Cleaning Chair Wheels
 

After far too long yesterday I cleaned out the wheels on my computer chair. My son's company is downsizing (fortunately his job is safe for now) and was giving away nice, relatively new chairs so he picked up a couple for me. It was funny because just that day I decided that I had to do better than what I had in my sewing room. It's been ok, never a great chair, it was my old computer chair and replaced the regular non-rolling chair I had in the sewing room. The biggest problem is that the piston seat height adjuster had died, when I'm not sitting in it, it magically and gradually raises up but then when I sit down, whoosh! I drop about 6 inches and it was just too darn low especially since my work table is not a sewing table so my machine is up a bit high anyway.

I decided the best course of action was to put the new chair at my computer and use the chair there in the sewing room, as I pulled it out it was dragging badly. Turns out only 2 out of the 5 wheels were turning well. Hadn't really noticed too much since all I do is pull out and back in. So I figured I should clean out the roller balls while I had the space.

Good googly moogly! I considered taking a picture but decided it was too gross to share, let's just say I had enough lint/strings/hair/dog fur in there to stuff a small teddy bear. And once again the hubby had to be subjected to another lecture on making sure his used dental floss actually makes it into the trash can...

I hereby resolve to clean out those things more often. I have said that in the past but this time I mean it!

Wish I knew easy way to clean the wheels--so much thread wrapped around them like they are bobbins !

they seem to roll better when they are unclogged

hmmmm, i was thinking those wheels just snapped in. i know they were easy to exchange. ones for soft carpet in place of hard surface. i may be wrong. maybe they are screwed in. oh well, either way they need to be cleaned. I asked my son to clean my shower drain sometime. i try but can't do it justice. i told him I'd rather change a baby's diaper than clean a drain cover. yucky.

I've had other chairs/wheels that could easily be taken apart. I think these could be if you had a special tool just for it, there was a snap type thing that I did take a screw driver too but it wasn't working. The chair in question (from Ikea) didn't just have a single ball, it had two wheels on either side of each foot. To make matters worse is that it wasn't like a vacuum cleaner when it gets tangled with long threads where they all go the same direction, from the scooting in/out the same pieces of dental floss would go around one direction and then the other direction. Absolute nightmare... I suppose I could be neater or I'm just going to try to be more timely! :)

Edit: I have an old oak wheeled chair, probably from about the early 50s. For that one I just changed out the wheels entirely, the old bakelite or whatever it was had broken chunks out of it. That was pretty easy, but these modern things are designed to be replaced and not repaired.

So would I. Yucky job!

Mine had so much thread and misc. junk in them it was easier to buy new ones. They aren't that expensive and saves me the aggravation of trying to get everything out.

My counter stools don’t have wheels but they accumulate “fuzz”. Weekly job to wipe them off.

If there is a big screw thing in the front of your office chair, that is the way you fix that whoosh problem. Just turn it right tighty and it will make it have more resistance.

My son-in-law had a chair at his rummage sale that he had found somewhere. I admired it so he gave it to me. I found, after I had it home, that none of the wheels were turning. They weren't dirty, I think they were rusted in. I turned the chair upside down, found information about the company who made the chair, contacted them and ordered five new casters.

For about $20 I got five new wheels and I love that chair.