The moving mechanism of a reclining sofa is the main thing to watch out for if your going to buy it second hand. It is, for obvious reasons, one of the most common things to go bad on a reclining sofa. If you keep in mind the the few tips contained here, you can make sure that when you do buy a sofa you will get one with many good years of use left in it.

The things to check for are uneven or ragged movement, sit on the chair and recline out to its most prone position, then relax. You should be able to easily and comfortably hold the chair in that position. Sometimes old reclining sofas become very difficult to hold in a nice reclined position and its difficult to relax if your chair is putting up a fight.

The next thing to watch out for is how hard it is to get back in. It should take a bit of effort, but not like your using some hardcore gym equipment.

Another thing with the moving mechanism is to have a look inside at the joints. If there is signs of excessive rust, or bending, it might be a good idea to avoid that particular chair.

One last thing you should check is how stable the chair is on its base. Due to how they are built reclining sofas put a lot more stress into the base than regular chairs. Give it a wobble with no one sitting in it to make sure it is nice and stable, as if it is wobbly it could indicate some problems with the base that could become exaggerated by frequent use.

Follow this link for more things to look out for when buying a reclining sofa