HELP! Hydraulic Salon chair

First it would help if we had make and model. Have you look at the lowering arm and it's linkage? Most are displacement cylinders. Small pump hand or foot forces the fluid into the cylinder. Which displaces the rod forcing it up. Valve to lower lets the fluid return to the reservoir. Weight of the chair forcing the fluid back out.

Is it possible that this chair has a spring to raise to the top with zero pressure? and as you pump in fluid you pump it down?

Beats me.

However, if you put 400 pounds on it and press the pedal it might descend and show that 400 pounds is above the max.

In any event, "Barber Chairs" +"hydraulic design" in google, produces this, which seems to be fertile ground to click in.

http://www.google.ca/#hl=en&source=hp&q=%22Barber+Chairs%22+%2B%22hydraulic+design%22&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=%22Barber+Chairs%22+%2B%22hydraulic+design%22&gs_rfai=&fp=2b406e32072a7025

It is far more likely that the default position is at the bottom rather than the top when the hydraulic pressure is released. This is the way all hydraulic garage lifts work and it saves putting in an unnecessary spring. If the opening valve appears to function correctly then the possibility I suggest is that the chair has been pushed up beyond an end stop, and has consequently jammed slightly out of line. This could only be remedied by a controlled in-line force.

A 400 lb. person could fit into that chair, do you think?

h

sorry i m late. I have a very old barber chair. when we moved, i pulled it apart so easier to move. I could not get the chair to go down and it remained at its highest hydraulic level. it stayed liked this for a few months. I finally got my son and his friends to give me a hand and lift it out and i found a "pin" on a hinge, which looked lie a motor mount key and had gone into lock position. don't force it down.

i had to lift out [i don't know if this is possible with your brand] and push pin out and downwards for the chair to go down again. took 5 seconds after the chair was lifted out.

maybe contact a barber supply house. i 'm sure they have to take these apart for shipping repair.

good luck.

next suggestion. the chair post may no longer be aligned with the hydraulic hole. trying slowly rotating chair with helpers holding some weight up for the hydraulic is no longer supporting chair. just in case it wants to drop hard.

to previous reply of mine, if my son and his friends were here, I would lift and photograph the locking pin on chair if i could.