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The Carina is a fairly new addition (mid 2018 release) to Titan’s already impressive lineup.
Currently retailing for about $3K on massage chair deals, the Carina is equipped with a 47” L-Track, 20 airbags, and 6 auto modes. We’ll talk about all of these features and more in the next section, but for now, here’s a video from Titan that summarizes the Carina in 2 mins! (Credit: Official Titan Osaki Massage Channel).
Alright there’s a lot to talk about here! Before I get started, i’m gonna make an assumption that your knowledge around massage chairs and their functionality is limited. If you’re well versed with massage chair technology, feel free to skim ahead!
Okay, so if there’s one thing you should always remember about massage chairs, it’s this:
If you remember this one thing, you’ll save yourself from some serious disappointment. Now then, what are rollers anyways? Rollers are a mechanical component that typically consist of discs/wheels mounted on a spindle. They are responsible for providing a comprehensive massage from the neck all the way down to the lower back and hamstrings.
There are different types of rollers, but the one you see above is the most common. This type of roller system is often referred to as quad, and that’s because there are 4 discs/wheels. Titan’s Carina is also equipped with a quad roller system.
Of course it doesn’t end there! When we talk about rollers, we like to talk about 2D, 3D, 4D etc. 2-dimensional, 3-dimensional, and 4-dimensional talk about roller motion. Titan’s Carina is equipped with 2D rollers.
4 words: “left, right, up, down”. That’s all you need to know when it comes to 2D rollers. They move up/down along the vertical axis of your spine, and left/right along the width of your back. The picture above explains this exactly.
Thus far we’ve talked about quad rollers and 2-dimensional roller motion. The last thing I want you to understand is roller track. Often times you hear people talking about roller track/coverage when they say a chair has a 40” track or a 50” track. What does this mean exactly?
The Carina’s rollers can traverse a total distance of 47” from neck to hamstrings. This is your typical L-Track!
Another cool feature of the Titan Carina is something called pre-massage body scan.
What’s nice about body scanning is that it allows for a customized experience tailored to a specific user. What that means is you don’t need to adjust settings for different body types. If you’re 5’4 ft for example and your spouse is 6’0 ft, both of you can use the chair without having to reconfigure any settings. Body scan does it all for you!
Since body scan and user flexibility kinda go hand in hand, it’s important to note that the Carina is able to accommodate users ranging from 5’0-6’4 ft, weighing up to a maximum of 240 lbs. The 240 lbs is a little on the lower side compared to other chairs, but the height range is pretty good!
As mentioned earlier, rollers are the most critical component to a massage chair. However, rollers alone are not enough to massage the entire body. They’re limited in how far they can go, and they’re limited to only performing certain techniques. Hence, the need for airbags or air cells as some people like to call them.
Airbags serve 2 main purposes:
The Titan Carina comes equipped with 20 airbags that are located in several different areas of the chair. These are as follows:
When seated, your arms should slide into the arm pockets located on each side. Each of these arm pockets is equipped with airbags that massage the palms, wrists, forearms, and some of the upper arms.
Located adjacent to the headrest and on either side of the shoulders are 2 large airbags. These “squish” the shoulders inwards and pin your body in place so that the rollers are able to effectively do their thing.
There’s a pretty massive airbag pouch located inside the seat. This one’s responsible for providing a compression massage to the buttocks and thighs. It’s especially comforting after a strenuous workout!
There’s 4 airbags (2 for each leg) that are responsible for massaging the upper and lower leg muscles. If Titan wanted to make this design even better, they could’ve added dedicated rollers for the calves!
There’s another 4 airbags, 2 for each foot located on the bottom of the foot ottoman. These airbags inflate in and out thereby massaging the side of the feet. Rollers massage the bottom of the feet.
For what it costs, i’m a tad disappointed with the auto modes as I would have expected more than 6. In any case, the 6 auto modes which are pretty standard, are as follows:
If the auto modes are not up to par, you can always take the driver’s seat and control the chair in manual mode. When you do this, you have the option to:
You can also save your customized massages directly to the chair’s memory (up to 3 free slots). I think this is a pretty neat feature and does in some way compensate for the limited auto modes.
To save a custom massage mode to memory, you must press and hold down the memory button on the remote once the program has completed. It’s very important to wait for the program to complete before pressing down on “memory”! To access your saved massages, push down on the memory button again.
As I began researching the Carina prior to writing this review, one of the first things that stood out to me was the foot roller design. It’s quite interesting and “unusual” when you compare it to foot roller design in other chairs.
