To recline or not to recline, that is the question

February 7, 2023 2:26 PM

We have only ever had regular 3-seater couches and finally have the space for a 5-seater sectional. My spouse wants one that also reclines while I am fine with just a normal sectional. Help us decide?

I guess my only concerns with the reclining option is we have a small child at home, so toys are constantly rolling under the couch and he sticks his hand underneath to try to retrieve them. Even without using the reclining function, are there too many pokey bits underneath for little hands? Also, are reclining couches prone to the mechanism failing? I just feel like the more moving parts something has the more chance for something to go wrong. Anyway, if you have a reclining couch and like it or don't like it, I'd like to hear about it! This is the couch in question, if anyone cares.

posted by Forty-eight to Home & Garden (14 answers total)

hmmm...we bought a reclining couch 20 years ago. at first we used the recline function quite a bit but over time that...declined. that said, the mechanism (mechanical) never failed and we never poked our (big) hands looking for cat toys and lost lip balm.

in 2019 we replaced the old couch with a new recliner, which has separate controls for the lumbar, for the headrest etc., (and also USB charger ports on the side, which blew my mind). the couch requires a plug-in, the recline function is not mechanical, so who knows how close to 17 years it could possibly last?

we like, never use the recline function? (I use the charger daily) YMMV, IANYCS etc.,etc.,
I'm not sold on recliner couch, even after all these years.
posted by supermedusa at 2:34 PM on February 7, 2023

Had a recliner, it was super useful when someone got a broken rib and couldn't sleep on a bed. Other than that though we mostly didn't use it.
posted by corb at 2:44 PM on February 7, 2023

Cats + reclining sofa = danger, real bad danger. Kittens are even more at risk - they explore new and unpredictable places a lot, and they fit into smaller spaces.

So, ditto for ferrets and rabbits.

A hamster might avoid the hingey metal bits. Not sure about puppies or children with hands.

I'm accident prone and explor-y; if my parents could have afforded a La-Z-Boy I might have had an even harder time.
posted by amtho at 2:50 PM on February 7, 2023

I don't have a sectional (or kids or pets, so grain of salt there) but I do have a couch with built-in recliners and I use the reclining feature quite often. It's nice to be able to lean back when feeling lazy or when you want to relax, and it has an adjustable head-rest to make it easy to watch TV while reclined as well. It also means that the couch will support your neck and head without you having to slouch or do something janky with pillows against the wall, which is not something you can guarantee with sectionals in my experience, especially if they're going for a "modern" look--the high-backed ones tend to all look fairly traditional.

Whether or not it has reclining features, lacking a high back would be a dealbreaker for me; I could probably live without the reclining part, but a high back that is above head level is a must for me. If you're looking for an area of compromise with your spouse, that'd probably be something to bring up.
posted by Aleyn at 2:52 PM on February 7, 2023

We use our recliner couch constantly. I like having my feet up. If I can't have the recliner seat, I need to have feet up on the coffee table. It's just how my hip joints are.

I have several recliners in the house and no mechanism has ever failed. Recliner couches are however SIGNIFICANTLY heavier than regular ones, due to the amount of metal in there. FYI if moving the couch around is something you expect to do much of.
posted by fingersandtoes at 2:53 PM on February 7, 2023

We have a reclining loveseat and reclining couch. They both have two seats where you can have your feet up and we use them all the time. If reclining is how you like to relax then they are very comfortable. Mine are only 9 years old and all of the mechanical functions seem fine. We went with sofa and loveseat combo because we could get 4 places that recline rather than a sectional that would come with 2 reclining spots.

For cleaning and what not, yes debris does accumulate underneath but no more so than a normal sofa. Like once a month when we are vacuuming we flip the sofa forward so it’s resting on it’s front and clean underneath. Usually it’s cat treasures we find, like rubber bands and bottle caps.
posted by MadMadam at 3:30 PM on February 7, 2023

My proposal for our next couch is that we get a non-recliner with two nice ottomans, though we have not decided yet. We did have a cat who got inside our first couch because it was second or third hand and had lost some fabric along the bottom. One of us had to lift it while the other reached inside and, in that case, lighter is better for sure. But when the recliner is closed up, I don't think it is a danger to little hands. I do remember being rough on our grandparents' recliners as children, but that was when we were big enough to open and close them ourselves.
posted by soelo at 3:33 PM on February 7, 2023

We use the power recline feature on our couch all the time and love it, but at the same time are perpetually worried about the cats. When the footrests are up, there's not really anything exposed under the couch that's dangerous, it's just the possibility of lowering them when someone's under there. We're always asking each other if it's clear before sitting up. Our cats mostly don't go under there anyway, but a mistake would be horrifying.

