How to Shop for a Massage Chair

Shop for (and Buy) the Whole Therapeutic Massage Chair Experience
We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident
Comparing Massage Quality
Comparing Product Quality and Durability
Buy a Japanese Massage Chair

Shop for (and Buy) the Whole Therapeutic Massage Chair Experience

This is obvious and important…and (for some mysterious reason) it is frequently overlooked. If you don’t want your massage chair to become a coat rack in 2 weeks, you better really understand what you’re buying.

The best massage chairs get better, feel better, relax you more and more the further you go into a demonstration. The ones to avoid have exactly the opposite effect: the longer you sit, the worse you feel.

Whether a chair feels better or worse over time is nice to know before you buy, don’t you think? So try your chair at length before you buy your chair or else you’ll end up with something that feels great for 2 minutes, truly a horrible outcome for the thousands of dollars you just spent.

Since you’re about to spend real money on a therapeutic massage chair, it’s critical that you understand the organic, whole experience – the complete package if you will – that a chair can provide. In other words, you have to experience a full, uninterrupted demonstration of the massage chairs you are comparing. Pretty simple stuff. Do it as part of your shopping process and you’ll be delighted with the massage chair you choose. Shorten this process and you could be in for a really disappointing ownership experience. For a preview of what to expect during a massage chair demonstration, click here.

Inada Massage Chair Dealer Locations

We Hold These Truths to Be Self Evident

Those of us lucky enough to be steeped in the world of massage chairs hold these truths to be self evident. If you’re smart about your money (and your massage) you’ll take careful notes:

Self-Evident Truth #1: There is no substitute for a complete, longish (30+ minutes) demonstration of a robotic massage chair. In a short test, specific aspects of certain chairs – particularly lower-quality product – may color your impression of the total experience…and you want to be sure you understand the total experience that you’re buying. Moreover, some actions that are comfortable in a 2-minute test become annoying after 10 minutes. It sure would be nice to know this before you take the plunge and discover it only after you take it home.

Self-Evident Truth #2: The Internet is a supremely lousy way to understand the real feeling, capabilities, and quality of a recliner massage chair. Yes you should be wary of anyone who sells you a list of features versus the benefits that only you can judge in person.

Self-Evident Truth #3: Quality is the best value… Period! If you shop on cost, get ready for some serious buyer’s remorse and potentially serious reliability headaches. These are complex products that require real diligence and care in the design and manufacturing process. Plus, reputable massage chair brands are committed to after-sale service as well.

Self-Evident Truth #4: When you buy any pricey, technically sophisticated product, you’re also buying a support network. Don’t be duped by the talkers (and sites) promising great after sale service – there is really very little of this out there. Look for the brands that are widely distributed in stores because these are the brands that must support their products lest they face the ire of an upset dealer base. The Internet-only brands (and brands that you see popping up at trade shows) are notoriously bad at remembering your name after they have made sale.

Self-Evident Truth #4: Understand the warranty. It’s a good guide to underlying massage chair quality. And read carefully. All policies will have exclusions. Some policies are deliberately dense and designed to keep you from realizing that they cover nothing at all…or force you to repack your chair and ship it back to a repair facility…or make you jump through flaming hoops…or pat your head and rub your belly. All these stunts, obfuscations, and roadblocks are downright annoying when you’re looking at a half-reclined, broken massage chair that’s sitting in your house.

Self-Evident Truth #5: There are no good massage chairs out there for less than $2,500. You can believe this or you can find out the hard way. Save your money. Find the best massage chair.

Self-Evident Truth #6: In general, the Japanese brands offer better-built massage chairs than non-Japanese brands. They have been doing it longer than anyone else in the world. They have honed their skills in Japan, the largest, most competitive massage chair marketplace in the world. They have a commitment to quality – it pervades their business culture – that is unsurpassed.

Inada Japanese brand Massage Chairs

Comparing the Massage Quality of Massage Chairs

This section about “massage quality” addresses the issue of how effectively a robotic massage chair replicates the feeling and therapeutic value of a skilled massage therapist. In other words, this is about how a massage chair makes you feel based on how it performs its massage functions. The discussion after this section deals with product quality and durability, which is a measure of engineering quality. Don’t confuse massage quality and product quality. Though they frequently go hand in hand, this is not always the case.

Any good (or great) massage chair must be able to adapt to people of varying size. Since there is in fact a great deal of variability in body types, any decent massage chair must be able to adapt itself to accommodate a range of body profiles. While this may seem like an obvious, basic requirement for massage chairs, note that very few massage chairs actually have such capability.

Repeating a point made earlier, your body, over the course of a full demonstration is an excellent guide to massage quality. Here are a few questions that you can ask in order to begin to assess massage quality of a particular massage chair:

Does the massage chair offer body scanning? And how does the massage chair scanning actually work? (If the store, distributor, or manufacturer can’t explain this in detail, run away!)
How does the scan then customize the massage to me (the user)?
What is the height range the massage chair accommodates? (Better chairs are built to fit more people more accurately.)
Are the massages in the massage chair designed under the oversight of massage experts or is the team strictly comprised of engineers?
Does the customization process include management of the duration of a massage? (A “yes” is a good indication that the massage is actually being customized to you since differing body types – torso length in particular – should effect the length of any given massage session.)

