwood, Set of 5

However, There’s A Downside

Where the above Miracle Casters score an almost perfect score for gliding over carpet, the AtomDoc’s don’t fair as well. This is due to the lack of size.

The AtomDoc casters are your standard 2 inch in diameter wheels. The Miracle Casters are almost double the height of these wheels. So naturally, the Miracle casters are going to handle long plush carpet much easier.

Because of this, its recommended to not use these casters if you plan to use them on carpet or rugs with a pile greater than 2cm. Stick with the Miracle Casters if this is you, its not worth the risk.

On the plus side, the AtomDoc’s work very well on other surfaces and the fact they don’t mark your expensive hardwood floors is something you can’t pass on. The heavy duty load rating of 550 pounds means heavy people with a big and tall office chair can safely add these to their chairs for greater performance.

Office Chair Caster Wheels by ATOMDOC, 2″ Newly Revolutionary Quadruple Ball Bearing Design,Heavy Duty & Safe Protection for All Floors Including Hardwood, Set of 5

$23.99


Heavy Duty Roller Blade Style Office Chair Wheels


Yes you read it right, office chairs with roller blade wheels. They are a thing I assure you. Well in the last couple of years anyways. But why roller blade wheels you may be asking. Well, for a  number of reasons.

The Original Office Chair Caster Wheels Rollerblade Style (Set of 5), Safe for All Floors & Hardwood, Replacement for Desk Floor Mat, Universal Fit

First of all they are quite robust and heavy duty. Unlike hard plastic wheels commonly found on computer chairs, these roller blade office chair wheels by Office Oasis found on amazon here, are made form a soft polyurethane material. So they won’t snap or become brittle like hard plastic can do.

So they can take a fair beating, which combined with the 650 pound weight capacity makes them a good match for heavy people.

They Don’t Mark Your Floors

Like the above AtomDocs, these roller blade style wheels are designed to not mark your floors. They are made from a clear see through polyurethane so that they don’t leave marks. What this means is, you can finally stop buying and replacing floor mats.

Many of the casters that come stock standard are prone to destroy computer floor mats. It’s just the way it is. With mats costing anywhere up to $80, you can see why more and more people are switching to roller blade type wheels for their office chairs. Especially when you periodically have to replace the mat.

The Original Office Chair Caster Wheels Rollerblade Style (Set of 5), Safe for All Floors & Hardwood, Replacement for Desk Floor Mat, Universal Fit

Roll & Swivel Better, Even On Carpet

Think about how effortlessly roller blades roll down bitumen and concrete roads. Now imagine this on your office chair. Roller blade wheels are a much smoother ride for your chair. If you were to simply push a chair with caster wheels on them and then a roller blade wheel chair, the roller blade wheel chair will glide about twice as fa across the floor. Without anyone sitting in the chair.

What makes these wheels unique in their approach to handling carpet is that they don’t get clogged up as much as caster wheels. To try and unclog casters that are full of cat/dog hair and carpet fibers is near on impossible. But with wheels like this, the opening is much smaller and easier to access.

The Downside To Roller Blade Office Chair Wheels

Because the wheels are slightly bigger than you regular 2 inch wheels and the shaft is taller, the base of your office chair sits higher. This can cause issues for people whom have a low to the ground desk.

For a much heavier person, this does concern me a little as well. Mainly because the shaft is longer which means there’s a lot more weight being put onto it compared to a shorter shaft. This could cause the axles on the wheels to buckle under pressure. I’m certainly no engineer, but its the impression I get from having less evenly distributed body weight compared to the wider more supportive casters.

If this too is a concern for you, I would certainly go with the Miracle Casters. They have been around longer and have provided safe seating for just as long. But at the same time, these roller blade wheels are considerably cheaper, but is it worth the risk?.

The Original Office Chair Caster Wheels Rollerblade Style (Set of 5), Safe for All Floors & Hardwood, Replacement for Desk Floor Mat, Universal Fit


 

What Size Caster Wheel Do You Need?

Taking a general approach, the larger the diameter the more leverage the caster has when tackling uneven terrain, humps and bumps. So for carpet, the larger diameter wheels are ideal. Combining a larger diameter with either a nylon or polyurethane caster will ensure hassle free carpet gliding.

The larger diameter casters will also give you a bit of extra height to your office chair. The extra inch or two can prove beneficial for people needing tall office chairs.

As a tall person, its all about the correct sitting height. Sometimes the office chairs don’t quite go high enough when you’re a tall person. If you fall short of your individual ergonomic height, it might be a good idea to invest in 4″ caster wheels.

Caster Wheels Weight Capacity

Caster wheels that have a heavy duty rating are worked out on a individual basis. Because most office chairs have a 5 star base, the weight capacity given on the wheels is usually the total.

For example, if a set of casters has a weight capacity of 500 pounds, each caster has the capabilities to handle 100 pounds. If the caster wheel you’re looking at has a 500 pound weight capacity per wheel, there’s a good chance it’s not intended for an office chair. Thus the stem won’t be applicable for your chair.

When deciding the weight capacity you need for your office chair, its important to include the weight of your chair. The casters evenly support the weight of the chair plus the user within their recommended weight capacity. So its important to know how heavy your chair is.

Difference Between Castor & Office Wheels

For the most part, people will understand you when you tell them that you want either caster wheels or office chair wheels for your existing office chair. Chances are the salesman won’t sell you a rigid caster, which is a caster wheel that does not swivel and can only travel in a straight line. Not what we want on our office chairs.

However, there is a difference between a caster and a wheel. In essence, a caster is a wheel, but offers so much more. A wheel is just that, a circular item with a hole in the center for attaching a device to serve whatever purpose its intended for. Take a car wheel for example.

But a caster incorporates another component, the fork. The fork is what is attached to the wheel which you attach to your office chair via the stem sticking out the top. The standard size stem for office chairs measures 7 1/6″ diameter and has a 7/8 inch length.

So chances are, you’re looking for heavy duty caster wheels for your office chairs and not just the wheel. Only a small difference, but one that can prove helpful to know as you go on your search for heavy duty office chair caster wheels.

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