It started three months ago.
A small movement under your left elbow. Nothing dramatic, just a shift when you lean on it. Then it got a click. Now you notice it every time you sit down, and you have started using the other arm instead.
Armrests are the first part of a gaming chair to develop play, and they are also the part people most often replace a whole chair over. Sometimes that's the right call. Often a screwdriver fixes it in four minutes.
The trick is working out which of the three places the movement is coming from, because each one has a different answer. Here is how we diagnose it before we talk to anyone about a new ergonomic gaming chair.
Some Movement Is Meant to Be There
Before you diagnose anything, know what normal feels like. A multi directional armrest is not a solid block. It's a pad sitting on a slide, mounted on a column, bolted to the seat frame.
Every joint in that stack needs clearance to move. On a 4D or 6D armrest you will feel one or two millimetres of play at the pad when you rock it side to side. That's the slide tolerance, and a pad with zero movement would seize the first time dust got into it.
Four things are not normal. Movement you can see. Movement that grows month to month. A click under load. An armrest sitting at a different angle to the one on the other side.
Compare left to right before you do anything else. Chairs wear unevenly because most people lean on one side, and the good arm tells you what the bad one should feel like.
The Three Point Test
Two minutes, no tools. You are finding out which joint has the play, not fixing it yet.
|
Where you push |
What you are testing |
What a fail means |
|---|---|---|
|
The pad, rocked side to side |
The slide and pivot tolerance |
More than 2 mm, or a gritty feel, means a worn slide track |
|
The pad, pressed straight down |
The height adjustment mechanism |
Sinking under weight means the height catch is not holding |
|
The column, gripped low and twisted |
The armrest post itself |
Movement here means the post is cracked or the internal bolt is loose |
|
The junction at the seat frame |
The mounting bolts |
Any movement here is loose or stripped mounting hardware |
Work from the bottom up when two of them fail. A loose mounting bolt makes everything above it feel loose, so fix the junction first and retest before you judge the slide.
What You Can Safely Tighten Yourself
Mounting bolts, and almost nothing else.
-
Tip the chair onto its side on a towel so the seat underside faces you.
-
Find the two or four bolts holding each armrest bracket to the seat frame.
-
Tighten them in a cross pattern, a quarter turn at a time, alternating between bolts rather than driving one home first.
-
Stop the moment a bolt firms up. Firm is the target, not tight.
-
Sit back in the chair and repeat the three point test.
That sequence fixes most wobbles, because bolts loosen through normal use and nobody ever checks them. Do it once a year and you will probably never read this article again.
What you shouldn't do is force a bolt that keeps turning without firming up. That's a stripped thread, and every extra turn makes it worse.
How to Tell a Thread Has Stripped
Three signs, and any one of them means stop.
The bolt spins freely and never reaches resistance. The thread in the frame has gone, so the bolt's got nothing left to grip.
The bolt firms up, then loosens again within a week. The thread is partly gone and the remaining material is shearing off each time you load it.
You can see bright metal shavings around the bolt head. That's the thread coming out in pieces.
A stripped mounting point isn't a home repair. Thread inserts exist, but fitting one into a seat frame under load is a job for a warranty claim rather than a weekend. If your chair is under three years old, that's what the warranty is for.
When a Worn Track Is the Problem
The slide track is the hardest failure to fix and the easiest to identify once you know the feel.
A good track moves the pad smoothly and stops it cleanly. A worn one lets the pad rock at the end of its travel, feels gritty through the middle, or drops through a position that used to hold.
Tightening does nothing here, because there's no fastener involved. The plastic guides inside the track have worn and the clearance has grown. On most chairs the track is part of the armrest assembly, which means the repair is a replacement arm rather than an adjustment.
Our 3-year warranty names adjustable armrests directly, alongside the gas lift, the recline mechanism and the lumbar system. A worn track inside that period is a claim rather than a purchase. Call 1300 002 580 or email support@xallking.com.au with the model and the symptom before you buy anything.
The Height Catch, and Why It Sinks
A pad that drops under your elbow is a different failure to one that rocks, and people mix the two up constantly.
Height adjustment works through a spring loaded pin dropping into a set of notches inside the post. Press the button, the pin retracts, the pad slides, and releasing the button drops the pin into the nearest notch.
