How to remove and replace office chair wheels



How to remove office chair wheels is a thought that barely crosses anybody's mind until you have a damaged or broken wheel in need of maintenance or replacement. Office chair wheels are very remote, though. They might seem like an extraordinary, almost bizarre thought to anyone until you are faced with an office chair with a broken or damaged wheel.




Why I should replace my office chair wheels


In daily use, the office chair caster wheels see a lot of wear and tear. It gets moved, rolled, and shoved around, oftentimes with the full body weight of a person on it. Due to the hair fall from the office people, the wheel structural device gathers up dust, debris, copious amounts of hair and carpet fibers and gets clogged, rendering the wheel less than optimum if not useless.


  • Now, if you have the floor fully carpeted, it gets clogged with the carpet fibers as they loosen from the carpet. And it is not unusual that the wheels of an office chair get damaged or break. They are subject to a lot of wear and tear in the way they are used.

  • If this is a wooden finish floor, it is essential that the chair wheels roll smoothly and not get stuck to protect the chair wheels and the floor. If the gets jammed with dirt, hair, fibers, and other debris, it gets jammed.

  • Eventually, when the chair caster gets jammed, it will not roll smoothly but drag on the smooth wood tiles, leaving behind many ugly scratches and drag marks.

  • When the wheels get clogged with carpet fibers and human hair, the mechanism itself gets tightened, and the earlier smooth motion of a wheel is lost. This is when the caster needs maintenance or the caster replaced.

For starters, let's give it its rightful name, which is a caster. That's right, it is called a caster, and a wheel is just one of the parts or components of the entire device called the caster. So what we are changing really is the caster and not just the wheel. If you did this once as a learning process, replacing chair casters will no longer be a challenge. And you will be an expert at this simple procedure, no rocket science.


Understanding the mechanics of a caster


To know office caster wheels, it would be helpful to understand the mechanics of the caster device, making it a lot easier to handle the whole procedure. Most chair casters are designed with a 7/8" or 1" long stem and a 7/16" grip ring diameter. When the castor's stem is inserted into the chair frame tubing, the grip ring expands and holds the entire device in place, preventing it from falling off.


That is also why the caster is sometimes stuck really tight and is slightly difficult to pull out with your bare hands and might require a flathead screwdriver. Now that you have understood the grip rings' function, it will be much easier for you to understand office chair wheels need a little lubrication, like WD 40.


Easy steps to remove the office chair wheels


Step 1

First, lay the chair on its side, with the casters facing the wall and the chair's seat facing the opposite wall.


Step 2

Usually, the process of maintaining and replacing office chair wheels or casters easily is with just your bare hands, but sometimes the stem of the caster gets stuck a little tighter. To pull out such a caster that is stuck tighter, you will need a couple of accessories and tools.


Step 3

Wearing a pair of rubber gloves enhances the grip that you are enabled from the rubber. Get yourself a flat head screwdriver to replace caster wheels just in case you need one. You might need the screwdriver to pry out a caster when it is stuck tight and firm. The next is a rubber or wooden mallet (hammer). And the third is a can of WD40.


Step 4

Now, remove chair caster wheels effortlessly by placing one hand, gripping the chair's frame, and your other hand on the caster. The hand gripping the chair's frame is pushing, and the hand on the caster is pulling. When you pull the caster, the caster will come free of the chair if it is not too tight.


Step 5

If it is very tight, use the flat head screwdriver and pry it between the caster stem head and the chair tubing and turn gently, and it will pop out with ease.


Step 6

If you need to change all the casters of that chair, then the whole process to remove office chair wheels is simplified for you now, and apply the same procedure in removing all the wheels to replace new caster wheels.


How to replace the new casters


  • Now let us fix the brand new wheels. First, lubricate the inner tubing of the chair frame with a little spray of WD49.

  • Then hold the castor stem in position at the mouth of the chair frame tubing and push it in. If this is hard to push in, then hold it in place and tap it in gently with your rubber or wooden mallet.

  • Once the stem goes full in, the grip ring will expand to hold the castor firmly in place. Do the same for all the other wheels on the chair.

How to maintain office chair wheels


When in the daily course of work and sitting on the office chair, its wheels are not concerned. But when the chair casters have not been serviced or maintained for a long time, the neglect shows up in the form of clogged wheels that don't roll as smoothly or just broken.


  • With regular day to day use, nuts and bolts can get loose and makes a wheel shaky and unstable.

  • Periodically check if all the nuts and bolts are screwed in tight.

  • Tighten any of the loose nuts and bolts.

  • Lubricating the chair wheel is a periodical need. Apply grease in the inner portion of the wheel and keep the bearings moving with a smooth motion.


conclusion


In conclusion, you have not just graduated as an expert on or the casters on office chairs. This experience will help you keep your office chairs in top-notch caster condition and give you the experience to handle the changing or handling of most applications with casters and how this device can be very easily changed and made new again.