Office Chair Gas Cylinder Replacement Kit, Heavy Duty Class 4 Hydraulic Piston for Desk and Gaming Chairs, Kit Includes Removal Tool, Gloves, Universal Fit Gas Cylinder

TL;DR - If you're really short & your seat is already bottomed out with a stock cylinder to be at a comfortable height skip this product since it will make your lowest setting way to high. Also, be prepared to put in some labor to replace any cylinder even with removal tool included with this one it's a pain in the ___!Okay, now let's get into the review for the rest of you that are still with me. First, my name is Jerry (aka. Barnacules) and I'm a career Technology YouTube content creator (Sat) and Twitch live streamer (Mon-Wed-Fri) and you can find me everywhere under the channel/page name Barnacules Nerdgasm ™️ including all social media platforms just make sure it's a verified account since I do get impersonated a fair bit.I've been using a Noble Hero Black Edition gaming chair (275lb) rated for a little over a year now after replacing my old DX Racer King Series chair because it was finally falling to bits after 5 years of heavy use. I always thought it was odd that the Noble chair being built to a better quality than the DX Racer chair in most respects was rated for so much less weight (275lb instead of 330lb for DX Racer). It became obvious after a year of use with me weighing 390lb that the weak link on this Noble chair is the stock piston since it started leaking after about a year of use. It would hold air fine but if I shifted my weight to left or right it would deflate so you had to do a balancing act to keep it up but fully deflated it was super uncomfortable sitting way too low for me and I'm 5'10.Since the rest of the chair was still holding up well and showing zero signs of wear, I decided to fix the piston and move forward with it. I'm glad I made this decision because the pistons are literally only $15-$20 for a replacement and completely change the chair for the better. I noticed this gas cylinder was rated for 1000lb which is insane, and I thought it was just a gimmick but when it arrived it's clearly a lot bigger and a lot heavier than the stock one that came with the chair.The first thing I asked myself is why the heck would a $399 chair come with such a weak cylinder only allowing their chair to support 275lb under warranty when $15 parts (retail price) makes it capable of holding 1000lb since the rest of the chair is all heavy duty steal construction that won't break. The answer to this question became obvious after installing it and boy did it put up a fight trying to remove the broken one so be patient and use the included tools and some other techniques, I'll include at the end of this review to save you from pulling your hair out.The first thing you'll notice is that this piston isn't cushy at all, it's very stiff, it will basically prevent you from breaking your back when you bounce up and down on it but little more. The reason it's rated to 1000lb is because it's so much stiffer and it doesn't appear to be adjustable so to get the extra weight handling, they obviously installed a much heavier spring and seal. So if you like your chair to bounce up and down super cushy this isn't the piston for you. The higher the weight rating the stiffer it will be. Now most chairs you don't want to bounce up and down since it changes the leg height to the floor so it's only really good if you're getting up and sitting down a ton in which it can take some stress off your back but while sitting it does nothing to bounce up and down unless you have raging ADHD in which case, you'll find another way *lol*.You'll also notice that when you install this your chairs lowest position will go up by about 1-2 inches which doesn't sound like a ton, but it really is. Now my chair is almost bottomed out on the cylinder to get height perfect where old piston I had 50% of the way up to achieve same height. So like I said at the beginning of this review look else ware if you already run your chair at the lowest height settings. Now if you happen to be 5'10-7' then this piston has you covered for sure! At its highest setting the keyboard is level with my crotch 🤣But, you'll also immediately notice the chair is MUCH MUCH MUCH more stable than with the stock cylinder at the high heights. I noticed with the stock cylinder the chair would rock side to side more and had more flex in it but with this $15 upgraded piston it's solid as a rock. Almost like it's just a giant round chunk of steel now holding the chair up. This makes it much better for people like me that are heavy (380lb) and like to lean weight from left to right and rest in all kinds of positions while live streaming and gaming to remain comfortable.I can tell you right now this is the single best upgrade you can make to any office chair because it will make it far sturdier, raise its effective height range and you won't be able to bottom out the piston even if you're on my 600lb life on TLC which is honestly where I'm heading with all the health problems that have hit me over the last few years unfortunately. But all joking aside this is well worth the $15 and the gloves that come with it are also very nice for gripping onto the bolts and making the greased parts easier to handle.** IMPORTANT **Now for some of the tips & tricks that you need to know when swapping out pistons/cylinders, so you don't go absolutely mad. First off if you're heavy like me the piston is going to be super wedged in there and wont just pull straight out. You're welcome to try at first to see if you got lucky but chances are it's basically rung together (cold weld) and you're not going to get it to budge. This is where the tool comes in handy that is included with this cylinder but not all of them so be sure you get this tool if you buy one that doesn't come with it.Now this tool works by connecting 2 rings to the shaft right under where it goes into the chair to pressure fit into the upper base (directly under the seat). You leave the top one loose and tighten the bottom one down as much as possible then tighten the lengthening screws on each side 1 turns each over and over until it breaks free and comes out. You may have to move it up 2-3 times and repeat until it releases depending on how far it went in. DO NOT HIT ANYTHING WITH A HAMMER ON THIS SIDE, SAVE THAT FOR THE BOTTOM.Okay, now hopefully you have the chair off the base and disconnected from the piston but now you have to remove the piston from the base which is the hardest part of this whole operation 99% of the time. You'll notice it won't want to come out with just hand force unless you're like 50lb and nobody fat ever sat in your chair. The worst by far is when it's an Aluminum base (star at the bottom with wheels in it) because they like to get super tight around the steel piston since they have different rates of thermal expansion going on. With a plastic base sometimes, you just hit it with a hammer, and it falls out right away, but I've seen other people have to heat it with a blow dryer to get the plastic to soften up to release it, just be careful and take your time and don't use crazy amounts of force. Focus on using heat and cooling to your advantage with the plastic bases so you don't destroy it.However, if you have the more common and heavy-duty Aluminum base (also works with steal just takes longer) you'll want to heat it up with a torch or heat gun and give it a good smack from the bottom with a hammer to see if it will pop out. Just keep gradually heating more and more until eventually it will give when the aluminum expands much faster than the steel breaking the suction. I recommend using a plastic hammer but since the old cylinder is shot anyways beating it to a pump with a metal hammer will do the trick even faster if you don't have a dead blow.But seriously, I can't emphasize enough, don't just whale on it with a hammer hoping it comes free. You'll end up cracking the base and then it won't work anymore. You really need to use heat to loosen it up and get it out. Also helps to put some penetrating oil on it once you heat it up like WD40 to cause it to heat and cool cycle and suck some of that lube down into the hole. Another trick is to put some WD40 into the hole or grease before putting the new piston in place so it will come out easier next time when you heat it up and the grease will burn off releasing some pressure.I hope this review helps you and saves you a ton of time because I just had to learn this all on my own doing it the hard way and it really wore me out, so I decided to take 30 minutes and write this review for you, so you don't have to struggle like I did wonder if you'll ever get the piston replaced once you have the chair apart. if you follow my instructions, you'll be done in 10 minutes and your back won't be destroyed 🤗Good luck and hit me up on Twitter or Twitch chat if you find this useful, I always love hearing from the people who I can help save some time though sharing my experiences. It's kind of what I do for a living these days.

