Stand Up Desk Store Dual Motor Standing Desk Review

Stand Up Desk Store makes a wide variety of ergonomic accessories, but here we’re reviewing the dual motor electric standing desk, available in both high-pressure laminate and solid wood tops (Check out our Stand Up Desk Store Reviews Roundup for more information about the company). This product comes in very limited size and decor options compared to much more popular desks like iMovR’s and UpLift’s that offer hundreds or thousands of combinations. Stand Up Desk Store is a “low-SKU” (Stock Keeping Units) reseller that brings Chinese commodity products into the US in bulk, so they’re unable to match the configurability of other products.

They offer only two sizes, 60” and 72” and only six colors on a black base and two desktop colors on a white base for the high-pressure laminate desktops. There are four different types of solid wood available: Birch, Walnut, Douglas Fir and Bamboo. Solid wood tops are available on black and white bases.

Starting With The Base

The Stand Up Desk Store Dual Motor desk uses a TiMotion dual-stage (3-segment leg) base for this desk. This base is heavy and stable, not skimping as much on costly steel as we see with so many commodity-quality bases produced in China these days.

This base is acceptable, but nothing more. Its transit speed of 1.2 inches per second is slow and its 220-lb weight capacity is low considering the low transit speed (one way to get a higher lift capacity is to slow the transit speed and use a shallow thread on the linear actuator spindles, so to see both specs on the low end indicates a relatively low-power motor). Most quality standing desks these days have a transit speed of 1.5 or 1.6 inches per second. The desk also has an anti-collision mechanism but no tilt-over detection.

The height adjustment range is 26” to 51.6”. This is a very good height range and even makes the desk an option for treadmill desk workstations as long as the stability holds up when elevated. While not technically in the ANSI/BIFMA G1-2013 Ergonomic Guidelines range it is biased to taller users, which we think is always better than the antiquated gold standard.

The handset offers two customizable height presets as well as a home position that goes to a factory pre-set and non-changeable 28.3” that Stand Up Desk Store says is the “standard ergonomic setting for the majority of users” (close enough, anyway). Two memory positions is perfect for storing your “sit” and “stand” height presets, but we’re a little confused about the rationale behind having a home button with its non-changeable height.

One aspect that’s disappointing is the lack of Bluetooth connectivity and an app. That means you’re buying dated technology. There’s no built-in health coach and there are no notifications reminding you to stand at scheduled intervals. So we’re talking about a pretty standard product as a few years ago, but not something on the cutting edge like most standing desk manufacturers are trying to put out these days to remain competitive on features.

How Solid is the Solid Wood?

Solid wood standing desktops are made by edge-gluing planks of real wood together. These planks are usually 4” to 6” wide and, as a general rule, more expensive tops will be made from a smaller number of wider planks and less expensive tops will be made from a greater number of narrower planks. See our primer on Solid Wood Desktops for more information.

Stand Up Desk Store carries that rule to the extreme when it comes to the Walnut and Birch tops. These two tops are technically solid wood, but the pieces are so narrow (1.75”-wide) that it looks more like a butcher block than a classic solid wood desktop. Other than not looking as nice, this results in many more seams and more glue. More glue means more spots for moisture to attack, more opportunities for warping and cracking down the line.

The bottom of the desktop will be especially vulnerable since Stand Up Desk Store notes that the bottom will not be finished at the same level as the top and may have variations and light scratches. We also worry a little about heavy monitors on edge-clamp monitor arms creating enough leverage as to snap off the rearmost slat of the desktop.

And don’t be confused by the label, this “birch” is a very different product from the beautiful birch plywood desktops that are gaining popularity and that we cover in our birch standing desk roundup. The birch plywood desktops, like the iMovR Captain’s Desk and Floyd Standing Desk, use a “face sheet” for the entire desktop and have Scandinavian style edging. They will have a completely different look than the Stand Up Desk Store birch desktop.

As for the Reclaimed Douglas Fir desktop, those planks are a more typical width at 5”. This means it looks more like a traditional solid wood top than the Walnut and Birch. The issue is with the material. Reclaimed wood is popular right now and as we explain further in our comprehensive primer on Reclaimed Wood Standing Desks, there’s a huge difference between authentic reclaimed wood that comes from 100+ year old, old growth timber and this much more expensive, and “reclaimed wood” that’s just an excuse to sell very inexpensive factory and forest scraps as desktops. Considering the price range, this Stand Up Desk Store top is in all probability the latter.

The Douglas Fir is also a much softer wood than Walnut and Birch so don’t expect it to resist indentations as well. Ironically it is their most expensive offering among the solid wood desktops.

Stand Up Desk Store also calls Bamboo a solid wood option, but that’s a speciously false claim. Bamboo is grass engineered into lumber. See our primer on bamboo desktops for the straight skinny on this all-too-common marketing falsehood.

Solid wood desktops are already more susceptible to temperature and humidity variations, scratches and dings, but these desktops will likely suffer from those faults to a greater degree because of the quality of construction and lack of finish on the bottom of the desktop. Warping and cracking will be a huge risk with these desktops since they are not nearly to the same level of craftsmanship and finish quality as those offered by competitors. While cheaper than the competitors’ domestic solid wood offerings you do get what you pay for in terms of durability, finish quality and overall value.

Assembly

Stand Up Desk Store has a video touting the three-minute assembly of this desk. This is the same tired setup we’ve seen before from UpLift and others, where the parts and hardware are taken out of the packing and set exactly in place, with all the proper tools near at hand. The employee doesn’t refer to the assembly instructions a single time. The employee uses a cordless drill, which not all users will have access to. Add video editing magic and a rapid beat sound track to make the assembly process seem downright trivial.

