Chair Glides vs Castors: Which Should You Choose?

Every office chair base has five sockets, and you get to decide what lives in them: wheels that roll, or feet that don't. After nineteen years of selling both, here's how we'd choose.

Choose glides if…

Your chair keeps wandering off. On laminate or wood, castors roll whether you asked them to or not. Chrome steel glides (£17.99, set of five) turn a rolling chair into a planted one — you can still shuffle it deliberately, but it stays where you put it.

You use pedals. Sim racers and musicians know the misery of braking hard and rolling gently backwards. Glides fix it completely.

Your carpet is stretching. Castors knead carpet like a determined cat; over months it goes bumpy. Glides spread the load and stop the damage.

Choose castors if…

You genuinely move around. If your day involves swinging between two monitors and a filing cabinet, keep wheels — just fit ones suited to your floor. On timber or laminate that means soft PU castors (from £6.99): grippy, quiet, and kind to the finish.

You're on carpet with heavy use. For 24/7 operator chairs and heavier duty, 50mm chrome steel twin-wheel castors (£19.99) have polished metal housings built for constant rolling.

The bit nobody tells you

You don't have to commit forever. Both use the same universal 11mm push-fit stem, so swapping between wheels and feet takes five minutes and no tools. Some customers keep a set of each — castors for spring cleaning week, glides for the other fifty-one.

Quick answer

Hard floor + stay-put sitting = glides. Any floor + frequent rolling = castors matched to the surface. Unsure? Email a photo of your setup to info@chairoutlet.co.uk and we'll advise. Free UK mainland delivery either way.