Sunday, November 2, 2008

Recliner Review: Sanyo HEC-DR-6700 Massage Chair

By James Knolan

This is a review of a Sanyo massage chair. The model DR-6700K is one of the top massage recliners produced by Sanyo. We will walk through an evaluation of 5 separate categories and provide a score out of a possible 20 points each. A total rating is given by adding up the scores. This provides a basis of comparison for the other massage loungers that we have reviewed. Let us see how the HEC-DR6700K massage recliner stacks up to the competition.

Warranty & Customer Service: You want to make sure that you get sufficient warranty protection with your massage chair. These are complex machines and you want to be protected down the road. So what type of warranty do you get with the DR6700K? This recliner comes with 3 years on the roller mechanism. You also get 1 year of parts and also 1 year of labor. In home technician repair service is also provided for the first year free of charge. This is a pretty good warranty of this level of massage chair. Sanyo has now established a national call center for warranty issue and provides good service. We rate the warranty and customer service an 18.

Comfort & Ergonomics: One of the key elements in design today is the discipline of ergonomics. Ergonomics is the study of how the human body moves. Sanyo has built a fairly well designed chair from an ergonomic standpoint. All is within easy reach. Additionally, the DR6700 is form fitting to the body. The back pad and seat are comfortable to sit in when the chair is not running. Sanyo has done a pretty solid job and we give it an 18.

Ease of Use: One concern we have with the massage chairs is that the dramatic increase in functions could cause the chair to be difficult to use. The manufacturer must innovate with new features, but balance it with a simple and easy to use chair. We like the use of one touch buttons for the automatic programs. When selecting the manual techniques, there are more things to remember to get the chair to do what you want. We do like the layout of the control and the use of LED to show incremental settings. We give it a 17.

Key Features: There are many interesting features in the DR6700 massage recliner. The two that stand out the most are the Grip massage technique and the physical shape sensor. The Grip massage is a manual massage technique included in the 6700. The Grip makes use of the specialized GK rollers used by Sanyo. The Grip massage can come over the shoulders and provide a gripping action to soothe the tops of the shoulders. The physical shape sensor detects if your body shifts in the chair. When a shift is detected, it adjusts the massage to better target your body in its new position. Talk about massaging a moving target! We give the DR-6700 an 18 in this category.

Massage Therapy: You get a choice of 9 massage treatments in the HEC-DR6700. Choose from the five manual massage techniques. These manual techniques include Kneading, Tapping, Kneading/Tapping Combo, Shiatsu and Grip. After selecting the manual massage technique, you can select an area of focus. There are 4 back massage courses that target different areas of your back. You can also run the entire chair with the one-touch automatic programs. The four automatic programs have a particular theme and they range from Fine, Stiffness, Recovery and Relax. The Sanyo 6700 massage chair does a fantastic job and gets a 19 for massage therapy.

We rate this massage chair recliner 90 points out of 100. Sanyo has integrated some unique electronic functions into the DR-6700. The physical shape sensor and the stiffness detector are unique to Sanyo. We are somewhat concerned with the warranty coverage only having 1 year parts and labor for a high end massage chair. The massage therapy programs are well designed and effective. This is a very good massage chair and the DR6700 should be one for you to check into further. - 16004

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