Chair leg protectors, where the size is the whole fit and not one title prints it

Chair legs on a hard floor are one of the few household problems with a complete solution costing a few pounds. Twenty sets of it are on this page, and every one of them leaves out the number you need.

What the good ones are

Seventeen of these twenty are the same design: a silicone cup that stretches over the bottom of the leg, with a disc of felt bonded into the sole.

That combination is the answer, and it is worth saying why. The old fix was a self-adhesive felt disc stuck to the bottom of the leg. It works until the chair is dragged, then the glue lets go and the disc stays behind on the floor. A plain silicone or rubber cap stays on and grips, which is exactly what you do not want on wood, because it drags and squeaks and can mark.

The silicone cup with the felt sole grips the leg where the grip is useful and slides on the floor where the slide is useful. One title on this page is a plain adhesive pad, and it is the older, worse idea.

The size, which is the only decision and is on no title

Not one of the twenty says what leg it fits.

This is the whole fit. A cap that is a couple of millimetres too wide will sit on until the first time somebody drags the chair back from the table, and then it stays under the table. A cap too narrow will not go on at all.

So: turn a chair over. Measure the leg across the bottom, in millimetres, and if it is square, measure a side. Then go into the listing and find the size chart, which is where all twenty sellers have put the information. Most of these fit a range, because silicone stretches, and the ranges are narrow: something like 19 to 22, or 25 to 28.

One title says elastic, which is the honest description of how the fit works, and two say extra small, which is at least a direction.

If your chairs are a mixed set, measure all of them. Kitchen chairs and a desk chair are rarely the same.

The slanted leg

Two titles are cut for a slanted or diagonal leg, and one of them states the angle: 15 to 25 degrees.

This matters more than it sounds. A great many dining chairs and stools have legs that splay outward, so the bottom of the leg meets the floor at an angle. Put a straight cap on one and the cap touches the floor on one edge, the felt wears through on that edge in months, and the chair rocks slightly for as long as you own it.

Look at a chair from the side. If the legs are not vertical, buy the angled ones.

Round, square and the shape

Three titles say round and three say square, and one sells both in a single pack. The rest show it only in the photographs.

A round cap cannot go on a square leg. A square cap will go on a round leg badly, with the corners standing proud. Match the shape, and if the leg is rectangular rather than square, measure both sides, because most square caps are actually square.

Felt, and how long it lasts

Seventeen titles have felt and none says how thick it is. Six say thick, thickened or thick wrap, and that is the word worth having.

Felt wears. On a dining chair that gets pulled out and pushed in three times a day, a thin sole is through to the silicone inside a year, and once it is through you are dragging rubber on wood, which is the thing you bought these to prevent. A wrap felt, where the felt comes up the sides rather than sitting as a disc on the bottom, is the version that lasts.

Whatever you buy, sweep before you fit them. Felt that picks up a piece of grit becomes sandpaper, and that is how these occasionally cause the scratch they were bought to prevent.

Transparent or grey

Four titles are transparent. On a pale oak leg a clear cap is almost invisible, which is the point. It also greys as the felt gets dirty and the silicone picks up marks from the floor, so the invisible cap is invisible for a season.

One title states a colour, grey. The rest are whatever the photographs show.

What none of them says

A weight limit. These are on dining chairs mostly, but people put them on sofas and beds, and no title says what the silicone will take before it splits.

Whether they suit carpet. They do not, particularly. On carpet the felt does nothing and a plain glide is better.

How to fit them. Warm water makes silicone stretch. A cap that will not go on cold usually goes on after a minute in a mug of hot water.

The grit these trap is the grit that should have been picked up first, and the handheld vacuum guide covers what actually lifts it off a hard floor.

What I would actually do

For most dining chairs, the angled set. It is the only title on the page that says what angle it is cut for, and splayed legs are more common than straight ones on the sort of chair that scratches a floor.

For square legs, the twenty-four pack. Six chairs in one order and no second delivery.

For heavy chairs, the thick wrap felt. It is the difference between a year and several.

If you want them not to show, the transparent set, bought knowing they will grey.

Whichever you choose, measure a leg first. Every seller here has the size in the listing and not one has it in the title.