Jarvis Standing L-Desk Review

[Editors’ Note – April 21, 2023 – MillerKnoll, the $3B parent company of Fully.com, officially shut the company down on April 20th, 2023, after an 18-year run. Indeed, Fully’s phone lines and chat function have already been disabled, and the only way to reach customer service for product support is via email. We first reported this on March 8th after being notified by a number of Fully’s suppliers that the company was discontinuing operations.

Founded by ergonomics industry pioneer David Kahl in 2006, the company – which was originally known as ErgoDepot before a rebranding a few years ago – was acquired by Knoll. Knoll itself was shortly thereafter acquired by Herman Miller. This cataclysmic event is the latest in an ongoing set of challenges the industry has endured since the pandemic.

As a consequence of the company being wound down, we have taken down the scores for all of the Fully products we’ve reviewed to 0.5-star (including the Jarvis Standing Desk, Jarvis Standing L-Desk, Fully Jarvis Reclaimed Wood Standing Desk, Fully Jarvis Albright Standing Desk, Fully Jarvis Evolve Standing Desk, Fully Remi Standing Desk, Fully Jarvis Whiteboard Adjustable-Height Conference Table, Fully Jarvis Bamboo Adjustable-Height Conference Table, Fully Jarvis Tabletops For Standing Desks, Jarvis Monitor Riser, Jarvis Bamboo Desk Drawer, Fully Jarvis Single Monitor Arm, Fully Jarvis Dual Monitor Arm, Fully Jax Single-Display Monitor Arm, Fully Floatdeck Balance Board, Fully Sidekick Mobile File Cabinet, Fully Cable Management Kit and Fully Cable Management Tray). Fully has sadly been added to the Office Fitness Industry Dead Pool.

Ostensibly, Fully’s, “most popular products,” i.e. those that they still have a lot of inventory remaining, are being offered through the Herman Miller and Design Within Reach websites. We checked these listings and they are at full list price, unlikely to be purchased by any savvy shoppers. The nearest alternatives to Fully products are going to be found at iMovR (American-made) and UpLiftDesk (similar Chinese-made products). For more details on the company’s closure, see our article on Is Fully.com Out Of Business?]

As part of our round-up of L-Shaped Standing Desk Reviews, here we review Fully’s three-legged variant of their popular Jarvis standing desk, the Jarvis L-Desk.

Fully used to make two different L-desk models—one with the lowest price point of any L-shaped sit-stand desk on the market ($1,145) using very inexpensive powder-coated desktops, which was recently discontinued—and this remaining desk that we review here, which utilizes slightly more expensive bamboo and high-pressure laminated (HPL) desktops.

(To learn everything you ever wanted to know about powder coat, 3D laminate, HPL, real wood and other materials and production processes that are commonly used in the industry check out our Ultimate Guide to Desktops for Standing Desks.)

Focused on One Competitor

The arch rival of TheHumanSolution, whose UpLift L-shaped desks we’ve also reviewed, Fully keeps its product pricing very closely in line with the lowest-cost offerings from its competitor. Fully does not, at least as of yet, offer its solid wood maple tops on their L-desk base.

While both Fully and UpLift utilize Chinese-made Jiecang bases (see our detailed lab review of the Jiecang base), Fully uses a slightly different version that features stability crossbars running between the legs. This is something we used to see on most sit-stand desks a decade ago but nowadays they’re more uncommon.

Disparagingly known as “shin crushers” in the industry, these low crossbars are usually a sign of insufficient stability in the linear actuators — the lifting columns — which is particularly curious in this case given that three-legged L-desks are inherently more stable than two-legged desks. That said, the Jiecang bases are not known for their stability, so this may just be a necessary enhancement, unsightly as it is for a modern-day electric standing desk.

Conventional sit-to-stand L-desks like those from Fully and UpLift already entail a pretty complex and time-consuming assembly process, so adding these crossbars doesn’t really help matters. (To learn about L-desks that can assemble in one-tenth the time check out our comprehensive L-Shaped Standing Desks Review.)

Low-cost Desktops

Fully uses their inexpensive “bamboo” tops to keep the entry price low on the Jarvis L-Desk. As we’ve written about extensively, bamboo desktops from China are an ecological scourge on the planet, and are prone to rapid degradation, despite being marketed as an ecological pick for consumers.

Bamboo is a grass that is converted to a wood panel product using a lot of chemicals and energy — not by any stretch a “real wood” product — among the many reasons we don’t recommend it for use on a standing desk. Too many users have complained about premature delamination and rejected warranty coverage. Despite this, some of the more aggressive online marketers continue to offer it because it allows them to advertise their desks at the lowest possible entry point prices. For more information on warranties, be sure to read our primer on How to Compare Warranties on Standing Desks. If you do pick bamboo and want an accessory that will match your desktop, be sure to check out the Jarvis Monitor Riser.

For $100 more, Fully will upgrade you to old-school HPL tops in maple, oak or walnut; or for $200 more you can get it in whimsically named “Spacestation Black.” It’s odd to us that there’d be a $100 cost difference in the favor of wood grains over black, but for whatever reason, this is how Fully prices the Jarvis L-desk. The only clue is that the black tops are not stocked on the shelf, they are made-to-order.

The main desktop for the Jarvis L-Desk can only be 30” deep and the extension desktop can only be 27” deep. Other vendors offer either 24” or 30” depth on the extension, to better fit many cubicle office sizes. This appears to be Fully’s move to limit the required inventory of extension tops but it may become an issue optimally fitting one of these desks in your space, so be sure to check your dimensions.

Shipping is included in these prices and the product ships immediately from inventory, with the exception of Spacestation Black, which requires 8-12 business days.

Limited sizes for Jarvis L-Desk

The most disappointing facet of the Jarvis L-shaped desk offering is that it only comes in a small number of size combinations. The bamboo version is available in the most sizes: 60×60, 72×60, 72×72, 81×60 and 81×72. For some reason, the Oak HPL tops come in only one size, 72×72. The other three colors come in just three sizes: 60×60, 72×60 and 72×72.

Compared to competitive offerings from UpLift and iMovR, who offer hundreds of size-color combos each, it seems like Fully’s limited selection is just there to make sure they check the box for offering three-legged L-desks. Unfortunately, with such limited options, it simply isn’t going to be a serious contender for many customers that will have very specific décor needs and space requirements.

Also, be sure to check out our review of Fully’s cable management kit to complete your workstation setup.

The Takeaway

The vast majority of online sellers of standing desks avoid getting into the L-desk game. Why? Simply the amount of inventory required to be carried in order to address the occasional customer’s specific needs is very costly. UpLift’s inventory commitment and size/color options on their low-cost models are similarly limited, but they do offer a dozen real-wood desk options that are naturally substantially pricier and take 6-12 weeks to ship. iMovR’s Lander L-desk comes in the greatest array of size and color options with a total of 22 Surf(x) 3D laminates and 640 total combinations, and these ship within one week of order.

As with UpLift’s desks, we encourage readers to understand the limitations of the Jiecang base when exploring either company’s L-desk offerings, since the reliability and performance of the lifting base are perhaps the most important elements of any standing desk consideration. In contrast, iMovR uses its state-of-the-art, American-made Lander desk base in its L-desk product line, with a matching warranty.

Learn about how Fully, UpLift and iMovR compare feature-for-feature in our L-Shaped Standing Desk Reviews round-up. If you’re looking to save money consider a less-expensive Corner Standing Desk.

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