When that sinks under load, one of three things has happened. The pin has not seated fully, which you fix by lifting the pad slightly until it clicks home. The button is sticking, usually from dust, which a blast of compressed air often clears. Or the notch itself has worn round, and nothing fixes that.
Test it deliberately. Set the arm to a middle notch rather than the top or bottom one, then press down hard with your forearm. A pad that holds in the middle but sinks at the top has a worn top notch rather than a broken mechanism. Setting it one position lower buys you another year.
When the Wobble Means the Chair Is Done
Replacing a chair over one loose arm is usually a mistake. Replacing it over these isn't.
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The mounting point is stripped and the chair is out of warranty. The armrest won't hold again without frame work.
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The armrest post is cracked. Plastic cracks spread, and a post that fails under load drops your elbow without warning.
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Both arms have gone the same way at the same time. That points at the whole assembly reaching its life rather than one bad part.
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The wobble arrived alongside seat sink or a leaning backrest. Multiple mechanisms failing together is a chair telling you it's finished.
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Tightening holds for less than a fortnight. You are managing the problem rather than fixing it.
One loose arm on a two year old chair is a maintenance job. Three of the signs above at once is a replacement, and a sale is the sensible moment to do it.
Write down what you find before you call anyone. Which arm, which of the three points failed, how long it has been happening, and whether tightening held. Support teams can tell a slide track from a stripped thread from that description alone, and it turns a week of back and forth into one email.
What a Diagnosis Will Not Tell You
Hardware is all this test covers. Three things sit outside it.
If the whole chair rocks rather than just the armrest, you are looking at the base, the gas lift or the tilt mechanism instead, and that is a different check.
Leaning on one arm for months can leave you with shoulder or neck discomfort. A level pair of armrests set to your elbow height may reduce pressure and help you hold a more neutral position. None of which makes a chair a treatment, and we are not going to pretend it does. See a physiotherapist or your GP.
And if your chair is a budget model with riveted armrests rather than bolted ones, there's nothing to tighten. Rivets are a manufacturing shortcut that makes the arm unserviceable by design.
Keep the hex keys that came with the chair, too. Most people bin them with the carton, then discover two years later that armrest bolts take a size nobody owns.
Taking It to the Halloween Saleaid on a desk beside the instruction sheet, soft light, Canon 5D 35mm, no text, no branding.
Run the three point test first. If the mounting bolts are the problem, tighten them and keep the chair, and we'd rather you did that than spend money you don't need to. If the post is cracked or the thread is gone on an out of warranty chair, the Halloween Sale is a good moment to replace it.
Look for bolted armrest brackets rather than rivets when you shop, because that one detail decides whether the chair's still serviceable in year three. Every Xallking model uses bolted mountings, names adjustable armrests in the warranty, and ships free across Australia with 30-day returns.
Conclusion
People replace chairs over armrests more than over any other part, and most of those chairs had four loose bolts.
Push the pad. Push the column. Push the junction. Whichever one moves tells you the answer.
Twelve years of building gaming seating is why adjustable armrests sit in our warranty by name. An armrest is a moving part, and it ought to keep moving for years. If yours hasn't, check the bolts before you check the price.
Built for the long haul.
Sources Referenced
Xallking Australia, Product Warranty Policy: 3 year cover from date of purchase on manufacturing defects affecting seat structure and frame, backrest systems, adjustable armrests, lumbar support components, reclining and tilt mechanisms, gas lift systems, chair base and castors, and headrest systems. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
Xallking Australia, Commercial Use Warranty Policy: same 3 year component cover for approved commercial environments. Support on 1300 002 580 and support@xallking.com.au. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
Xallking Australia, X5S product page: 4D armrest with 8 cm vertical travel, 4 cm front to back and 70 degrees of rotation, linked recline. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
Xallking Australia, X5 Pro product page: 6D armrest with 6.5 cm vertical travel, 35 degrees of tilt, 5 cm front to back, 75 degrees of rotation and 8 cm of lateral movement, linked recline. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
Xallking Australia, X3 Pro product page: 6D armrest with 9 cm vertical travel, 3.5 cm front to back, 75 degrees of rotation and 8 cm lateral, linked recline. Retrieved 12 September 2026.