Even with this ideal setup, the employee in the video will be in for a nasty surprise when she goes to flip the desk over because she doesn’t actually attach the frame to the desktop. And this is a big deal, especially for their solid and reclaimed wood desktops.

In a note at the bottom of the Specs tab on the product page, SUDS clarifies that solid wood and reclaimed wood desktop do not come with pre-drilled holes. This means you’ll have to pre-drill 14 holes (12 for the frame and 2 for the handset) in your nice new desktop. You’ll need to be very careful with this step. It is painfully easy to install a screw all the way through your desktop and ruin it. It is very important to measure your desktop thickness and pick screws of an appropriate length, ideally 1/4″ less than the desktop thickness. To make absolutely sure you don’t destroy your desktop consider investing a few dollars in a drill bit with a depth-setting collar.

SUDS indicates the edge of the side brackets needs to be 3” from the edges of the desktop. Remember that the frame won’t be light, so it will be slightly cumbersome to maneuver around and get both of the side brackets in the correct spot. Then mark your holes. Then remove the frame from the desktop and predrill the holes (skip pre-drilling and you risk splitting the wood). Then lift the frame back into place and screw it in. It will be difficult to attach the base exactly parallel to the edges of the desktop.

Other than pre-drilling for solid and reclaimed wood desktops, this installation seems about average for commodity-quality standing desks. The main point to take away is that you shouldn’t be fooled by the three-minute claim in the video or the 15-minute claim on the product page. Purchased with one of these solid-wood tops this desk is technically not in the category of rapid-install standing desks, as it will likely take you more than the 20 minutes threshold to quality for this classification.

Because the desk’s legs come already attached to the crossbars it’s partially pre-assembled and should be an easy installation for the high-pressure laminate desktops that are pre-drilled.

ANSI/BIFMA

Stand Up Desk Store is a little vague when it comes to ANSI/BIFMA certification, saying the desk is “BIFMA tested” on its website with no mention of the results and then “BIFMA certified” on the Amazon listing. When we requested a copy of the test results, we got a report with redacted names and no indication of which manufacturer it was for. Stand Up Desk Store responded by saying “We have privacy agreements set in place with our factories which is why that has to be omitted from the document.”

The photo in the report looks to have a desktop that Stand Up Desk Store doesn’t offer and since an X5.5-2014 test must be conducted on the same configuration that is sold, this desk doesn’t actually appear to be legitimately X5.5-2014 certified like premium standing desk models are. Furthermore the desktop used in the provided report was significantly smaller and thus more inherently stable, so this marketing claim is, again, quite specious.

Warranty and shipping

Stand Up Desk Store offers a 5-year warranty on the desk components and desktop. That might provide some peace of mind, but don’t forget that 5 years is very minimal in today’s marketplace when companies like Fully, UpLift and iMovrR are offer warranties up to 15 years. Read more about How to Compare Warranties on Standing Desks.

It is also unclear whether the warranty covers the desktop as it has a pretty broad carve-out for “normal wear and tear.” This is particular concern for the solid wood desktops, which is far more prone to warping and cracking when not properly glued and sealed against moisture, or if the mounting holes in the frame do not have proper tolerances to cope with the constant expansion and contraction of the wood as temperature and humidity vary.

Note that while it’s often safer from a consumer standpoint to buy a desk product through Amazon Prime so you can return it easily if it turns out to be a cheesy product, Stand Up Desk Store products are “Seller fulfilled” and returns involve a $199 return shipping fee and other potential restocking fees, with only 30 days to assemble, evaluate and return the product. Better brands will give you a less rushed timeframe to evaluate something as expensive as a standing desk (e.g. iMovR gives a 100 day trial period on all their desks) or memory foam mattress (e.g. Purple offers a 100-night guarantee) these days.

Takeaway

The Stand Up Desk Store Dual Motor Standing Desk has a decent frame with great height adjustability and offers solid wood at a price point you don’t normally see. A 30″x60″ Walnut top is $899, as compared to $1,489 for the UpLift V2, $1,444 for the Fully Jarvis and $1,860 for the iMovR Lander Lite in comparable sizes with Walnut solid wood tops.

The issue is quality. You truly get what you pay for when it comes to solid wood tops and there’s a reason the Stand Up Desk Store version is so much cheaper than the rest. The desktops use small pieces of wood, which means more seams, which means more glue, which means more risk of cracking and warping. The desktop is also unfinished on the bottom, adding even more risk. While these desktops are all labeled as solid Walnut, they’re not in the same category of quality. With the flimsy warranty we would be concerned about getting stuck replacing a costly desktop down the road.

Similarly, the assembly looks much better at first glance than after a closer look. Because the legs are attached to the crossbars, this is a fairly easy assembly process for the laminate desktops that are pre-drilled. But not having the solid wood desktops pre-drilled (and not showing that step of the assembly in the video) changes the entire dynamic. Now the user must tackle the most difficult part of assembly.

The desk also comes with a short warranty, has no Bluetooth connectivity, suffers from vague marketing materials and is available in only very limited sizes and colors.

While this is an interesting option, ultimately we’d recommend similarly-priced competitors like the UpLift V2, iMovR Energzie or Fully Jarvis over the laminate desk because of their superior warranties, specs and quality. If you’re interested in solid wood, we’d again recommend a higher-end desk because the Stand Up Desk Store version is not likely to last very long.

Read our full roundup of Stand Up Desk Store products and reviews.

Be sure to subscribe to our free newsletter for the latest reviews and tips.

Frequently Bought With Standing Desks