Counterbalance / spring standing desks

Humanscale no longer lists the Float Table — its page now redirects to the general product list, and the counterbalance desks it sells are the smaller Float Mini and Float Gather — so this entry is a reference for anyone weighing a used one. The Float raises and lowers on an adjustable counterbalance: you dial the mechanism to the weight sitting on the desk, then move twenty inches of height with one hand and no power. There is no crossbar, no control box and no motor, which makes it silent and immediate — no two-second wait, no hum on a call, nothing that stops working when the controller dies. It is a Humanscale product, so the detailing and the finish are a level above the mid-market, and it was priced accordingly, at around $1,635 when last listed. The trade-offs are specific. The counterbalance is tuned to a load, so adding a second monitor means re-tensioning it. The 130 lb capacity is low for a full-size desk. And 27 to 47 inches is a narrower window than most powered desks, suiting roughly 5 ft 7 in to 6 ft 3 in by the elbow-height rule.

Best for: Weighing a used Float Table against the desks still on sale, or anyone who wants a desk with no motor at all.

Ergotron's Constant Force mechanism is a coiled spring tuned to the weight on the surface, so the desk rises and falls with one hand at whatever speed you move it, with no motor, no controller and no power lead. Set it up anywhere — a warehouse, a classroom, a room with no free outlet — and it never needs a firmware update or a replacement control box. For the twenty inches between 30.6 and 50.6 that is a genuinely excellent mechanism. The problem is where those twenty inches sit. A 30.6-inch minimum is above the height of an ordinary fixed desk, so by the seated-elbow rule this desk does not lower far enough for anyone under about 6 ft 4 in to sit at comfortably. Treat it as a standing desk that can drop to perching height, not as a sit-stand desk, and it makes sense. Expect it to fail you if you bought it to fix a too-high desk.

Best for: A standing-first workstation, or anywhere mains power and control boxes are a nuisance.