Review Of The Steelcase Airtouch® Height Adjustable Desk

Airtouch® Height Adjustable Rectangular Desk

Steelcase’s Airtouch® provides a simple solution for users wanting to work in both sitting and standing postures in the office.

The desk is height adjustable by means of a simple paddle lever fitted on the underside of the desk front.

This controls a concealed gas mechanism built into the central column of the desk for moving the top.

Although its height adjustment isn’t as extensive as some other types of sit stand desk it should work well for anyone up to 6 feet 3 inches tall.

The height adjuster has some great features:

• Simple paddle control
• No need for any power
• Rapid and controllable height adjustment
• Fine tuning gauge for perfect weight balance when raising and lowering the top

Let’s look at the product specification.

Technical details
The standard work surface is the rectangular top which measures 55 inches wide by 24 inches deep with rounded corners.

There are also other top shapes including dual surface rectangular, 120° corner and 90° corner options available via the Steelcase dealer network.

All options have an overall height adjustment range of 17 inches, infinitely adjustable anywhere between 26 and 43 inches.

Users will have many different requirements in terms of what they will want to place on the desktop. To cater for this the desk has a built in fine tuning adjustment. This is located underneath the desk top where a clip-in crank handle is housed.

Airtouch® Height Adjustment Paddle Lever

This is used to adjust the tension of the gas lift. It inserts into an adjuster socket in the upright and turning it clockwise increase the weight bearing capacity whilst anticlockwise reduces it. This simple one off adjustment enables you to achieve really smooth and effortless height changes. The only difference between raising and lowering is you’ll need to apply light pressure when taking the top lower.

The maximum net weight carrying capacity of the Airtouch® is 110lbs. Provided you use a flat panel monitor, keyboard and mouse or maybe a laptop it should be fine. Nonetheless you should carefully check the overall weight of what you intend to place on the top.

The top depth of 24 inches is about 6 inches less than a normal desk. This makes it ideal for laptop use. It should also work well with a standard computer, monitor set up as long as you don’t have loads of other stuff on your desktop. Adding an adjustable keyboard tray and or a monitor arm makes sense if you need to free up some desktop space.

Finishes and warranty
The top has rounded corners for user comfort and to limit damage from knocks.
There is a choice of 4 laminate finishes:

• Artic White
• Chocolate Walnut
• Natural Cherry
• Winter on Maple

The frame is finished in platinum silver paint with foot glides giving an 1 inch of adjustment for uneven floors.

Work surface and base carry a 10 year warranty, with 5 years on the lifting column.

Shipping options
As standard the desk is curbside delivered in K.D. (knock down) format and is easy to assemble with minimal tools. However you need to be sure there is good access to your premises if you opt for this method.

Alternatively, you can pay an extra charge for white glove delivery. Here, the delivery service will make an appointment at your convenience. It includes delivery, site installation and setup. All the packaging materials will also be cleared at the same time.

Overall assessment
Steelcase’s Airtouch® height adjustable desk is a high quality, sturdily built workstation. It’s patent pending height adjuster is extremely easy to use and adapt to the exact weight of the equipment you work with.

Although the maximum height is 43 inches this shouldn’t present any problems for users up to 6 feet 3 inches tall and its lowest height setting of 26 inches makes it a great choice for short built people.

It will work well for both laptop and flat panel monitor users. It isn’t particularly suited to people with lots of equipment on their desk as the weight carrying capacity and top depth is a little limited.