TrueWellness All Mesh Office Chair Review: A Legitimate 9/10 for Under $130

The short verdict

The TrueWellness All Mesh Office Chair (Costco item #1812395, model 52913-BLK) is a 9 out of 10 chair. It breathes well, the lumbar panel is genuinely adjustable in two directions, the tilt mechanism feels smooth instead of springy, and it costs a fraction of what a Steelcase or a Herman Miller does. My single complaint is that the armrests sit a little too far out from my body, which means my elbows flare instead of tucking in naturally.

That is it. That is the whole list of problems I found. For a chair that is listed at $129.99 online and tracked at $119.99 in warehouses, one armrest gripe is a remarkably short complaint list.

 

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The specs, in plain numbers

Before I get into how it feels, here is what you are actually buying. Costco lists the chair with a breathable lumbar panel, mesh back, and spring-like mesh seat, plus these hard numbers:

Two of those numbers matter more than the rest. The 300 lb capacity puts it above the entry-level pack, and the 5-star metal base is the reason this thing does not feel like a $60 Amazon chair when you lean back in it.

 

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1. The mesh is the reason I stopped noticing the chair

There is a specific test I use for office chairs: do I think about the chair at hour four? With a foam-seat chair in a warm room, I always do, because I can feel the heat pooling underneath me. With this one, I stopped noticing it entirely.

The suspension mesh on the seat is the part that surprised me. Plenty of "mesh chairs" in this price band give you a mesh back and then a slab of cheap foam for the seat. Costco's product copy calls the seat mesh "spring-like" and that is a fair description. It gives, it pushes back, and after a few weeks it had not developed the permanent butt-shaped dent that foam always eventually gets.

There is a practical bonus that a Costco shopper mentioned in a deal thread and that I agree with completely: mesh is simply easier to clean. As one buyer put it, the mesh surface "is easier to clean" than upholstery. Spill coffee on foam and you own that stain forever.

 

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2. The lumbar panel is the sleeper feature

Most chairs under $150 give you either a fixed lumbar bump or nothing at all. This one gives you a foam-padded, fabric-wrapped lumbar panel that adjusts for both height and depth. That second axis is the one people underrate.

Cornell University's ergonomics team is blunt about why this matters. Their guidance is to position the backrest so the lumbar support meets the natural inward curve of your lower back, typically 4 to 8 inches above the seat, and then to dial in how far it pushes forward, because too little gives no support and too much forces a forward arch that creates strain. You cannot do that with a fixed bump. You can do it here.

This matters more than it sounds. Research on office workers found that during a single hour of seated computer work, participants slumped into poor posture after about 20 minutes, regardless of whether they had existing back pain. A lumbar panel you can actually tune is what buys you back some of those minutes.

And the scale of the problem is real. In the 2010 National Health Interview Survey, 25.7% of U.S. workers reported low back pain in the previous three months. A separate study of call-centre employees found that 75% of participants reported some level of chronic or acute back pain. If you are on a computer 8 hours a day, you are inside that risk pool whether you feel it yet or not.

 

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3. The armrests are why this is a 9 and not a 10

Here is my one honest complaint. The armrests sit too far apart for my frame.

On paper the arms look great. They flip back out of the way, they adjust for height, and the molded PU pads shift front to back and side to side. That is close to what the industry calls 3D or 4D arms. In practice, the side-to-side range does not pull the pads in far enough for me. When I rest my forearms, my elbows drift outward instead of sitting close to my ribs.

That is not a cosmetic issue. Cornell's workstation guidance says to bring the armrests close enough that your elbows rest naturally with your shoulders relaxed, with light forearm contact. Ergonomics writers make the same point about chair width specifically: if the chair is too wide you flare your elbows, and if it is too narrow you pinch your shoulders. Mine is a mild case of the first one.

Modern ergonomic standards back this up too. The BIFMA G1 ergonomics guideline emphasizes that armrests should carry the weight of the arms so the shoulders can stay relaxed, and the same source lays out why width is one of the four armrest dimensions worth paying for at all.

My workaround: I flip the arms back entirely for typing sessions and use them only when I recline. That flip-back hinge, which I originally read as a gimmick to help the chair tuck under a desk, turned out to be the thing that saved the chair for me. If you are broad through the shoulders, this complaint likely will not apply to you at all. If you are slim or short-torsoed, go sit in one at a warehouse first.

