by Mary Lou |
Last Updated: July 5, 2016 When you buy something using the links on our posts, we may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. Learn more.
The Ideal Massage Shiatsu Chair is one of the lower-priced massage chairs on the market, but despite the low price tag, it’s pretty highly rated. Sound intriguing? Let’s see what this chair has to offer.
Executive Summary
The Ideal Massage Shiatsu Chair is a great investment if the limited features it offers are exactly what you want. It’s a zero gravity chair that does a few things like a hero. Don’t expect percussion massages or stretching, and you won’t be disappointed. It won’t match the massages you can get from premium chairs, but you will get a good massage for your money.
No products found.
Product Details
BH and iDeal Products currently distributes the Ideal massage Shiatsu Chair on Amazon. They pride themselves on customer satisfaction. At present, they have a 94% rating from 129 reviews in the past 12 months.
Specifications
- Product Dimensions: 33 x 55 x 49 inches ; 200 pounds
- Shipping Dimensions: 55 x 35 x 33 inches; 210 pounds
- Weight Capacity: 325 pounds
Covered in faux leather. You can get it in black, dark brown, beige, or red.
Delivery, as is usual for this type of product, is curb side only by default. It is strongly recommended that you get someone to help you bring in this extremely heavy chair, or invest in white glove delivery service.
Warranty
The description promises a warranty of 3 years for the steel frame and all electronic parts. They also offer a 10-day return policy from the day you receive your chair, minus a 20% restocking fee. (Note that you will have to repack it in the original packaging, so hold on to it until you’re satisfied!)
Main Features
• This is a zero gravity chair (can recline to the optimal angles at which there is no stress on your spine). It offers 3 modes of zero gravity.
• 4 Auto Massage programs: Kneading, Shiatsu, Vibrating, Spinal Rolling.
• Heat therapy for the back.
Pros
3 Modes of Zero Gravity
As mentioned in the features, the Ideal Massage Shiatsu Chair has 3 levels of zero gravity, which raises your feet above your heart for therapeutic purposes. Zero gravity is always nice—it’s said to make your massage more effective since your body is fully relaxed and de-stressed. Having 3 levels to choose from is just icing on the cake.
Value for Money in Massage Quality & Length
The massage quality is decent for the price. You get a deep-kneading roller massage on your back, air massage (i.e. air bags squeezing you) for your arms, legs, shoulders, and neck, and a vibrating massage for your buttocks.
The intensity of the roller massage is excellent. It’s quite strong and effective at getting the kinks out from your knotted muscles. You can set the massage program to focus specifically on your upper back or lower back if you prefer. The massage length reaches up to 30 minutes, which is a step up from the 15 – 20 minutes the competition usually offers.
Photo Source/Credit: Happy Amazon buyer
Easy to Assemble
The Ideal Massage Shiatsu Chair comes mostly pre-assembled. Here’s how it looks like as delivered.
You just need to attach the remote control holder (4 screws) and the shoulder massagers (3 screws each). Then plug a few air hoses in and power connections, and you’re ready to go!
Photo Source/Credit: Amazon reviewer
Cons
Limited Features
As mentioned above, you get a shiatsu massage for the spine, vibrating massage for your buttocks, and air massage for everything else. That’s pretty much it.
You won’t get tapping or percussion massages. There’s also no stretching feature.
These aren’t necessarily big issues, depending on what type of features matter the most to you.
Small Niggles
There are also a couple of small quality of life issues some customers have mentioned. The leg lift function is built into the recline, so that you can’t control it independently. Your legs go where the chair says, and that’s that. (You can control how far back you want to recline your torso—just not your legs.)
The neck rest doesn’t actually allow your neck to rest. It’s just a flap that doesn’t provide much in the way of support. You can solve this particular issue by using a cushion for your neck.
Air Bag Pressure Problems
Quite a few customers have complained about the arm massage the Ideal Massage Shiatsu Chair provides. The arm massage comes from the air bags giving you an air massage via gentle squeezing.
The gentle squeezing appears to be too gentle, as you can barely feel it at all. You don’t actually get a massage so much as just get your arms pushed out.
The air bag massage for the shoulders and neck have a similarly light touch, so you’re out of luck if you were hoping for an intense massage for these areas.
The air bags for the legs, on the other hand, are too intense. They squeeze your legs to the point of discomfort. It’s a pity you can’t redistribute some of that force to the air bags for the other areas.
No Roller Massage for Feet
So those “6 simulated kneading balls” for the feet promised in the Ideal Massage Shiatsu Chair description? The good news is, the balls do press against the soles of your feet when you’re settled in.
The bad news is, they don’t actually move. It’s rather a letdown when you expect them to roll against your feet for a nice roller massage, but no joy on that front.
Noisy
This massage chair will relax you, all right, but it won’t put you to sleep. Its motor is pretty loud. Rrrrrrrrrrrrrr! So if that sort of thing bothers you, get some earplugs or a headset ready to drown it out.
Conclusion
If you want a massage chair that offers zero gravity and basic massages for an equally basic price, the Ideal Massage Shiatsu Chair is the one for you. It doesn’t offer features like tapping massages or percussion, and you won’t be able to move the footrest separately. It does give a decent massage for its price. It’s not an incredible chair, but it’s a solid buy for the cost.
Recommended.
No products found.
Author: Mary Lou
In the Before Times, Maru spent vacations traveling and making stops at showrooms to test the latest massage chair models. Nowadays, she’s hunkered down in her small sunlit home dotted with her ever-growing collection of fiddle fig trees, indoor plants, and Himalayan salt lamps. Find her at LinkedIn.