The gas cylinder has failed after just 6 months of use. It slowly lowers as you sit down. It states I have a 5 year warranty, but I can not fine any information on how to claim my warranty. So, it failed, and the warranty is a fraud. What a waste, amazon should not allow people to list item without a decent contact trail for warranty claims.

* * * UPDATE 2 * * *
The replacement unit has now failed after 6 months of use (my chair is slowly sinking again). I contacted KATU and they immediately shipped out another replacement unit, which was easy to install and now works fine. It would be nice if the product wouldn't fail so often, but KATU has been very responsive and stands behind their warranty.

* * * UPDATE * * *
I submitted an RMA request for a replacement to KATU and they immediately sent me a new cylinder with no questions asked. Hopefully this unit will outlast the previous one, and KATU definitely stood behind their product and warranty. Based on this experience I have changed my rating from 2 stars to 4.

* * * ORIGINAL REVIEW * * *
I ordered and received a KATU BW-120 chair gas lift cylinder in FEB-2016 and installed it one month later. The installation process was fairly straightforward, and the product initially worked great and properly maintained the height of my chair. However, after 9 months my chair would slowly start to sink, and now after 10 months the lift no longer maintains my chair height.

I am hoping I received a faulty unit and that KATU will stand behind their stated 5 year warranty.

I bought thi9s on July 30 2016. It was NOT EASY to knock out the old cylinder at all. There are videos on YouTube that show different ways of doing this. I was finally able to get the old one out. The new one went in without any issue. and it worked Great ! I loved it and was worth saving $200-300 from having to buy a new chair. However. here it is mid December 2016. About a month ago the cylinder started doing the same thing - losing the support and eventually leaking out and the chair is at it's lowest level. For a fewe weeks I was able to0 raise it and it would stay for a day or two. but now I have to raise it back every 15-30 mins. I use this chair for work. So that is annoying having to do this all day long, and sitting at the lowest level does a number on my bad knee. This was rated for 350 lbs , aI am 320 lb. should have been able to handle it. It did not. 5 year warranty ? How does one get that ?

This is an EXCELLENT PRODUCT and way cheaper than buying a new chair. However, I would like to warn you, and agree with Scott (below) that changing out this cylinder can be too overwhelming for a lot of people that are just expecting to slide or gently tap out the old cylinder and replace it with the new one. An 18" pipe wrench was needed to twist/separate the upper cylinder from the chair seat. Do NOT use a pipe wrench on the new cylinder! It would be beneficial if there were two people to do this project. I then placed the chair legs/casters upside down over the hole of a cement block so the cylinder was down in the hole and the chair legs/casters were pointed up. This gave a really solid foundation to be able to remove the cylinder. I proceeded to use a fairly heavy hammer (not my carpenter hammer but one more like a small sledge hammer) to pound the cylinder out of it's hole in the bottom center of the chair legs/casters. I then inserted the upper (smaller, silver) end of the new cylinder into the bottom of the chair seat and had my wife guide the lower (larger, black) end into the hole in the legs/casters part (please place the casters on the floor before you place the cylinder into the hole -- don't laugh, there are many people that do not have much in the way of mechanical aptitude, and they need to know this). I then sat in the chair and adjusted the cylinder up and down a couple of times to make sure it was working, then adjusted it to the height I need to sit comfortably. My chair has worked like a new one for the past 2-3 weeks and I am pretty sure it will continue. By the way, this is a dirty little project (really -- read greasy) so I wouldn't tackle this project with your best clothes on. If you do, at least wear a pair of coveralls (maybe you can get a pair of those paper ones that you could discard after the project was done) and the handy gloves that come with the new cylinder (the included gloves should be a warning about taking other precautions like covering the carpet in your office if that is where you are going to do this project, although I would suggest doing this outside or in the garage). My wife and I are happy about the outcome.

Yeah! Had the all-too-familiar sinking chair syndrome with my new Barcalounger. Bummer. Instead of going through their hideous warranty claim process (another sinking feeling), I purchased this cylinder based on the reviews of others. Went on YouTube to see how to remove the old cylinder; not bad with a hammer, monkey wrench and a little umph on my part. Stuck this one in the chair in minutes and I was back twirling, reclining with my feet on my desk and achieving new levels of executive chair happinessM You can be as lucky!

UPDATE. Cylinder was good but started losing pressure. Emailed the company and they replaced the cylinder with no questions asked quickly. Wonderful experience.