Massage chairs up to €3,500

People who are considering buying a massage chair for the first time usually want to know one thing: does it actually work? Before spending several thousand euros on something for the living room. This class is the answer to that very question.

What Happens in the First 20 Minutes

You sit down and press a button. The chair moves back until your legs are slightly above heart level. Then the sensors scan your back once, from your cervical spine to your pelvis, and note the position of your shoulders. All of our models feature this body recognition function, including those in this class.

After that, either an automatic program runs, or you specify where you want the massage to focus. Neck, shoulders, or lower back—plus the technique: kneading, tapping, rolling, or Shiatsu. Heat is applied to the lower back area if you turn it on. Air pressure is applied to the feet, calves, arms, and shoulders, and rollers move across the reflex zones on the soles of the feet.

Where the line is drawn

You can't adjust the pressure any more precisely than that. The chair operates at its current level of firmness because it lacks the 3D mechanism that extends the rollers further out of the track. If it's too firm, we'll place a comfort pad between the chair and the seat.

There are fewer rollers at the base, and the airflow feels rougher. The heat is concentrated in the back and nowhere else. The cushioning and smoothness of the ride improve with each class—you can hear and feel the difference.

The difference from the next class isn't listed on any spec sheet. That's where the chair begins to mimic a manual massage. Here, you can tell that a robot is at work.

Why there's nothing coming out for a long time after the €699 armchair

The €699 chair is an office chair with a massage function. It has a vibration feature in the back—that's it. It comes with a 2-year warranty, is fairly priced, and is perfectly adequate for use at a desk.

After that, there won't be anything new from us for a long time, and that's on purpose. Everything that makes it into our exhibition must meet two criteria.

A technician will come to your home. Residential customers get a 5-year warranty with on-site service; at Allgäuer Massagetechnik , it’s 3 years. If a motor breaks down during this period, we’ll come to your living room with a replacement part. For a €900 device, a service call like that costs more than the recliner itself. That’s why no one else offers it there: if it breaks, it goes in the trash, and you buy a new one.

The chair should last 5 years— 20 minutes a day, every day. The casters, motors, and airbags have to hold up to that. Mechanisms that can withstand that start at a certain price point. We don’t buy them any cheaper, so we don’t sell them any cheaper either.

If you want to stay under €2,000, you'll find plenty of options online. We don't carry those items in our showroom because we couldn't vouch for their quality.

Please take a seat

Whether this class is enough for you isn't something you can tell just by looking at the spec sheet. Sit in one from this class, and then in one from the next. Your back will feel the difference in two minutes.

Would you like to see the entire selection first? Here's an overview of all our massage chairs with on-site consultation and test seats.