Nothing beats a good Steelcase chair, and the Criterion is a comfy 8-hour workhorse built like a tank. Definitely a BIFL item.
If you can't find used in good shape locally for a reasonable price, give
Crandall Office Furniture a look. They re-manufacture Steelcase and Herman Miller chairs with a 12 year warranty at about 1/4 to 1/3rd the price, as well as sell repair parts to keep existing ones working. I've been using a Steelcase Criterion high back for more than a decade now (manufactured in the mid 1990's) that I picked up for $35, and about a year ago, the foam was so shot it was hard and lumpy, the piston was problematic, and one of the arm rests was broken.
With a little help from David there at Crandall (seriously, the dude's a mensch), we worked out a way to actually replace the foam pads (they usually only reupholster the good pads and pitch the worn ones - mounting base and all, as they themselves hadn't figured out a cost-effective foam replacement method for the Criterion yet) and reupholster, he sold me the parts to repair, and even posted a custom video for me to their Youtube channel on how to do a teardown on the Criterion (they had other teardowns). My total cost to restuff, reupholster, and repair the old Criterion and get it back up to snuff was just a touch over $110 and it's worked out well thus far. But if the DIY restuffing didn't work? I was prepared to shell out for complete replacement pads from them. (
Reupholstery saga here.)
Needless to say, I recommend these guys because if they'll take this sort of time and go the extra mile to help with a repair that they themselves only made about $50 and some shared knowledge on foam work, you know the type of business establishment and quality you're gonna get if you shell out the big bucks to get a refurb with the warranty.