Description
Get yourself more room with the AKRacing EX-Wide gaming chair! Boasting a sturdy all-metal frame, this chair comes with XL seat and backrest, as well as increased weight capacity (up to 330 lbs.). Fabric upholstery beloved by AKRacing customers comes in multiple color variations: Black with color accents for a more conservative setup and red with Black accents for a pop of color. Increased foam weight provides additional cushioning for long hours of gaming – or work – while headrest and lumbar pillow support your neck and back, improving posture. All of that functionality sits atop a five-star aluminum base, steel frame, and large 2.5-Inch casters.
From the manufacturer
LARGE SIZE EXTRA HEAVY DUTY HAND-WELDED STEEL FRAME
Enhanced with reinforcement belts and powder-coated with anti-corrosive paint, the chair frame undergoes 11 point quality control and will last for at least 10 years.
100% COLD CURED FOAM PADDING
Experience the soft and yet supportive 100% cold-cured foam padding, carefully selected to provide outstanding long-term comfort and performance. AKRacing sources the same quality upholstery materials as premium auto manufacture.
DURABLE AND BREATHABLE FABRIC UPHOLSTERY
AKRacing Core Series EX-Wide gaming chair features breathable and extra-durable upholstery and comes in 4 bold color options: solid black, red with black, black with red highlights, and black with blue highlights. Find the one that matches your set up and style best.
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3D ARMRESTS ADJUSTABLE IN 3 DIRECTIONSPatented AKRacing design armrests are made of a special foam mix, providing cushioning and support to the arms and wrists. They are adjustable in 3 directions: up & down, back & forth, and rotate to the sides. |
STEEL 5-STAR BASEExtra strong steel 5-star base with 360° swivel comes with high-quality PU casters included for smooth and scratch-free movement on a variety of surfaces. |
MECHANISM WITH ROCKING FUNCTIONThe gaming chair is equipped with a standard mechanism with adjustable tension rocking function to help you find a comfortable seating position. |
stargate125645 –
Great Chair and Customer ServiceUpdate 08/27/2020:AKRacing was very responsible in shipping out the correct parts to get it fixed right away and at no charge to me. They did not really have a good answer about the cushion straps, but it’s not difficult to take up the slack and I’m OK with how it works now, although it is not perfect. I have accordingly updated my rating. Further, the odor is gone and I have not had any issues with the chair not already mentioned, and my commentary of pros and cons still stands. I would definitely recommend you give AKRacing a look! It seems to be a quality mid-range product.Also, a tip: Use the lumbar pillow as the head pillow. Much better!Original Review:First, I should state that I’m 6’4″ and 235 lb. The EX-Wide was definitely a wise choice over the standard EX, and I’m by no means heavy. WIth that said, if you have a wider frame, even the EX-Wide may be a little tight for you with the racing “wings” at the seat sides. I bought this chair over other racing-style ones because of the better gas cylinder (class 4) and associated weight limit, sturdiness. The warranty didn’t hurt, either. Often times you pay a premium for these things, so you can definitely get a similar chair for cheaper, but quality and longevity may suffer.Pros:* Chair seat height minimum is accurate at 18″, it fits my relatively low desk height of 24″.* The cushioning is great so far – especially if you like stiffer padding. I never understood the point of lumbar pillows, but if you use one those are well-cushioned, too. Longevity remains to be seen, naturally.* I purchased the fabric version because I wanted something more breathable than the pleather. Durability remains to be seen, but the fabric seems to be of good quality.* The chair mechanics are easy to use and sturdy as far as I can tell. I really like the stiffness required to tilt the chair.* The plastic pieces used to cover the mounting brackets are well done and look nice. They fit tight on the fabric, but don’t seem to be doing any damage. I will update this if they do.Cons:* My chair came with bolts that were too long for the seat support plate (“mechanism E” in the instructions). It took 4 washers to make the bolts not stick out past the frame and into the seat cushion. We will see how good AKRacing’s support is. If they send me the shorter bolts in the mail without issue, I will increase the rating 1 star. But an error like this could tear into the seat and make the user deal with warranty issues sooner than should be needed.