How to select a good electronic standing desk frame

Electronic standing desks are setting the standard nowadays in new office design and this is something which we are happy for!

You find them in all different sizes and pricing. Affordable ones or more specialized versions of specific brands. There are many specific features that are important need to be taken into account. We base this post on our own research as we considered as some point whether to extend on our assortment with an electronic standing desk. However, we decided against it as we only want to commercialize our own designs and technical innovation.

You also do not need to buy the frame and tabletop together. You can fit a standing desk frame to any tabletop given it is within the range of dimensions of the standing desk frame and opposite. In this post, we will only discuss the frame.

Anti-collision feature

Safety first! Anti-collision is an essential feature to ensure safe usage. Imagine that while working standing you pull a small table with your printer close and when lowering your desk to return to seating position it makes contacts with the printer. Or even worse, your fingers are caught between the printer and the desk.
If you do not have an anti-collision feature, and you have pre-set functions, the desk will keep on lowering and therefore lifting the full weight of your desk on your fingers.
This anti-collision function also often still needs to be configured once the desk get delivered. Please take the time to do so.

This is not that dangerous if your desk is not heavily loaded as your fingers can withstand some force. However, when the desk is fully loaded there is a risk of injury. That’s why in Europe it is forbidden to automate the height control, you need to keep your fingers at the control at all times. In this way, you can react quickly if you feel the impact. You might think that it never happens to you, but it happens more often than you would expect. Speaking out of the experience 😀 .

Control panel with or without display

However, this has drawbacks as well. Therefore, if the desk you want to buy doesn’t have a pre-set possibility, a display is essential, in this way you can read of if you set your desk at the right height. Otherwise, there is no way (except if you always keep a ruler at hand) to validate the height of the table. We noticed that sometimes people set the desk too high in the seating position, guilty again 😀 .

Also, please take care to study the right desk height for you and write them down somewhere. Some desks can be connected to an application on your phone, these desks often also offer a ‘remind me to stand’-function. You need to minimize the effort to move from standing to seating position as much as possible cause it is hard to start to stand. It requires discipline.

Loading capabilities

The maximum weight a desk can lift depends on the number of engines and the desk design. It can vary between 100 kg up to 160 kg. If you do not have the intention to move someone up and down, I believe it is in many cases overachieving its requirements. This weight restriction is not taking into account the weight of a tabletop itself. You can have a calculation yourself to check if the desk is strong enough. As a rule of thumb, if you will mount a table-top smaller than 140 cm in length any desk will do.

Adjustment speed

As said earlier, it needs to be easy to adjust the standing desk position, therefore the adjustment speed is essential. For good designs, it should be between 30 mm/s and 40 mm/s. We did the calculation, if you work 8 hours a day and change posture once each half an hour (which is recommended according the Belgian Cardio Liga), you will save 10 minutes a day if you chose the high-speed desk (40 mm/s) over the slower one (30 mm/s).

One or two engines

To have high adjustment speed and high lifting capabilities, two engines are required. But this immediately brings you into the more expensive range. You also need to take into account how the engines are mounted to the frame. In the high-end versions, the engine is hidden inside the frame. The more low-end ones most likely have only one engine which you will see sticking out just next to one of the table legs. Engine configuration also determines energy consumption. By all means, you did well in selecting an electronic standing desk. We advertise against standing desks which can be adjusted manually, this requires too much effort and time and will not likely help you to overcome your sedentary life.

Range height

A quick way to judge the range is to have a look at the number of sections the table frame has. Tables with only 2 sections will in general have a smaller range. As said earlier please study first the desired height you would like to work at and check if the desired frame will do. You should also measure the desired table height if you would stand and have the top of the laptop screen at eye height. This is the desired position to read or watch something without having to make notes.

Noise

It is not likely that you will annoy a coworking when you change its height. It should be less than 50 decibel (fridge which turns on) and in some design even less than 40 decibel (room noise).

Quality

A minimum of 2 years warranty is essential, some brands give up to 5 years warranty. There is also a chance that your desk arrives with defects. Brands often take a defect ratio of one every 500 into account. An electronic standing desk however is a pretty solid piece of electromechanical, it is not rocket science.

The message in this whole article is that the ease of you to convert from working seated to standing will determine whether you will make the healthy habit to move once every half an hour your own. The easiest would be if you would have a second desk which is always set to standing and which is located in a nice spot where you would like to work. That’s why we would encourage you to have a look at NOT A DESK products too.