Shopper’s Inquiry:
Dear Dr. Alan Weidner
Thank you for your information on your web site. It is really useful for a first time buyer. I am looking at buying a massage chair. The chair which I am most interested is the Osaki OS-4000 in terms of functional and price range. But I have a couple of questions on this brand and model.
1) How is the Osaki brand? Sounds like a Japanese name but not heard it a lot as the big name like “Panasonic” or… Looks it has good value. How is the overall quality of this brand and this OS-4000 model?
2) The Osaki OS-4000 looks very similar to the OSIM uAstro in Brookstone. I also heard that actually they are the exact same chair from the same China manufactory but just with different brand name or maybe control panel. Is that true? What is the real story behind?
Thanks a lot,
Tom
My Response:
Hi, Tom
Thanks for your inquiry. The Osaki OS-4000 is a very nice mid-price massage chair. To answer your questions, the Osaki company is an American company that imports chairs from a Chinese manufacturer white-labeled with their company name. These new “lower-priced” chairs from China, like Osaki and Infinity, provide a pretty good bang for the buck. Lots of features for a reasonable price. I would not say that these chairs are of the same quality level as Panasonic or certainly not Inada, but they are very popular and feature-rich.
Yes, most Chinese-made chairs are made in the same 3 major manufacturing plants, including the uAstro and Osaki, and have many of the same features, with minor tweaks from chair to chair. The thing that will differentiate one company from another isn’t so much the chair, aside from a few unique features in each chair, but the after-purchase support. I can tell you that Osaki gives good after-service support. You will have to check into Brookstone. I have heard that their support is not so great. But, I would recommend that you do your homework on that. Make sure that the chair you buy offers at least 1 year parts and labor in home warranty. That is pretty standard nowadays, but some still don’t offer that, i.e. they expect you to ship the chair back to them to get it fixed.
I hope this helps. Let me know if I can answer any more questions for you or assist you with your order.
Dr. Alan Weidner
www.massage-chair-relief.com