How to Fix Office Chair Wheels that Keep Falling off?

No component in an office chair encounters more ruthless conditions than a wheel. Therefore, finding your office chair wheels keep falling off every now and then should not be surprising for you.

However, the good news here is that fixing it is not complicated at all. You just need to follow a few instructions to fade away the problem within minutes.

Before moving on to the solution, knowing the reason behind it will help you understand the scenario more easily, and react accordingly.

So let’s find it out first;

Why my Office Chair Wheels Keep Falling Off

Thinking you have been trapped and sold out an office chair with cheap and low-quality wheels is not always true. It happens to almost every second office chair for a number of reasons.

Here are a few;

Office chair wheels use a metal pin, inserted into a plastic socket to keep your wheel attached. Though, with the passage of time, the overall quality of the socket deteriorates, and start expanding. With an expansion of the socket, the metal pin is not able to fit in anymore.

The socket expansion does not always happen naturally, your wheel could have been hammered with something solid or you have inserted and removed the pin multiple times.

Another reason for your wheels to keep falling off could be your sliding habit. Imagine sliding the wheels all the time while burdening it with a lot of weight. It will surely lose the pin grip and cause your wheel to fall off. And on an uneven floor, you would have to face this situation more quickly and frequently.

Your chair might also go for repair and maintenance, where the person might have forgotten to put the pin or screw back to the wheel to tighten it. Now you are struggling to know, how to make it stay.

How to Fix Chair wheels that keep falling off

1. Tighten the Wheels Socket

The main culprit found, when discussing the reasons is the wheels socket. Before focusing on anything, you should fix the wheel socket mechanism and have the pin fit in tightly. It is the prime way to stop your office chair wheels from falling off.

If your socket has expanded, then you can use the paper to fit the pin to it. Cut a piece of paper, ad insert it into the socket, before the pin. You can decide on the thickness of your paper, as per the need of your wheel. Keep on adjusting the paper thickness until you find your pin righty tighten.

If not paper, you can also use rubber or duct tape for the same purpose. Along with that, you can also wrap the pin with duct tape, when inserting it in.

Now you have multiple ways, to tighten the pin into the socket, choosing any of them depends on your personal preference.

2. Use the Glue

You can also try using glue to stop the wheel from falling off. Grab the glue and apply it to your pin, and then fit it into the socket. It will make the pin stick inside, and stop your wheel falling off.

However, this method is only recommended if you have to stay with the same wheels and is not looking forward to replacing them any soon. Because after applying the glue, removing the wheels won’t be easy at all.

3. Replace Pin with the Shanked Bolt

Find out the shanked bolt, with the diameter equal to your wheels metal pin and length equal to the width of your wheels altogether. Get the drill, and make a hole on both of the casters, right at the center of them.

Pull out the Metal pin and make the shanked bolt go through the central hole from both of the wheels while reassembling the caster. Once done with that, now you only have to use the locking nut to your shanked bolt. It will tighten the wheels together and will stop your wheels from falling off.

The only point to be mindful of is to not assemble the wheels so tightly that they won’t be able to rotate anymore.

4. Replace the Wheels

If you don’t want to get into the headache of fixing the wheels by yourself and are annoyed enough to not use them anymore. The simplest way to get rid of the situation is to take your chair to any hardware store and make them replaced with wheels of the same diameter.

It may cost you a bit more than other fixing methods but can give you more sense of safety while rolling around on your chair.

Final Thoughts

Having a chair with wheels that keep falling off or even just loosened is not safe at all, it can also make you fall off and cause harm while rolling around. You should fix them as soon as you find them losing their grip and starting falling off.

The best thing is that fixing it does not need any technical skill, grabbing only a piece of duct tape, glue or a shanked bolt and following our instructions can help you get it done instantly. So what are you waiting for? Go and get it fixed to avoid any unwanted situation to happen in future.