 

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4. The tilt mechanism punches above the price

The chair uses a 2:1 synchronous tilt, meaning the back reclines twice as far as the seat pan angles, plus a tension knob and a lock. Cheap chairs give you a lever that locks upright or flops backward with nothing in between. This one has a usable middle.

That middle position matters more than a locked backrest does. Cornell's own advice is that frequent movement is essential for spinal health, and that locking the backrest or setting tension too high discourages the movement you need. We tend to buy chairs hoping to sit still perfectly. The better goal is a chair that lets you shift constantly without falling over.

I set my tension so the back follows me when I lean but does not dump me. It took about 90 seconds of turning the knob.

 

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5. Build quality and assembly

Assembly took me under 30 minutes with the included hardware and no swearing. The 5-star metal base is the standout: it is matte black metal rather than the plastic base you find on chairs $40 cheaper, and it is the single best predictor of whether a budget chair survives year three. The dual-wheel casters roll cleanly on both hard floor and low-pile carpet.

At 36.6 lb assembled, the chair has enough mass to feel planted. It does not creak. Six months in, the mesh tension on the seat has not visibly sagged.

 

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TrueWellness vs the alternatives

Against the cheaper Costco option: the Bayside AeroMesh is the obvious rival at roughly $80. It is a fine chair, but buyers flag exactly the kind of fit issue I am describing on the TrueWellness, only worse. One owner noted the arm support "is adjustable but does not go too low," so it hits the table and the chair will not tuck under. Another returned theirs because the rigid front corners of the mesh seat frame cut off circulation above the knees. The extra $40 for the TrueWellness buys you the tunable lumbar and a better seat edge.

Against the premium tier: a Steelcase or Herman Miller gives you a 12-year warranty and a genuinely better armrest range. It also costs four to six times as much. Ergonomics comparisons generally agree that for 4+ hours of daily desk work, a proper ergonomic office chair outperforms similarly priced gaming chairs, but that argument is about chair category, not chair price. The TrueWellness is in the right category. It just costs less.

 

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Buy it if / skip it if

Buy it if:

• You work 4 to 8 hours a day at a desk and currently own something worse

• You run warm, or your office does

• You want tunable lumbar support without paying $500

• You are between roughly 5'6" and 6'2" and average build or larger

• You value Costco's return policy as your real warranty

Skip it if:

• You are narrow through the shoulders and need arms that pull in tight

• You need a headrest (this is a mid-back chair, full stop)

• You are over 300 lb, which is the stated capacity limit

• You need a long manufacturer warranty rather than a retailer return window

 

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How I set mine up

We tend to buy a good chair and then leave it on factory defaults, which throws away most of what we paid for. Fifteen minutes of setup changes the experience more than $200 of extra chair does. Here is the order I use, following Cornell's sequence of chair first, then desk, then monitor:

1. Set seat height so feet are flat and knees land near 90 degrees

2. Leave a two to three finger gap between the seat edge and the back of your knees

3. Raise the lumbar panel to meet the inward curve of your lower back, then dial the depth in until it supports without pushing

4. Set arm height so your elbows land between 90 and 110 degrees with shoulders relaxed, or flip the arms back if they will not come in far enough

5. Loosen the tilt tension until the back follows you when you lean

6. Sit and work for 30 minutes, then re-adjust whatever annoyed you

Then get up. Cornell's team recommends the 20-8-2 rhythm of 20 minutes sitting, 8 minutes standing, and 2 minutes moving. Studies of office workers back that up, finding that changing position from sitting to standing or walking every hour cut musculoskeletal disorder risk by more than 30%. No chair, at any price, replaces standing up.

 

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Final scorecard

I would buy it again. The armrest width is a real flaw and I am not going to pretend otherwise, but flipping the arms back solved it for me, and everything else about the chair performs like something priced two or three times higher. If your current chair is a dining chair, a folding chair, or a decade-old foam relic, this is an easy upgrade.

Check the Costco product page for current pricing. It has dropped to $109.99 during past promotions, and at that price the value argument stops being close.

 

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Disclosure: I bought this chair myself. Prices and availability change, and I have linked sources throughout so you can verify current figures.