We've had ours for five or six years now and everything still works fine (also, the USB ports in the side of the couch are super useful). I really like the ability to recline to different levels, and the fact that it doesn't require any strength to push the footrest down again (some manual ones seem really hard to use). The power stuff may go before the rest of the couch, but I think we've got our money's worth out of it. Is it worth the perpetual vigilance? Kind of, yeah.
posted by kite at 3:46 PM on February 7, 2023

We decided against reclining and just got a chaise lounge end piece to our sectional. Cheaper and nothing to break. (Also when we bought last year we were told anything powered had at least 8 month wait. Not sure if that supply chain issue still exists, but I’d ask.) We also just find it more comfy for having elevated feet and we had about 200 more options for upholstery patterns and colors.

But honestly go and sit in it and see. I do not like recliners. My father wouldn’t have anything else in his living room.
posted by Ookseer at 4:47 PM on February 7, 2023

I like my feet up while I'm on a couch, but recliners and reclining couches always seem to locate my hips below my feet, which is not super comfy for me. I'd much rather have a couch with ottomans or a L sectional to stretch out on. It's also apparently not awesome for your joints to be in a traditional recliner posture for long periods - it can cause decreased flexibility in your hips and back, making it uncomfortable to lay flat and can cause mobility issues.

But anyway, my aunts have a powered reclining sectional couch they love and their pets love and none of their many cats or pups have gotten squashed yet but they are super super careful to have every animal in sight before reclining. The underneath bits are not pokey, and can't be triggered manually.
posted by ananci at 6:57 PM on February 7, 2023

We got a reclining loveseat about 5 years ago and use the recliner feature often, though we always do a "cat check" before lowering it. If anything, the front of the recliner portion is closer to the ground than our "regular" sofa, so we don't tend to lose cat toys beneath it.

It came in extra-useful when I had surgery that required I sleep sitting up for a few weeks. I still find it's the most comfortable napping spot when I'm not feeling well.

My parents' Reagan-era reclining sectional is still going strong, and the mechanicals work fine despite a lifetime of hard service. Though they may not make them quite like they used to.
posted by writermcwriterson at 8:08 AM on February 8, 2023

We've had both reclining chairs and couches, and never had a problem mechanically, except that we had one where the "catch" (whatever the mechanism is that holds the recliner in a reclined position) would slip by a single notch now and then, never all the way down.

We never had any pets, but keep small children in sight. And don't ask my wife about the 13" iPad Pro that got caught in the wrong place at the wrong time (buy AppleCare, people. You won't regret it.)
posted by lhauser at 6:17 PM on February 8, 2023

We have a couch with 2 reclining sections, an electric reclining chair, and a manual reclining chair. We go slowly when the cats aren't visible elsewhere and haven't had a problem, but there's enough space under them for a cat to scramble out at haste if necessary.

We now have the electric recliner plugged into a spare UPS when I discovered that if the power went out when I was reclining, I could get out of it, but it was neither easy nor graceful.

While we didn't intend to end up with that many recliners, they've come in handy at times. Bad headaches at night that get more intense when I'm lying down? Recliner for sleep. I also get colds with bad coughing that closes my airways up in a scary manner when I lie flat, and the recliner was a godsend twice for that in the past five years.
posted by telophase at 6:41 PM on February 8, 2023

We used to have a couch with power recliners and, when we fully resolved our 'moving in together and amalgamating two full homes into one' process, ended up not keeping that. I love the couch we kept, but I do wish it had recliners. They're one of those things that you don't know to miss until you've had them. Our next couch will very definitely have recliners.

So, I guess you may not miss them if you don't go for recliners but, if you do, you'll never be able to buy a couch without them in the future.
posted by dg at 6:00 PM on February 9, 2023