Finally, if anyone tells you something that seems like it might be too good to be true, it probably is. Here are a few really compelling and tricky fabrications that you might hear from people who are eager to sell you whatever massage chair they happen to carry:

“It’s a “shiatsu massage chair.” – Big deal…all massage makers claim this to be the case. Some do and some don’t actually use shiatsu techniques. The proof is in the pudding. In other words, you just need to know how it feels in an extended demonstration. This is, after all, all that matters.
“It reads your mood.” – No it doesn’t. Your wife/husband/girlfriend/boyfriend doesn’t do this well; the massage chair you’re in certainly doesn’t!
“It detects tension in your muscles and focuses massage in those places.” – Really? As far as we know, this does not exist in the market.

Comparing the Product Quality of Massage Chairs

If every company would just “open their kimonos” it would be easy for consumers to figure out whether or not their products will perform as promised over time. The section above was about how a chair feels – the “Massage Quality”. Here we talk about things like reliability of the working electronics and mechanisms of the chair and the quality of after-sales support.

Most lesser companies refuse to share any information about actual failure or service rates because these would – we promise – scare you away from them. As you consider the thousands that you are about to spend on a chair, ask yourself, then answer, this question: based on what I am spending, how much usable, trouble-free life do I expect from my massage chair purchase?

We’re not here to “out” any major players, but here are some things you might consider as you work through the buying process:

How long has the company been in business? Beware if the answer is under 20 years.
Your salesperson says, “Our chairs have a very low failure rate.” This is usually wrong. Most have embarrassingly high failure rates! Even the very best Japanese brands (Inada, Sanyo, and Panasonic) will fail in the 1-3% range. How bad are the worst of them? You’re into the 40% (and higher) failure range. Most brands easily top 10% failure, an unacceptably high level for the best massage chair brands on the market. The lesson: you better be careful lest your relaxing massage chair purchase becomes a stressful headache that’s difficult to resolve.
Your salesperson says, “We are a major manufacturer and have a very large factory.” – Well…we can’t all be major manufacturers.

Many robotic massage chairs are bought at trade shows. Here are a few simple tips that will keep you from getting red-faced with anger and embarrassment:

Generally speaking, watch out! There are countless “no-name” companies out there that are at shows to make a quick buck, pack up, and leave you with a massage chair of extremely low quality.
Chair manufacturers know that the Japanese set the standard in product quality so – we’re not kidding here – they will make up very Japanese sounding brand names for their chairs. This despite the fact that they are 100% not a Japanese company. Many have been fooled…please don’t be the next sucker!
Oh but the price is right. It was originally $6,000 and they will sell it at the show for $1,499. Remember this: If it’s too good to be true…If you like setting your hard-earned $1,499 on fire, then go for it. Otherwise, keep looking. You can do much better. The real “value massage chairs” out there cost more, deliver a great massage, and last for many years.
Look closely at the warranty! Remember that you are depending on the company standing in front of you to service and repair any issues you have with the chair. If the warranty guarantees anything less than 1 year of full, in-home, on-site service, you’re dealing with a company that does not have a lot of confidence in its own product. If you look at the Inada massage chair warranty, you will see that it stands head and shoulders above all others in the industry by offering three full years of on-site service that covers parts and labor. For full details, please visit our warranty page.
Ask about how the warranty is supported. Who will they use for repairs if you live a thousand miles away from their office (if they have an office)? You could be waiting many months (or forever) for a repair from a massage chair company that cares only about making a tradeshow sale.
Ask what happens to the warranty if the company you’re buying from fails. Business is tough. Fly by night massage chair companies come and go, and customer after customer is left to lament their foolhardy decision. The best massage chair manufacturers actually protect you with 3 layers of warranty support:

1) The manufacturer is the first line of support for the warranty;

2) The manufacturer is backed by a “Warranty Plan Administrator”. All fully backed, fully supported warranty plans will include this type of agent whose role it is to validate and facilitate warranty claims. They are a 3rd party whose obligation it is to fulfill the requirements of the warranty;

3) Finally the Warranty Plan Administrator is backed by an insurance underwriter who has agreed to cover any costs associated with servicing warranties, and this will happen regardless of whether or not the company that sold you the massage chair is around but unwilling, bankrupt, or completely gone.

If the warranty assurances you receive are anything less than what is outlined above, run away and find yourself a reputable company who is serious about making you happy in the long run.

Buy a Japanese Massage Chair

The quality massage chair market is dominated by Japanese owned and operated manufacturers. This is not surprising as Japan is the single most competitive massage chair market in the world. Amazingly, over 22% of Japanese households own a robotic massage chair! Over the years, fierce competition in Japan has pushed the sophistication and reliability of Japanese massage chair brands to where they are today and well beyond what non-Japanese makers are able to produce.

Other companies are all relative newcomers to the world of massage chairs and usually trail the Japanese leaders by many years in innovation. Often, these companies also deliver far less in reliability and overall massage performance. Worldwide, the leader in the luxury massage chair market is Inada.

As you shop around, you will note that established massage chair dealers that are interested in quality focus their selection on the Japanese brands. Usually this is the result of experiments with lesser quality brand. To date, those who know the massage chair business tend to agree that these non-Japanese companies simply don’t measure up to the Japanese manufacturing standards or massage quality.