At a little over 7 pounds, it’s also the lightest traditional chair we tested—but it had the lowest weight capacity (250 pounds). It’s currently low in stock, but REI tells us this chair will be widely available again over the summer. It’s durable and comfortable for a range of campers. The Coleman Cooler Quad has been our pick since 2016, through numerous camping trips and several testing sessions.
The Helinox Chair One is the best chair for anyone who needs a lightweight, portable chair. The Dual Lock seat’s name comes from a locking mechanism that secures the chair when it’s folded or expanded—releasing the lock is a matter of pushing a button on one of the legs. As a result, the chair feels grounded and less wobbly than its competitors. This was especially reassuring for testers with knee or ozark trail chair hip issues, who noted that they felt confident using the Dual Lock seat’s armrests to stand up and get out of it. A two-hour drive from St. Louis, in southern Illinois, Shawnee boasts almost 300,000 acres of forest trails, scenic cliffs and waterfalls. Hikers can traverse the park’s 300 miles of trails, like Garden of the Gods recreation area, and camp at designated campsites or in the backcountry.
It delivers a solid baseline of build quality, comfort, and reliability that we didn’t find in other, similarly priced chairs. “The southwest corner has a small patch of forest that feels pretty remote,” Sharafuddin said. “It’s a nice spot that feels removed from the bustle of the city.” And for longer jaunts, Sharafuddin said that the year-end camping trip to Babler State Park is always a hit. His visit to Shawnee came early in his OC tenure, making it all the more eye-opening.
“Awesome chair! It’s compact, light, easy to setup.” The box-shaped cupholder is a little roomier than the round cupholders on the Coleman and the L.L.Bean Base Camp chairs—better for stubby water bottles or mugs of hot chocolate around the campfire. You can stow this featherlight, compressible chair in a backpack or even a work bag.
Simply put, it can be notoriously difficult to find big and robust furniture to support you properly. That’s as true for camp chairs as it is for recliners and the like. Where camp chairs are concerned, most of them top out at around 300 pounds of supported weight. That works for the majority of the market, but if you happen to be heavier than that, you’ll find that pickings can be slim. The canopy is big enough to block most, if not all, sunlight any time of day, and the chair’s seat has a strip of breathable mesh down the middle for airflow. Senior staff writer Lauren Dragan said the Renetto is her most comfortable camping chair.
The REI Co-op chair’s polyester seat material feels both more forgiving and more durable than the thinner material on many other kids’ chairs. Compared with cheaper chairs of its kind (like those from Walmart), the REI Co-op chair functions better and will last much longer. The Chair One has a 600-denier polyester and mesh seat and aluminum legs, which are linked with shock cord (like what you’d find inside high-end tent poles). In the sections that follow, we’ll tell you everything this well-priced chair has to offer and be quick to point out its shortcomings. That way, you’ll have all the information you need to decide for yourself if this is the high-weight capacity camping chair you’ve been looking for. If that sounds good, let’s jump right in and take a closer look.
If you’re looking for highly specialized or ultra-lightweight chairs for backpacking, our recommendations are probably not for you. We also don’t have suggestions for couch-style or loveseat chairs (we’d like to look at those someday, though). After new testing, we still love the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair for most outdoors situations. But we also have picks offering better support, higher weight capacity, and greater portability.