* The installation instructions are crap. If you are somewhat handy with assembling things, it shouldn’t be a problem, but if you need words to explain things or an accurate picture, you will not have fun. The website provides words, but they don’t really help much more than the bland, inaccurate pictures. Further, the instructions for the lumbar pillow are even worse – I cannot tell for the life of me what the picture is supposed to be showing on the included instructions, and their website doesn’t even address this step. It should be obvious how to install them, but doing so the obvious way (basically how every other manufacturer does it – with the straps going through the holes in the top of the back of the chair and under the chair back at the bottom) leaves a significant amount of slack. If you do some sleuthing on the Amazon product pictures, you can see they have the lumbar straps installed over the headrest straps. Still too loose. Either the item was shipped with defective straps (too long and not adjustable in length), or they need better instructions for this step. Again, we’ll see how AKRacing responds. A good answer and help with this will add another star back onto the rating.*The wheels are smooth when you move the chair – provided they are pointed in the right direction. If you have decent (thicker) carpet, moving the chair is much more difficult when weight is on it: If the wheels are not pointed in the correct direction, the chair will tend to tip over rather than reorient the wheels and move. I plan on getting a plastic office chair mat to alleviate this issue, but it’d be nice if that wasn’t necessary. Probably a hazard regardless of chair manufacturer though, and other surfaces seem fine.*The “wings” on the side of the chair seat and back are not nearly as padded as the rest. They aren’t bad if you fit the chair fine, but if you have a wider body frame that may cause issues. In that case, racing-style chairs may not be your best bet. I think this is a common problem with this style of chair, though, based upon the pictures of competing brands.* There is a relatively strong odor, presumably from manufacturing. Hopefully it gets better.* This is just a style thing, but I do not like the gloss black paint on the chair base. I would actually prefer a plastic cover, or a matte finish. Your views may vary, naturally.I will update this review if anything starts to go wrong, and if AKRacing fulfills their duties with the defective parts.
Christopher Turek –
Solid chair for the moneyI bought this in November 2021 for my home office to replace my old generic office chair of several years. I wanted something with some good support, and I like the racing seat aesthetic as a car guy. It was easy to assemble with the provided instructions and it’s been very good to my back – good support and comfort. I especially like the fact that it is cloth instead of a faux leather like most gaming chairs. I’ve found that without spending a lot of cash, the faux leather on gaming chairs doesn’t hold up after a few years. The cloth on this is durable and cleans up easy, I don’t see any reason why this chair wouldn’t last for a number of years of regular use
tp –
Core EX-Wide ModelI know what you’re looking for, and I’ll put it right out there so you don’t have to read: You will not find a better chair on Amazon for this price. Uht uht uht….This is me holding up my hand up as if to say ‘STOP!’…No, sorry…I won’t move an inch back from this statement. AK Racing knows exactly what they’re doing. Read the nightmare-ish stories for the competing products. You if you go cheaper, you will certainly get rubbish. In some cases, the other chairs actually *had* rubbish stuffing into the seats.Is my chair perfect? Nope. Does make the competitors’ products look like a pile of dung in comparison? Yup. Is the one I wanted? No. The Masters Max is rarer than hens’ teeth at the moment, so I had to settle for this. Maybe I’ll grab the Obsidian for my office at some point.Is this a big chair? Yes–a typically built man of average height of 1.78 meters would be completely comfortable in it, with a little bit extra room. It has a high back compared to other chairs of the office variety.Will it be big enough for someone who is, say, a pro wrestler? No, sadly big people will find this chair small-ish. I’m 1.9 meters and narrowly framed, and I just barely fit in the seat. Read the manufacturer’s recommendations. They’re specific about the person sitting in the chair.How does it hold a person’s weight? Good. No noise or flexing. I’m about 100 kilos (220 pounds), and it seems to be pretty unimpressed by my average fatness.Does this have all the luxury controls? No. Its features are basic, but the construction is far more sturdy than any a lesser priced competitor, so the features you get will still be working years from now.Does it tilt? Negative.How high is the seat? Kinda high. I have it at the lowest, and it’s about typical drummer’s throne height: about 50 cm or 19 inches.Do the arms fold or turn to aid in getting in and out of the chair? Not really. They can swivel a