If you are a potential buyer of a massage chair, it may be helpful to find an unbiased review of a given massage recliner. Here are 5 important categories for evaluating the total massage chair experience. This system gives the same weight to each of the 5 categories and each category has from 0 to 20. A score of 100 points means that the president and the company have achieved total excellence. The 5 categories are warranty and customer service, comfort/ergonomics, ease of use, features, and massage therapy. The discipline of a systematic approach that provides balance helps those who are seriously considering a massage chair. The Panasonic Real Pro EP-3222 is the subject of this review. This deluxe shiatsu massage chair is in the $4,000 to $5,000 range.
Warranty and Customer Service: First is how the manufacturer rates on both warranty coverage and customer service. The manufacturer must stand behind their product. Panasonic offers 1 year of labor, 1 year of parts, and 1 year of on-site service, as well as 1 year of shipping. Panasonic puts a limit on the useful life of the machine of 1,000 hours of use. Panasonic offers a short warranty combined with the 1000 hour limit (for heavy users), the warranty rates are acceptable. Electronics companies like Panasonic (or Sanyo) like to sell extended warranties. Panasonic offers on-site service and will pay shipping for the first year. Customer service is through your dealer. Service times vary depending on the location of the service center. Panasonic’s overall warranty and customer service rating is 15.
Comfort and ergonomics: Massage recliners should fit the body and be comfortable to sit on. The Panasonic Real Pro Elite has soft padded armrests. The EP-3222 has a removable soft upholstered head pillow to support your head. In general, the chair is comfortable to sit on. One point of restriction is the footrest. The footrest remains at a fixed length and cannot be adjusted for taller people. If you are taller, you can raise the horizontal footrest and place your legs straight. Then you miss the compression foot massage. The overall rating for comfort, ergonomics, and customer service from Panasonic is 17.
Ease of use: Ease of use is defined as how intuitive the controls are and how complicated they are to use without reading the instructions. Panasonic is a leader in the development of remote controls that use LCD screens and other advanced features. The Real Pro Elite EP-3222 has a lot of features and consequently a lot of buttons on the controller. Most are intuitive, but some take some getting used to, which means less ease of use. Panasonic tries to make up for this with its “Voice Guide” feature. The automatic massage buttons are located at the top of the controls for easy access and have a “focus” button that allows you to repeat the massage action that has occurred. The Real Pro Elite has a side panel with additional manual massage controls for lower body massages. The overall Panasonic Real Pro Elite rating for ease of use is 17.
Main features: The important features of the Panasonic EP-3222 are the Swede-Atsu, which is designed to replicate the techniques of a masseur, 33 air bags in the air massage system for the lower body and the rear rollers cover 185 square inches. The Swede-Atsu uses rubberized massage heads to reproduce the movement of the palms of the hands, pressing with the palm of the hand and kneading with the thumbs. Back coverage expanded to 185 square inches is impressive to fully cover your back. Panasonic includes 33 airbags in the Real Pro Elite. There are 3 lower body massages including Grasp, Auto and Squeeze. There are a number of impressive features packed into the EP-3222. The overall feature rating of the Panasonic Real Pro Elite is 19.
Massage Therapy: Massage features are included in the Real Pro Elite EP-3222 includes four 14-minute pre-programs, a 5-minute quick program, and a 14-minute auto program has 4 full-body auto courses, 5 massage speed for a total combination of 14 massage courses. Automatic massage functions include the following: Shiatsu, Gentle, Deep and Refresh. Panasonic equips the EP-3222 with its exclusive Swede-Atsu massage system, which provides a full and realistic range of massage therapy options. The lower body has 33 covering airbags and three programs to choose from. This shiatsu massage chair provides good relief of tension in the lower body and more lateral coverage in the back. The overall rating for the Panasonic EP-3222 massage recliner for massage therapy is 19.
How does the Panasonic Real Pro Elite EP-3222 compare? Overall, our Panasonic rating is 87/100. Panasonic continues to expand the range of capabilities of its massage chairs with increased back coverage, voice guidance and its Swede-Atsu massage system. The design of the massage chair is very modern, perhaps too modern, but that is a matter of taste. The technology of Panasonic massage chairs, both for the mechanical and pneumatic systems, provides a firm and complete general massage. Panasonic needs to add an extendable footrest to accommodate taller people. Otherwise, the Real Pro Elite is a solid, well-rounded therapeutic massage chair.