Adjusting the Reclining Tension on a Lazyboy
One of the benefits of owning a Lazyboy recliner is the fact that it allows for tension adjustment. This means that you can customize the way it reclines to suit your needs perfectly. Lowering it results in you having to put less effort into handling the lever, which is a great thing if you don’t have much strength in your upper body. Increasing it, on the other hand, means that there will be no sudden movements and that reclining will be done in a slower and smoother manner. Regardless of what you would like to achieve, the following tips should prove useful.
Step 1
Adjusting the tension of the Lazyboy reclining mechanism involves tampering with one of the following two things: thumb wheels or wing nuts. You will have to push your chair forward to take a look underneath. You will find the mechanism either in the back or in the center of the recliner’s bottom part. But regardless of what you find there, the process of tension adjustment will be the same.
Step 2
Once you have located the thumb wheels or wing nuts, take a wrench and use it to make the adjustments. If you want the tension decreased, turn the wheels or nuts on both sides of the chair counter-clockwise. And if you want to increase it, simply do it in the opposite direction. Regardless of what you wish to achieve, it should be done by making only one quarter of a full turn at a time.
Step 3
This last part is very important. When tampering with the Lazyboy reclining mechanism, you should never loosen or tighten it all the way. The reason behind the rule of one quarter of a turn is the fact that doing anything more than that could damage the springs that are very important for maintaining the tension. As long as you don’t make that mistake, you will be able to repeat the process to do further adjustments without damaging the mechanism. And if the tension of your Lazyboy’s reclining mechanism is far from what you would like it to be, and if you believe one quarter of a turn won’t do much good, you can always make the necessary adjustments step by step.
Step 4
Once you have made the necessary adjustments, put the recliner back into the upright position and take a seat. Try lowering it to see whether you have loosened or tightened it enough. Take your time to decide, but if the tension is still not right, don’t hesitate to try adjusting it some more. Simply repeat the process, but make sure to turn the wheels or nuts only one quarter of a turn at a time.
Here’s a quick video showing you how to do it:
Spring Replacement / Buy New Tension Spring
If your tension spring no longer works and the tension has wore down then it’s time to buy a new one. Below, you can easily buy one from Amazon.
Your feet don’t touch the floor?
We published a dedicated article on how to solve this common issue. You can read it HERE.
Owning a Lazyboy recliner has plenty of benefits, and tension adjustment is among them. If you are not fully content with the way your chair reclines, you should definitely try customizing it. Since the process is so straightforward, it would be a shame not to go through with it and make relaxing in your recliner as enjoyable as possible.
My chair has LOST both the tensioner springs and wing nuts. WHERE can I obtain a new set for BOTH sides of my Lazy Boy older rocker recliner????
how can I replace or repair a broken spring on my la-z-boy recliner