How to Remove and Replace Gas Lift From Office Chair

The gas lift is an important component of an office chair, responsibly for allowing the chair to move up and down. There may be times when wear and tear cause your chair’s gas lift to need to be replaced.

When you want to remove the chair’s current gas lift to replace it with a new one, you will need to remove the base and the seat from the chair’s cylinder. This makes it easy to pull the old gas lift out and replace it with a new one. 

Is your office chair in need of a new gas lift?

Luckily, this part is replaceable so you won’t need to purchase a new office chair. For more information on how to remove and replace gas lift from office chair, keep reading this guide.

What you need to remove and replace a gas lift from an office chair

Before you start to take apart the office chair, you should get your tools ready. These are the items you will need:

• Replacement gas lift (find out how to get the right measurements below)
• Protective gloves
• Newspaper or protective cover for your floors
• Pipe wrench
• Screwdriver
• Rubber mallet

Once you have all of your supplies ready, line the floor with newspaper or another form of protective covering in the area where you will be taking the chair apart. This will keep your floors from getting stained in case of any oil leaks out.

How to remove the gas lift

Before you begin, you will need to place the newspaper down on your work area. Put on protective gloves to keep your hands safe during the process. To remove the gas lift, you will always need to start with the bottom half of the chair. 

There are two ways you can get the bottom half of your chair ready:

1. Unscrew the 4 bolts holding the seat to the mechanism. This will allow you to easily remove the bottom section of the chair to remove the gas lift.
2. Adjust the pipe wrench to fit around the gas lift stand and make sure it’s tight. Lift the office chair and turn the pipe wrench to loosen the gas lift stand so you can pull it out.

If you choose the first option, you will also need to remove the mechanism from the gas lift. To do this, hold the gas lift with the mechanism facing down and gently tap it with the rubber mallet to remove it from the gas lift. However, this step will be easier if you remove the base first.

Remove the base

Now you will need to remove the base from the gas lift so you can replace it. This can be done by gently tapping the 5 star base with the rubber mallet. Once the base feels loose, you can remove it from the gas lift.

If you were not sure what the exact measurements of the gas lift you need for the replacement were, you will now be able to get them by measuring the gas lift you removed.

How to replace the gas lift

Once you have your replacement gas lift ready, you will be able to put the office chair back together in a similar process to how you removed it. Before you put your chair back together with a new gas lift, you should wipe down the base and mechanism to ensure there is no dirt or debris.

Now that everything is clean, start by placing the mechanism on the new gas lift. This can be popped into place using your hands. Once that is in place, you can flip it over and put the other side of the gas lift into the base. Make sure everything is secure for a comfortable seat before putting the top half of the chair back in place.

Final thoughts

It’s very easy to remove and replace a gas lift from an office chair. Once you have reassembled your chair, always test it out before you begin working in it again. Make sure you are able to adjust the height and keep an eye out to make sure you didn’t miss anything during the process.