The Original Office Chair Cylinder Removal Tool (As Seen On PBS) - Easily Remove Your Old Gas Lift Piston from Any Office Chair

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I bought a "used-like new" item to save a couple bucks, but it would have absolutely been it at the full price ($20 at time of purchase). It can be very hard to beat just having the right tool for the job. The only advice I would add is to make sure that the tight collar is good and tight. On my first go, I ultimately realized I was just sliding the tight collar down the cylinder instead of pushing the tilt mechanism off. I repositioned, tightened better, and the parts separated much faster than expected. I have chair that needs a new tilt mechanism, and had tracked down and ordered one but had trouble getting the old mechanism off the cylinder. I have used the chair for 14 or 15 years, and I gather it is not unusual for removal to be very difficult under those circumstances. I had tried using a pipe wrench (24") to break friction by turning the piston, but I had trouble restraining the chair seat from turning when I used the wrench. A workshop with a well-secured vice might have resolved that issue, but it would have cost more than I spent on this. Comments for those who report success with the pipe wrench method often mention using a lot of WD40 and multiple applications over several days. There is a LOT to be said for a one-and-done tool as this turned out to be for me. Smart money says that this was bought used (successfully, I'd guess) and returned, and now I've used it again. I have little doubt it would work at least a couple more times...which is probably enough to outlast me, given how infrequently I've needed to repair office chairs. In general, if you are looking at a chair repair, make sure you are happy with the cushion and back. If you are unhappy with those, you probably just want a new chair. Cylinders, casters, and the star-shaped bases are pretty easy to find replacements for, from what I've seen. Tilt mechanisms can be more difficult; measure carefully. That said, a $30 tilt mechanism and $20 for this tool is far cheaper than the $200 I was looking at to replace my chair with a like one.

I was ready to throw away a Steelcase Leap V1 I picked up from surplus at work due to a worn-out cylinder that refused to budge. The suggested method from the replacement cylinder manufacturer (a pipe wrench) simply didn’t work no matter how hard I tried.I found this tool on Amazon and decided to give it a shot since I had already spent sixty dollars on the replacement cylinder and didn’t want it all to go to waste.The tool worked perfectly. In literally a matter of minutes I had the old cylinder removed from the seat with almost no effort. Hugely thankful this item exists!

Why did you pick this product vs others?:Easiest thing to use for stuck cylinders, would definitely buy it again if ever needed to. Now I have it in the tool box and already have used it on 2chairs at work, successfully. Definitely recommend

I will probably never use this again, I can see myself lending it to friends and family, to fix their chairs. I can tell you that having the right tool for the job was more than worth the price, what this would have cost to have a professional fix it was astronomical. My total cost all in is right around $50. This thing worked like a charm.😊

Dead simple tool, yet incredibly effective. I had a well used large office chair with a cylinder stuck into the bottom pressure sealed under about 400 pounds of force. This thing would not budge under threats of hammers, vices and pipe wrenches. PB blaster and kroil could not touch it, much to my surprise.What did work was this little guy. It took two attempts across ~20 minutes but the device did indeed break the seal and the rod came right out. $20 and 20 minutes saved a ~$600 computer chair and I have no doubts that it'll save many more in the future.

Worked perfectly to remove the cylinder from an Embody chair. I cleaned both the cylinder surface and the inside contact surfaces of the provided collars prior to application, and had no issues with grip. Less than one turn on each drive screw once they had been finger threaded to contact and the cylinder was free with no risk of damage to the chair.

Why did they design these so that they're the same thickness as the bottom of gas cylinders? That's zero insight. They should be thicker so that the bolts don't interfere with the gas cylinder. As such, this tool does NOT work well for low-profile gas cylinders. And yes, I have the cylinder in the highest position prior to using this product. Worse, the intended longer bolts will not fit since there is not enough room between the cylinder base and the bottom ring you mount. So I had to use the longer bolts in one of the rings, and then steal the shorter bolts to use for pushing the two rings apart. This means I had to push the rings apart a little, re-seat the lower ring, and repeat about 3-4 times. And the shorter bolts are not tampered as much at their ends like the longer bolts, so applying pressure will deform the last bit of thread, making them more difficult to remove later. I even had to cut off my chair's plastic dust covers just to use the shorter bolts, which means throwing them away afterwards.Finally, using this tool is destructive, as the bolts will scrape away metal from the rings when used (see photos).This "original" office chair cylinder removal tool isn't so great. So many oversights make this tool a poor purchase.

Tried to remove the piston from seat using this tool, but did not work. I had the screws clamped as tight as they would go, but the tool still slid on the piston surface. Perhaps there should be some sort of knurling on the inside of the rings to obtain a better grip on the smooth piston surface.OK my bad. I clamped BOTH rings to the piston so they just pushed against each other. This tool works just fine if you use it right. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS MORON!