For several years the church worship seating market was dominated by a number of manufacturers who offered similar lines of chairs. While there were significant differences in styling, fabric choices, and the number of options each manufacturer offered, overall the commonalities of church chairs outweighed the variances.
A few years ago a major development took place when the imported Hercules Brand of worship chairs began hitting the American market through Bizchair. And since that time, other dealers have begun to carry the Hercules line-up as the importer broadened their distribution system. We at Church Furniture Partner are within that system.
We’re often asked for our overall assessment of the Hercules Worship Chair by churches since we carry Hercules along with several other worship seating lines. While the following list of pros and cons is not intended to be exhaustive, it does highlight our primary experience. We encourage you to consider each of the issues raised below.
- Price: The value-level Hercules Worship Chair is generally a few dollars less than the value-level chair models available from other manufacturers. So we give the advantage on price to the Hercules Chair.
- Assembly: The Hercules Worship Chair requires some assembly of the chairs by the church. Basically the backs of the chairs have to be attached to the seats of the chairs through a series of screws. One of our staff has visited the distribution warehouse where the Hercules Worship Chair ships from and there first-hand observed a great amount of skids of Hercules Seats and Hercules Backs. Church Furniture Partner awards the advantage on assembly where no assembly is required so Hercules does not win this one.
- Shipping Costs: Because the Hercules Worship Chair is not fully assembled, it can ship more compactly thus lowering shipping costs to a degree. Overall we give the advantage on shipping costs to Hercules.
- Warranty: Most church chair manufacturers offer a 25 year to lifetime warranty on the structural (frame) elements of their worship chairs. Hercules does this as well. However, separate warranties are in place for the foam in each chair and the fabric for each chair. Our own experience is that the warranties in these areas are much longer from most manufacturers than on the Hercules Chair. We give the advantage on warranty to other manufacturers.
- Comfort: The Hercules Worship Chair is 18.5″ wide. Most worship chair manufacturers offer a 20″ wide chair as their entry-level chair. 20″ is considered the standard width for reasonable worship chair comfort. We give the advantage on comfort to other manufacturers.
- Ganging: Worship Chairs need to connect together and the term for that function is “ganging”. Ganging is a standard feature on almost all worship chairs including the Hercules Chair. However, we find the ganging device on other manufacturers to be superior and more substantive than the one on the Hercules Chair. We give the advantage here to other manufacturers.
Church Furniture Partner can supply your church with numerous models of chairs from various manufacturers including Hercules. If price is your prime consideration, then the Hercules Church Chair is hard to beat. If other factors carry equal weight to price, then considering other chair options is a reasonable course of action for your church. Please know though that Church Furniture Partner will provide you the lowest price on each, including Hercules Chairs.
We are ready to help you find the right chair for your church at a price you can afford.
Comments
I am a competitor of yours so I did not leave my website information because that would be unethical. I just wanted to say that I carry the Hercules brand also and I have not had any complaints at all. Most people are trying to save money and if they have to assemble the backs on the chairs to save them $1500 then they will. There are other companies that do not carry this brand and have been bashing the brand and making false accusations against it. That is sad because we are in an industry that should put morals before marketing techniques. Thanks for the honest review of the chair.
I really appreciate your comment Emmett. We do try to be very fair with our church furnishing reviews. That was certainly the case with this one on Hercules Chairs. Thanks for your affirmation!
The quality and price of the products BIZCHAIR sells seems to be decent. But they are not well known for good customer service and I personally am still going through trying to get my money refunded for a chair that was “lost in shipping”. I hate to be off topic here but my experience with this company has been a nightmare.
Brian, I hope your issue gets resolved soon. Thanks for commenting!
Hey Cory,
Also a competitor of yours, yes they are total junk. I did a test of the Hercules chair and when we opened it up (ripped the polyester fabric to see the wood backing) we found cement, yes cement in holes within the wood. Total garbage those chairs are.
Here’s some of the photos of the Hercules sample we ordered from them recently from our blog post:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-BRFXiQW3WOw/TxMANNx0ucI/AAAAAAAAALw/h3u1Da9uz1I/s1600/Herculeschair1.JPG
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-oOKpKIua3_Y/TxMEWrR4d0I/AAAAAAAAAMI/C2XUNiEOf-s/s1600/Herculeschair4.JPG
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-IGAPJkxp_r8/TxMChVPFwqI/AAAAAAAAAL8/UMPuTfM1YRw/s1600/Herculeschair2.JPG
They hid this by stapling a “Made in China” label affixed with staples under the fabric. Chairs that we make and sell DON’T do this (along with other competitors- the main stream industry uses Plastic or OBS wood) and its the only chair on the market that’s extremely low end, even our other competitors won’t sell this chair because of liability purposes, sad that its giving us (other church chair manufacturers and wholesalers) a bad name.
Also we did a load test once we put the chair together, it held up 285lbs before one of the screw’s buckled. Just 285lb’s…. that’s horrible.
Most people will talk about something in a negative way as Emmett stated above, but we actually have torn the sample unit apart just as we do with everything we sell here so I’m not just stating it to bash their chair or to try and get sales.
We tell customers we would rather them buy something else, ANYTHING else than a Hercules chair, even if they don’t buy from us. We do not and will not carry that chair in our lineup.
Mag
Thank you for your honesty regarding Hercules chair. I am contemplating buying some church chairs and what I read from all of you and particularly the last comment is what I needed to hear. Thank you. God bless!
Looking for a price of the church chairs