What is a Standing Desk Lift?
A standing desk lift is a mechanism that allows you to convert your regular sitting desk into a standing desk. These mechanisms have risen in popularity as more people become aware of the risks of prolong sitting and the benefits to standing. With more and more people working from home, standing desk lifts are needed to help create a healthier workplace at home.
Types of Standing Desk Lifts
- Converters - Converters are mechanical mechanisms that are placed on top of the desk and provides a new workplace on the topside of the converter. To convert your sitting desk into a standing desk, the converter mechanism is manually adjusted to increase the height of the new workspace. While converters do accomplish the goal of creating a standing desk out of your sitting desk, the converter also eats up the counterspace of your desk and provides you with a smaller working area on top of the converter.
- Mechanical Lifts - Mechanical lifts replace the legs of your desk and have adjustable heights to allows your sitting desk to be converted into a standing desk. These lifts typically have a crank that is used to manually adjust the height of the desk. Compared to the converters, mechanical lifts do allow you to utilize the entire counterspace of your desk but do require longer install time. These lifts are also adjusted manually, which may be inconvenient if you plan to switch back and forth between a sitting and standing desk.
- Electric Lifts - Electric lifts, like mechanicals lifts, replace the legs of your desk and have adjustable heights to allows your sitting desk to be converted into a standing desk. Unlike mechanical lifts, electric lifts are adjusted by making use of an electric motor that will adjust the height of your desk by a push of a button. Compared to mechanical lifts, electric lifts have similar install times and comparable costs but provide much greater ease of use.
What to Look for in an Electric Standing Desk
When looking for the right electric standing desk lift or e-desk, you may want to consider some application specific factors to determine the right one for you. Below are a few factors you’ll want to consider when choosing an e-desk.
Height Range – Height range will give you the minimum and maximum height your e-desk can achieve. You’ll want to make sure that your electric lift is able to go low enough to allow you to sit and work ergonomically when used as a sitting desk and go high enough to allow you to stand and work ergonomically when used as a standing desk.
Weight Capacity – Weight capacity will tell you the maximum weight your standing desk can hold safely. This is particularly important for larger desks where multiple people with multiple equipment will work simultaneously.
Base Width – The base width will tell you how wide the base of your desk can be and is typically given as a range from the minimum to the maximum width. Some e-desks will have adjustable bases to allow you to adjust the width, while others may provide each leg as a separate electrical lift. In these cases, the base width will give you the minimum and maximum distance between each leg of the e-desk.
I hope this blog helps you understand the different types of standing desk lifts as you build yourself a healthier workplace. Armed with this knowledge, you can check out our e-desk options available at Frigelli Automation.
