The Ogawa Refresh Plus Massage Chair has been discontinued and no longer available. Please check out our current Ogawa Massage Chairs or shop All Massage Chairs.
The Ogawa Refresh Plus massage chair is one of the newest releases from Ogawa and one of the most popular massage chair brands in all of Asia. The Ogawa Refresh Plus offers a deep neck massage, a sleek & sporty design, and can massage you from your head to toe and at a reasonable price. It is one of our top picks yearly and is one of the best values. There are not too many massage chairs under $3,000 that offer full body massage, and that has the feature set of the Ogawa Refresh Plus.
Assembly
The Ogawa Refresh Plus massage chair comes in 1 box that is only 30.1in wide, which means it will easily get through the front door as most front doors are 36in wide. Once you remove the top of the box and remove all the components along with the plastic wrap, move the base of the chair to your desired location. Then you attach the seat with velcro and zip the front near the leg rest along with 1 wire. Next is the backrest cover. Attach 1 wire and then zip the cover to the back of the sea, then you slide the backrest into the cradle and lean it forward out of the way. Attach the lock bolt, cotter pin, air hoses, and cables and then attach the shoulder airbags with 2 screws and connect the hoses. Attach and secure the back pad to the backrest, and then all you have to do is attach the touch screen remote.
The assembly is very straightforward and easy to do. It can take you probably about 20 minutes to assembly everything. To move the box and get the base where you want, it will probably take 2 people. For this Ogawa Refresh Plus review, I was able to do everything by myself without help.
TIP: I personally like to use furniture sliders so I can quickly and easily move the chair if needed without marking up my wood floors.
Design
At this price point, the Ogawa Refresh Plus is one of the best-looking massage chairs on the market. I had it in my home, trying it out for about 4 months, and it went well with our décor. The materials used are the same quality as Ogawa higher-end massage chairs, such as the Stretch 3D and Master Drive AI. We were all very impressed with it, especially the new plus version, which added new foot rollers and a touch screen tablet.
Automatic Programs
With the Ogawa Refresh Plus, you can choose from one of the 6 automatic programs, Gentle, Relax, Neck and Shoulder, Lower Back, Lower Body, and Stretch. The lower back program hits the top of the glutes getting all the sciatic nerves. I used all of the programs after workouts and varied them on what parts I worked out that day. I was happy with all of the programs and only used the custom massage when I had certain knots that had to get worked out.
Body Scan
Once you select an automatic program, the Refresh Plus will scan your body. The body scan makes sure that there is consistent pressure throughout the massage finding the critical parts of your back and shoulder blades. The body scan only takes about 20 seconds, but make sure to lay back and stay still to make sure the scan is correct. At the end of the scan, the screen will beep, and during this time, you can fine-tune the roller to the top of your trapezius muscle. I found that I never had to make a fine-tune adjustment as it always found the proper place.
Zero Gravity Recline
Once the massage has started, make sure to hit the adjust button and put the refresh plus into the Zero Gravity position. While in the zero-gravity position, the chair reclines, and the leg rest raises up to put your knees about to heart level. This helps to reduce compression along your spine and allows the massage rollers to hit the right spots consistently.
You can recline the massage chair fairly far back to the point that friends or family that were visiting could sleep in it comfortably.
Massage Mechanism
The Ogawa Refresh Plus massage chair uses a quad style roller that can perform 7 massage techniques which are Swedish, Shiatsu, Kneading, Clapping, Tapping, Rolling, and Dual Action. A quad-style roller tries to mimic the human hands with the top rollers acting has your 4 fingers and the bottom acting as thumbs. There is not an intensity adjustment as it is a 2D massage chair. That being said, the massage feels really good and I found the Refresh Plus my daily go-to massage chair. For me, I found that I was never needing to adjust the depth as it was perfect for me. It is, however, not a deep tissue massage, but then neck massage is fantastic.
S-Track Technology
The S-Track makes sure that the massage rollers follow the curvature of your back to allow consistent pressure through your massage. I am 6ft-1in, and the rollers would easily go from my trapezius muscles to the top of my glutes, hitting the sciatic nerve area. The roller is rated from 5ft-2in to 6ft-3in in height. Also, with an S-Track, you can recline back away from the seat.
TIP: If you are looking to get some sleep in your massage chair, the S-Track would be a better choice over most L-Track chairs. With most L-Track massage chairs, the angle between the seat and backrest stays the same.
Air Compression Massage
The Ogawa Refresh plus has 36 airbags located at the shoulders, arms, lumbar, calves, and feet. You can adjust the intensity of the air compression massage through 3 levels, and the highest level gets pretty intense. I generally only used it on the first or second level.
TIP: The Ogawa massage chairs have probably the quietest air pump on the market. I have found some other chairs to be pretty noisy in comparison.
Foot Massage
New with the Ogawa Refresh Plus massage chair is the addition of foot rollers. The airbags push your feet down into the rollers while they rotate. Each roller has shiatsu nodes on them that hit along the bottom of the feet, and it feels fantastic.
Heat Therapy
There are heat pads located in the lumbar area of the backrest. The heat gets pretty warm and helps to warm your entire core to promote blood circulation. The heat also warms up the muscles for an even better massage. I found myself always using the heat, and you can turn it on and off at any time.
Chromotherapy
There are LED lights located on the triangles on the sides of the massage chair. If you are interested in using the chromotherapy lights, you need to use the chair in a darker room. I personally never used it as I always had the lights on and usually watching TV during a massage.
Remote Control
Also new with the Ogawa Refresh Plus was the addition of a wired touch screen tablet. I like how Ogawa has moved away from the traditional slim LCD remotes and used their own touch screen tablets. The tablet only runs the Ogawa software, and it is one of my favorite remotes to use. It is easy to find everything and the User Interface makes sense.
TIP: To put the Refresh Plus back in the upright position, turn off the touch screen tablet.
Vibration
The vibration is pretty intense, and I found myself usually not using it. You can turn it on and off easily on the remote, and the vibration is located in the middle of the seat.
Massage Chair Expert Overview - 4.9
My ratings for my Ogawa Refresh Plus review are based on the massage chair and also the price point it is at.
Massage – For not having 3D, the massage is actually quite amazing with a fantastic neck massage. Like I said in my review, I ended using the Refresh Plus for my daily go-to in my home because I enjoyed it that much. If you are interested in an L-Track, definitely check out the Ogawa Active L Plus massage chair.
Air Compression Massage – The compression was very good and the air compressor is actually pretty quiet compared to most massage chairs, even high-end chairs. The only things I would change is adding seat airbags and having the shoulder airbag actually grab the shoulders for the stretch massage, but those are found in more expensive massage chairs.
Features – For this price point, the Ogawa Refresh Plus is packed with features.
Customizability – For a 2D chair, you can customize many things. You have control at your fingertips with the touch screen tablet and can even do a custom massage to massage exactly where you need it. Control the heat, vibration, air compression pressure, chromotherapy, and more.
Check out our Best Massage Chair list.
