Common problems of cheap standing desks of unknown origin.
Seven years ago in Europe there weren’t many options for clients interested to buy electric height-adjustable desks as the suppliers were few. This has changed over time. Currently, if we search the Internet, we will find so many options that one can find it hard and confusing to make a choice.
Quality electric height-adjustable desks are several times pricier than the regular desks and their price is one-time higher than that of the cheap unquality ones. Тhis is forcing Bulgarian suppliers to look for a most budgetary possible option, regardless of all disadvantages related to their quality. Quite normally, there are now hundreds of modifications of electric standing desks of questionable quality available on the market.
This article describes the most common problems with cheap standing desks and why buying those is not worth the investment. Some of the reasons to avoid buying cheap electric standing desks are quality of the electronics, quality of gear system, sync between the dual motors, maintenance of constant speed of movement, excessive use of lubricants such as grease, limited warranty duration and terms.
1. Quality of the electronics.
Electronics is one of the first areas where manufacturers look to cut costs. To achieve cost reduction, they use circuit boards, which are also applied in other products and are not specifically manufactured for the control of the electric standing desks. Components big in size are used, which require huge quantity of sealant for their support, which is applied unevenly and at poor quality.
Low quality plastic connectors which cannot make a good connection are used to connect the components. Their windings are not wound evenly and at good quality.
Electronics is the heart of the electric height adjustable desk and plays the most important role in the long-term and problem-free desk.
2. Quality of gliders and lifting columns.
The glides are plastic components, which assure two things – fit between the individual segments of the lifting columns and quality lubrication.
To reduce the price, the quality of those plastic components is compromised. This leads to several problems such as rapid wear over time and lubricant remaining on the column. The wear is easily visible over time and leads to gradual decrease in stability. Many of the desks have anti-collision sensors. The wear of the guides leads to difficult movement, activates the sensor and blocks the movement of the standing desks.
3. Dual motor synchronization.
For a desk to be a good one, two separate motors are needed (each for the two active lifting columns), whose movement is synchronized by a control box. Low-quality standing desks do not provide good synchronization and the two motors are not moving at the same speed. This causes a very unpleasant effect where when the desk is lifted, first one leg is spread out and then the other, leading to a titled desk. Quality desks of European origin have perfect synchronization and flat desk.
4. Maintaining steady speed of movement.
Electric height-adjustable desks of poor quality tend not to be able to maintain smooth motion and this worsens over time due to the wear on the guides described above. Smooth movement is a main indicator of the quality of the motors, respectively of the desk.
5. Mechanisms lubrication.
Again, due to low-quality glides and overly lubrication between the column segments, grease remains on the outside of the lifting columns, which looks quite unpleasant and needs to be cleaned up. In addition, this grease reduces over time and compromises the good lubrication of the individual segments.
6. Warranty duration and conditions.
You can recognize a low-quality desk by the short warranty period. Three years warranty, even less, is directly alarming for a desk which will create a lot of problems. It is also good to be known that there is a common practice that the merchant offers 5 years, while the manufacturer warranty covers only 3 years. In such cases the merchant assumes the whole risks, which in most cases he fails. Carefully read the warranty terms and ask questions about the origin of the desks and the percentage defective electric desks. The origin of the low-quality desks is unknown, the percentage defective desks is high and 1 out of 5 desks show defects immediately after they are started, and things get worse over time.
Another reason for the resellers of electric desks not to be able to support the warranty is the reason that they don’t work with individual components, but rather complete package, which are supplied directly by the manufacturer. In case there is a single component which showed defect and needs to be replaced, the reseller needs to the separate the package components. Thus, warranty repair of those types of desks is not available, only replacement of components.
These are just some of the common problems of cheap height-adjustable desks. We hope that you are now convinced that it is not worth the stress facing all these problems. The truth is that the quality electric standing desk is not too expensive and it will serve you well for many years.