Adjustable Bar Stools or a Fixed Height: Why a Welded Seat Lasts

Most kitchens are the second case. The island does not move, so the seat height only has to be right once.

The table sets out the trade-offs as we see them. The deciding question is not which type is better in general, but whether your counter or the people using the stool will change.

Pull the lever while seated and the seat sinks under your weight; pull it while standing and the gas pushes the seat up. Let go, and it locks.

The range is limited by the length of the cylinder, so an adjustable stool usually covers counter height or bar height and the space between, not everything from a dining table to a tall bar. Check the stated range against your counter, measured to its underside, before you buy. A few adjustable stools use a screw thread or a pin instead of gas, which is slower to adjust but has no cylinder to wear.

Good cylinders last a long time, but they remain a moving part, and moving parts wear. A welded fixed frame has nothing that can lose pressure.

In our view the column also takes more strain than four legs: on a single column, every lean back and every climb onto the footrest works on one joint. That is one reason a fixed stool with four legs and a footrest tends to stay steadier at a kitchen island with children. If you choose a gas-lift stool, check whether the cylinder can be replaced and whether the maker states a load rating; ours is 200 kg. Our guide to swivel vs fixed bar stools covers the same question for swivel bearings.

It can also make sense in a rented home, where the next kitchen may have a different counter.

For a growing child the case is weaker than it looks. What children need most is a footrest they can reach, and a stool with footrests at several heights, such as Ebba, lets everyone settle without moving the seat. Adjustable stools are also common at work, at drawing tables and laboratory benches, where the user changes several times a day. If none of this applies to you, a fixed seat at the right height is the simpler choice.

A gas lift would add a cylinder, a column and usually a swivel: moving parts that carry the full load.

It shapes the design too. A fixed stool stands on four slim legs with a footrest joining them, which in our view looks lighter and stands steadier than a column on a disc. That is our choice as makers, not a verdict on every kitchen: we would rather make a stool that is right at one height for decades than one that is roughly right at many. Read more in how our bar stools are made.

We make our steel stools, Freja, Philip, Bruno and Svea, at any seat height from 46 to 90 cm, welded to order in Sweden.

A custom seat height is the fixed answer to the problem an adjustable stool solves: it fits one counter exactly, with the same 200 kg load rating and 10-year warranty as the standard sizes. Our oak stools come in 66 and 76 cm only. The bar stool height guide has a calculator, and custom height bar stools explains how to order one.

A seat pad will not correct it either. Ours are 2 to 4 cm thick and made so that they do not change how the stool sits under the counter.

If you are about to buy, measure first: you can order a single test stool, try it at your own counter and return it free of charge within 14 days of delivery if the comfort or build is not right, though a wrong seat height is not covered. If your counter has changed since you bought your stools, a steel stool made to the new height is the answer; tell us your counter height and we will confirm the seat.