Benchmaster Recliners
There is nothing quite like sliding into a comfy recliner at the end of the day, and relaxing for the rest of the evening. However a recliner is often a pricey investment, but there are a few cheaper manufacturers out there. Of course if you don’t want to spend too much money, then you need to be wary of the quality of these cheaper recliners. One of the manufacturers that offer recliners at lower prices are Benchmaster Furniture, and today we are going to be talking about them. We are also going to look at some of their best selling models, to see if they are a good option. We are going to start off by talking about the company first, and then taking a look at some of their popular recliners. You can skip to the products section over here.
Is Benchmaster a reputable company?
One of the first things that most folks think about before making a larger than normal purchase is the reliability of the brand in question. So the big question to ask here is a whether or not a Benchmaster recliner is a reliable product to invest in. Unfortunately this is a bit of a tricky one to answer. The reason for this is that there is very little info available about the company. From the limited info we have come across, it looks like the American distribution side of the company was formed in 2001 in California. The company is listed as employing a handful of people, so these chairs are imported to the United States. They do have an official website, but it provides no info about the history of the brand. It does states the chairs are popular in Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America. The site has a variety of Chinese related pictures and trade show related info, so it seems that the parent company is China based, who manufacturers and then exports the chairs to the rest of the world including the USA. A quick bit of googling brings up a few other sites which have the same theory, so there may be some truth to it. However we can’t 100% confirm this, so we welcome any additional comments from our readers in the comments below if we are wrong on this issue.
Anyway, back to the question of whether or not they are a reliable brand. Because they are a small brand, there isn’t a huge amount of feedback about their products. So in this regard we can’t provide a solid answer unfortunately. All we can really advise you do is read some user reviews if there are any, to get an idea of the quality of that model. Otherwise you are going to have to gamble with your money and take a risk by buying one of these models.
Now let’s take a look at some of their more popular models.
Benchmaster Newport Recliner
First up we are going to take a look at the Newport model, which retails for a very enticing $349. This recliner comes in black and taupe, although the sleek black model would be our pick. This model looks great, and you would have a hard time distinguishing it apart from any of the competitor products that can cost a few hundred dollars more. Of course looks aren’t the deciding factor, and this models comes with a number of other attractive features. The chair is covered with a faux leather, which is cleaned using a damp cloth. The base of the chair is solid wood, which comes with a lovely walnut finish. Included with this recliner is a matching ottoman, which also features the solid wood base and walnut finish. This is a swivel recliner, and can rotate a full 360 degrees. The recliner can go back to 45 degrees, which should be enough to satisfy most people.
It sounds good so far, but are there any downsides to this Benchmaster recliner with ottoman? There are one or two worth mentioning. Firstly the recliner dimensions are a little on the small size, so if you are tall then this won’t be the chair for you. There is also mention of a 300lbs weight limit which seems to apply to all of their products, which is quite low compared to the competition. We imagine this is to do with the fact that these chairs are primarily designed for the Chinese market, so they are used to designing products for smaller bodies. There have also been some reports that the chair is tricky to assemble. Aside from that there isn’t too much else to mention about issues with this particular model. If you want to find out more about this particular model, head over to the Amazon product page. We’ve linked to the product page for the Taupe model as that has a few user reviews to read through, whereas the pictured black model has none.
Benchmaster Ventura Recliner
Next up we come to the Ventura recliner. This model has a retail price of around $499, which is also good value for money. This model comes in four color choices of black, taupe, kona and cognac. All four color choices are quite nice, so it is hard to pick a favorite here. Like the Newport above, this model comes with a swivel base and which can rotate 360 degrees. The base has a dark coffee finish, which looks very upmarket. Also included is a matching ottoman, which has the same stylish look to it. It has the same faux leather as the Newport, and the reclining mechanism knob is very easy to use and lock in place.
So are there any problems with this Benchmaster swivel recliner? Sadly there seem to be some issues with this model. Like the Newport above, there have been many reports that this chair is tough to assemble. There have also been complaints about the dimensions of the chair, which are also on the small side compared to competing products. If you are taller than 5′ 4″, then you will not be comfortable in this chair. With the average American height being 5′ 9″ for males and 5′ 3″ for females, this chair is not going to be suitable for a large chunk of the population.
We can look past these two issues assuming you can fit into the chair, however something we cannot ignore are reports of the faux leathers durability. There have been a number of reports of the leather covering starting to peel off in sections, in some cases after a few weeks of owning the chair. This is something we have read about a few times, so clearly not an isolated incident. As far as we know Benchmaster use this particular covering on all their leather style recliners, so this it could affect all their chairs. Alternatively it could also be down to a faulty batch of the covering used only on this particular model. Either way would we strongly suggest you read some of the user reviews of this chair over on Amazon which talk about some of these issues, or do your own research before buying one. From what we have read, this Benchmaster ottoman and recliner should be avoided due to this particular problem.
Summary
So that is a look at some of the more popular models they sell. It seems to be a bit of a gamble to buy one of these models, so we would recommend you do a bit of research before buying one. From what we have seen there are quite a few other competitor models in a similar price range with better ratings, so those might be worth considering instead. All Benchmaster models carry a disappointing 1 year warranty, which is perhaps a very telling sign of the quality you will get from them.