Notice the 2 rotating circular discs by the toes? This isn’t something you find on most other chairs. Other massage chairs only have rollers that move vertically along the sole from the heel to the toes. This spinning foot roller design is much more effective in my opinion.
Same as the back rollers, foot roller speed can be varied from mild to medium to strong. The higher the speed, the more intense.
Word Of Caution: Start of with mild and build your way up as you get used to the intensity. Foot massage is not something everyone is familiar with, and starting of at a high intensity may be quite uncomfortable!
Massage point targeting is a cool little feature that allows a user to focus massage on a specific pain point, a regional non specific area, or a general area of the body. There are 5 options in total and these 5 can be used in conjunction with the previously mentioned manual techniques (kneading, tapping, knocking, shiatsu, and a kneading/flapping combo). These 5 options are:
As much as I love auto modes, having the flexibility to control a chair manually is pretty important, and Titan’s Carina doesn’t disappoint to this regard!
The Carina is equipped with a 47” L-Track roller system.
SL-Track is superior to L-Track in that it offers both the tight spinal tracking from neck to lumbar while maintaining an overall L shape from neck to hamstrings. L-Track doesn’t give you that tight spinal tracking.
Yes. Like most massage chairs, the Carina is able to recline to a zero gravity position.
The Carina comes fitted with dual heating elements in the lumbar area. In addition to providing soothing warmth, the heat helps loosen up tight muscles in the lower back so that roller massage is most effective.
Assembling the Carina is a piece of cake. Mind you, this comes from someone who’s not very good at putting things together! The chair is pretty much all assembled when it ships to you. The only thing that needs to be done is assembling the foot rest to the chair. The installation video below goes through the steps required (Credit: Massage Chair Deals Channel). As you’ll see, it’s pretty simple!
No special tools are required. The allen wrench discussed in the video is provided with the chair.
Included in the $2,999 price is an additional 2 years of extended warranty. With the standard 3 years, the extra 2 years gives you a total of 5 years coverage. Definitely some value here, as most chairs only come with 2-3 years.
Note: The 5 year warranty only applies if you buy the Carina from massage chair deals. It’s a current promotion they have where they throw in an extra 2 years of warranty at no cost.
This one’s hard to answer! If I said I wasn’t biased, I’d be lying. That being said, let me come clean.
Glad we got that outta the way. So where should you buy the Carina from? I’ve done some research and at the current time, the Carina retails for the same price pretty much everywhere. I suspect this is the case as the chair is only recently released and hardly a year old. In time, I imagine the price will drop.
That being said, if I were in your shoes, I’d do my due diligence and compare pricing on different sites. Pick the lowest one and pull the trigger when you’re ready!
Because most massage chair companies are US based, it’s tricky finding a retailer who ships or is based out of Canada. That being said, it does look like Walmart Canada carries the Carina. Your next best bet is Amazon Canada (note: this is an affiliate link).
Or should you consider something else? In order to answer this question, we need to see how the Carina compares against similar chairs in the market. That being said, we will draw comparisons against 2 chairs: Infinity’s recently released Meridian, and Titan’s Pro 8400.
As you can probably tell by looking at the table above, there really aren’t all that many differences between the 3 chairs. The biggest distinctions are price and user flexibility. Infinity Meridian is the cheapest with a price tag of $1,999 currently on massage chair deals. Titan’s Pro 8400 is the most flexible chair in terms of user height; Infinity Meridian is the most flexible in terms of user weight.
It’s always hard to make a recommendation towards one particular chair, and that’s because pricing is always changing. Today chair A is on sale and it seems like the perfect buy, tomorrow the price increases by $500 and it’s no longer worth it.
At $1,999 it’s just too good of a deal to pass up on! The only thing lacking with the Meridian is that it doesn’t have a stretch routine, but other than that it’s a pretty solid chair!
Because I’m an affiliate of massage chair deals, I do have some perks! One such perk is the ability to offer my readers an additional 5% discount. 5% may not seem like much, but when you do the math, it’s actually money worth saving!
For example, let’s say you decided to buy a chair that costs $2K , 5% off $2K is $100. I don’t know about you, but $100 in savings versus $0 in savings? I know what I’m picking!
Note: This code only applies to the chairs on massage chair deals! It will not work for any other retailer.
I hope this review was helpful. If it was, please consider sharing on the social platforms. Lastly if you have any comments, please do not hesitate to reach out!
Images for the Titan TP Carina massage chair were used with permission from massage chair deals.
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