My chair is back. For several weeks it had been sinking as I sat in it. A few minutes of work and a good YouTube video to help get the old cylinder out and we''re back in business. Instructions were easy to follow and it fit and worked perfectly. Unfortunately, the old cylinder was very stuck. Putting the new one in was a piece of cake. The height adjustment works and holds now.

I received my office chair cylinder replacement quickly. I'm usually impressed by the fast delivery by Amazon and its vendors. I was cautiously optimistic regarding taking the old cylinder apart from the chair after reading reviews by peoples experiences. I' a good sized cro-magnum 6'3" 230 lbs and the chair had worked well 5 or more years so the cylinder was well seated into the chair frame and base. I had necessary tools pipe wrench, rubber mallet, WD-40 etc... watch a few videos before attempting to remove the defective cylinder, it will help and set some expectations. Put an old blanket or large piece of cardboard down so the WD-40 doesn't get on your floor or carpet or better do it in the garage. After spraying the chair base where the cylinder goes in to it, I firmly tapped each leg of the chair to start loosening things, then turned the chair over and beat it quite hard 8-10 times and the base of the chair came free. Don't be shy about banging on that base. Some videos suggested using a hammer to separate the cylinder from the chair back? not easy to do and a small surface to get at with a hammer. The disks provided with your new cylinder were a great idea. Start by getting some WD-40 around the cylinder. I put one of the round rings around the cylinder as close the the chair bottom as possible, using the longer screws provided, you use the allen wrench to tighten the screw till you feel it's quite snug, then do the same with the other longer screw. It is a slow process but each time you tighten the screw it is slowly pulling the cylinder away from the chair bottom. Be patient and just keep turning the screws in a little on each side. I was not able to use that process to remove the cylinder completely, but I got enough of it away from the chair bottom to use the pipe wrench to twist it enough to remove the cylinder. Don't worry about scaring the old cylinder up get the pipe wrench on it good and if you can't move it with one hand you can hit the wrench with a hammer or get another person to hold the chair bottom so you can use two hands and keep using the WD-40. Once the old cylinder is removed the rest the process is very easy.Put the chair base on the floor with the casters or wheels on the floor. Put the new cylinder in make sure the clip on the cylinder is pointed at the floor. On the other end (MAKE SURE YOU REMOVE THE BLUE PLASTIC CAP) on the top of the cylinder before putting the chair on top of the new cylinder very important. Once you've done that you should be good to go. As others have mentioned and in my situation, this after market cylinder is longer than original cylinder in my chair, it works fine but at its lowest point it is where my original chair would be at the highest point. Just depends how much leg room you have under a desk. One other tip I read was every week or two, raise and lower your chair to move the cylinder up and down, that will keep the cylinder and seals lubricated. Trust me I'm not an engineer, but that makes sense that leaving your chair in the same position for years the seals could dry out, you get a crack and lose pressure in the cylinder. OK Mates... sorry for the long review best of luck. In all it took me maybe 40 minutes to do this