little, and they can be raised and lowered, but only slightly.Are the arms soft? Nep. They’re encased foam. Firm, but not hard plastic.How is the cushioning? It’s moderately dense foam–but it’s comfy. No circulation problems so far. It’s not cushy…but cushy seats sink and then you’re behind is on top of hard wood or metal bolts. This seat supports me from the moment I sit down and an hour from now. It’s about right. (Disclaimer: I prefer firm pillows and firm mattresses.)How about the pillows? They’re pretty generic. I like that the lumbar support stays where you put it! But, I’ll probably replace them with Purple pads or something eventually, because I will sweating in the summer.Does it encourage posture problems or slumping? Unfortunately, yes. For me the seat back needs to be about 6 inches taller. I wish I could bend back that metal in the head rest, on this chair and all others. However, it’s better than most other gamer chairs or just about any office chair…save the new mesh ones. I may need a neck pillow too for long gaming sessions.But can it do this? Yes. Make sure that you have the rocking feature turned off, and put a Pug on your legs as a counterweight. It will go 180 degrees easily. I almost fell over. Be careful!Construction? Metal legs, metal frame, thick plastic trim and car seat cloth. Heavy duty air piston. Crappy casters, but those can be upgraded.The things I’d didn’t like:* The assembly: I basically looked at the instructions, and reordered everything to make assembly safer and less prone to damage. They should have installed most of that hardware at the factory. I checked every bolt, and sure enough some of the factory-installed ones were loose!* The fabric had two tears, right out of the box. One of which is in a high-wear area. It WILL be a rip at some point. If it starts to unravel, I will just melt it with cyanoacrylate to stop from running. (Use this sparingly, as it will melt through the foam like the Alien’s blood through steel grates.* EX-Wide is really just Extra-Normal* What’s up with the little-person-sized seat back? I mean, Staples skunked everyone by having their Chinese factory scale down their office seats, but the pictures look the same on the website. Is this a fad or something? “Here’s your chair. Aht! Jokes! It’s made for a doll!”* Cheap-o casters. Staples $9.99 casters on a 62 pound seat that is marketed to heavy, tall people, and reclines to 180 degrees? What could go wrong with that?* The neck-snapper(tm) forward-tilt headrest. Would my warranty cover my chair even if I brought it to someone with a hydraulic press to flatten that headrest like it should be?
Norman Milavec –
Really love this chairChair is very comfortable. Working from home and in chair 8 plus hours a day. Really glad I got this chair after after lot’s of looking.
NG –
good support good cushion subpar arm restthe chair is nice. the armrests are flimsy. cushion is padded well. cheap cosmetic plastic bezels and armrests damage easily with normal use.
Michael Vaouli –
Great chair for the priceI bought this chair on a whim because I dislike leather seats as to they get very uncomfortable and stuck to skin overtime. It’s been amazing so far. My only complaint is the arms are a little loose and even after speaking with the customer support they didn’t offer to replace them. Also the seating can get uncomfortable after sitting for a long amount of time. I work from home so I’m seated for 8 hours or more during the day. I just wish the arm rest were built a little better and the seating was a little more padded.
Grey –
Very Comfortable and worth the money!The chair in and of itself is heavier than it appears but once assembled glides like a dream across my floor. Especially once I put a mat down, I almost wished I hadn’t (hard to keep the chair in one place! haha!) The chair is one of the most supportive and comfortable chairs I have ever owned, not to mention sat in. Sitting in it for more than an hour with Fibromyalgia has been a surprise as normally with ANY chair I would need to get up and move after about fifteen to twenty minutes! That in and of itself is a testiment to this chair and how it is crafted.That being said, the instructions on how to assemble this chair however left something to be desired… They were extremely frustrating and confusing. They were mostly pictionary and what little words were on them, it was hard to determine what they were talking about! I did, obviously, figure it all out as I am sitting in the chair writing all of this though they DO need to work a little more on expanding on the instructions. Not JUST with PICTURES but ALSO WRITTEN instructions would be useful to WITH the pictures for those of us who need BOTH!All in all, this is absolutely the best chair I have put money into and I would gladly do it again if I had the choice! I strongly suggest this one to my friends and family.
