Changteng CTHT3-F4200 standing desk review

Last year, I purchased my first standing desk, the Zen One and commented it was a tad high even at its lowest setting. I wanted ~68 cm, but was forced to go 73 cm - which required using a foot rest to elevate my chair. It’s been annoying me all this time, especially as I didn’t expect to still be working from home 4 days/week (for which I am thankful). So I jumped at the opportunity to upgrade at an affordable price.

For the uninitiated, the standing desk market is broadly segmented into 2 groups:

• Entry level, 2 stage desks with 1 motor with a minimum height of 70 cm (+ tabletop). This means there are 2 telescoping segments (which affects height range and stability), and a lower lifting capacity (~80 kg).
• High end, 3 stage desk with 2 motors with a minimum height of 60 cm. (I find 65 cm comfortable.) The max height is similar to the entry level, but more stable, and lifts more (~140 kg). There’s usually a longer warranty too.

Zen Space Desks, the retailer of my Zen One sells a high end standing desk frame for $749 AUD (really $649 after their discounts), which is a hefty ~$300 premium over the entry level model.

I found a similarly spec’d frame on eBay for $325 AUD from seller amazingooh, which is really Changteng Intelligent’s CTHT3-F4200. (It looks marginally different on the website, but the product code in the packaging checks out.)

Notice the three stage legs which allow for a lower minimum height and increased stability.

Here are some thoughts, in roughly ascending order of importance:

• The assembly took longer than the Zen One because 2 heavy motors made it even more unwieldy.
• The manual wasn’t as clear as I’d have liked it in terms of labelling the screws and direction of parts - so I ended up making some mistakes and having to backtrack.
• White was out of stock, so I had to settle for grey. I figured that the price was likely to increase in the future given how competitively priced the standing desk frame was. Now that I know what the product is, I’ve been able to find it on Alibaba, and the wholesale pricing is $215 AUD for 1-29 units (obviously there’s overheads like shipping to Australia, GST etc. that prohibit a direct price comparison).
• The dual motors are quieter than my single motor Zen One.
• I reused my Ikea Linnmon tabletop, which required drilling holes - it wasn’t that hard, but it was obviously more inconvenient (and nervewracking because there’s more room for error).
• The desk doesn’t come with its own cable management solution, so I’m using IKEA’s SIGNUM cable trunk again. I would have liked support for something like Zen Space Desk’s integrated cable management channel which is a lot neater, though it depends on 4 holes being drilled into the frame - which mine doesn’t have. Oh well (probably wouldn’t have paid $50 for the cable management channel anyway).
• While I was setting up, I wasn’t able to adjust the height by more than 3 cm without triggering the anti-collision system which would send it 5 cm in the opposite direction (net 2 cm). There’s a warning in the manual that the power box must be fixed horizontally to avoid this, but even laying it flat on the frame or on the ground didn’t fix it, so I thought I might have a lemon. The seller on eBay reassured me screwing it to the tabletop would resolve the issue, and to my confusion and delight, he was right.
• The warranty is only for a year on eBay, but I presume Australian Consumer Law would cover it a while longer. Additionally, the manufacturer offers a 2 year warranty on the electronics and 5 year warranty on the frame on Alibaba.
• The controller has 4 memory settings, which is pretty standard. The display goes into a sleep mode after some time, which is fine (even appreciated so the light is off as I sleep). When the controller is in sleep mode, pressing a memory button wakes the display, but doesn’t activate the height adjustment, requiring another press - which is annoying.

I’ve only had the CTHT3-F4200 for a day, but I’m pretty happy with it so far, and I’d strongly recommend it over getting an entry level, 2 stage desk.