Short answer
It depends on how the chair is built and tested; every one of our dining chairs is rated for a maximum load of 200 kg per seat.
A chair's capacity comes from its joints more than its materials: how the legs meet the seat, and how the back is fixed to the frame. That is also where a weak chair fails first.
The chart below gives the frame and rating of each of our dining chairs.
A meaningful rating is the heaviest person the chair is designed to carry in normal use, sitting down, leaning back and getting up, over its whole life, not the weight it survives once.
A chair is not loaded gently. Sitting down drops the body's weight onto the seat, and leaning back levers it onto the back legs and joints. A rating that holds up over years of that is worth far more than a one-off load.
That is why the rating should come with a test. Ask which standard the chair was tested to, and by whom.
EN 1728 and EN 1022 are the European test methods for a chair's strength, durability and stability; EN 16139 sets the levels a chair must pass for use outside the home.
EN 1728 applies repeated loads to the seat, the back and the legs to test strength and durability. EN 1022 tests whether the chair tips over when you lean back or sit on the edge. EN 16139 draws on both and sets two levels for restaurants, offices and public spaces: Level 1 for general contract use and Level 2 for intensive use.
RISE, Sweden, a laboratory accredited to ISO/IEC 17025, has assessed Sella as meeting EN 16139 Level 2 and Isabell Level 1, based on RISE testing including stability tests on both chairs. Our commercial bar stool guide covers the same standards for bar seating.
Both can be very strong; what decides it is the joints, and in our chairs both welded steel and jointed solid oak are rated for 200 kg.
Steel is welded into one piece, so a steel chair has no bolted joints to loosen. That is why a slim steel frame can be as strong as a much heavier wooden one.
Solid oak is one of the hardest common furniture woods, and our oak chairs are made from A-grade FSC-certified German oak, cut, shaped and assembled in our own factory. Our guide to wood vs upholstered dining chairs compares the frames in everyday use.
Rocking back on two legs, standing on the seat and dragging the chair by its back all put loads on the joints that normal sitting never does.
Rocking on the back legs is the worst: it concentrates the whole body's weight on two joints at an angle those joints were not designed for.
Pads under the legs help too, because a chair that glides over the floor is not twisted every time it is pulled out. If a chair has already started to move at the joints, our guide to fixing a wobbly chair explains what to check.
Floor Protector PadsPads for chair legs · from €9View Floor
Yes, if the rating covers the person with a margin; at 200 kg per seat, ours are built for heavier adults every day.
Look at the seat as well as the rating. Armless chairs place no limit on the width of the person sitting; chairs with arms have a fixed width between the armrests.
A seat height at the upper end of the standard range, 47 to 48 cm, also makes it easier to stand up. The dining chair height guide lists the seat height of every model, and our dining chairs collection has the full range.
Sella Dining ChairFrom €489200 kg · EN 16139 Level 2, assessed
Isabell Dining ChairFrom €409200 kg · EN 16139 Level 1, assessed
Erik Dining ChairFrom €519200 kg · solid oak
Bella Dining ChairFrom €409200 kg · weighs 6 kg