Susan –
Great gaming and office chairI bought this chair for my dad who needed something more supportive in his office/gaming room. I loved it so much that I bought my own. I don’t really use the head rest pillow much but the lumbar support is great. I had to buy some memory foam cushions for the arm rests though cause those were pretty uncomfortable. But I’ve been using it daily for over a year and it’s still holding up really well. I sit up really straight when I’m on my computer no matter what I’m doing and I lean it back a bit if I’m watching or playing a console game on my tv. This chair is great for all day sitting as long as you get up and stretch your legs every once in a while (which you should be doing anyway). Will likely buying more of these in the future.
Ken Creten –
This AKRacing chair is super strong (no flex), super well made, and super comfortable. Best computer chair I’ve ever had.I’ve been in search of a decent chair for years. I decided to up my price range and see what I might get, having been so disappointed in the past by various plywood based chairs. I’m a car guy and am well aware of the strength of steel. When I read that AK Racing frames were steel I took a look. I’m happy with the 5 year materials, and 10 years frame warranties. This frame is strong. I like to sit cross legged in chairs. That’s part of the reason I got the bigger sized chair. I can lift my entire weight (about 250) putting one hand on an arm, and one hand on a side bolster (the part that sticks out against your side) into the air, to sit cross-legged, and the chair doesn’t flex one bit. It’s very – very – very – strong. The material on the chair is very high quality. The stitching is superlative. It’s near automotive quality – at least it seems so to me. This chair might be a little firm for some, however, while I thought that it might be a bit firm, I never thought that again while using it. AKRacing, does have more office-like chairs too, and I’m guessing they may have more padding. Even though, this is the most comfortable chair for computer stuff I’ve ever had. The strange thing about this chair is that I never think about it. I can sit in it for hours and not be uncomfortable. It comes with two pillows and I don’t happen to use the larger lower one at all, but I often use the smaller pillow under my neck when I’m in lean-back mode. Fits me perfectly. The pillows are made with the same high quality that the chair material has.One small item is that it was missing one of the hex wrenches when I got the chair. This is no problem for me as I happen to have a lot of tools.This chair is a real fine piece of work. Right now I’m ex Wife’s house (we’re great friends) baby sitting her cats over the weekend, and I actually brought the AKRacing chair with me. I couldn’t stand the idea of being the whole weekend without it. That’s a first for me. I thought about it before I came and said to myself, “there’s no way you’re going to cat sit without that chair.” heheh. And I took it with me.I have a great deal of difficulty imagining that anyone would not be happy with the strength, comfort and build quality of this chair. I’m a little bit bothered that I waited this long to spend just a bit more and get something that so far, after a few months, seems rock solid and awesome. I’m sure there are other chairs in this class that are good too. My recommendation overall would be, you can’t loose with AKRacing. Also, don’t spend another dime on more cheaply made computer chairs. As you may already know, they just fall to pieces over time. Stick to companies that use steel frames and have long warranties. For me, that’s the advice that comes out of this.
Keith –
Chair supportSo i just got it and here is a few notes for you. Ive been researching a good chair to get and ive found this chair as one of my options. First choice was a chair by secretlab. I wanted that one and where i live it was to exspensive to ship. Very disappointed so i settled for this one. I did buy the extra wide one and glad. Im 6’3″ at 245 lbs. I work from home and need a chair that i can use all day. So far its ok. It did have a small cut in the cushion and like i said where i live in Alaska im not shipping it back. Ill live with it. Amazon was very helpful about it.Pros: it does come with the pillows. They can be comfortable and also annoying. User choice on that. The extra wide fits me and not much digging in my leg from the sidess. They could be bent outwards just a little more. The armrest are fully adjustable and like that. Seems to be made good and nothing is moving when it shouldnt be. The cushion to me is firm but thats good since to soft can cause back issues. The chair adjustability to go back is nice.Cons: the casters are cheap. Total plastic and they are noisy on hard floors. Ive already upgraded them with some polyurethane casters. Note; the casters are 7/16 stem and not 3/8 as someone mentioned in a post. They are wrong and dont know how to use calipers. The stem is also 7/8 long. In case you would like to replace these. The biggest issue is that i wanted a chair with knee tilt mechanism for the tilting of the chair. Another chair by this company showed it in a picture and guess what. Its not… i dont like the way this chair tilts. Ive already purchased one online to replace this. The shock should fit to it. So im modifying this chair to better suit me since i cant get the one i want. Will update this further as i make these upgrades in case someone would like to do this to yours. Thanks