In fall 2023, we asked a panel of paid testers with a wide range of body types, dexterities, and mobilities to examine our picks and other camping chairs and to share their perspectives. These portable chairs are great for camping, sporting events, and backyard BBQs. Plus, they fold up nicely and include convenient carrying cases for easy transport and storage. You have a cart started for DG Pickup, but this store doesn’t offer this service. Substituted items may not be eligible for discounts and offers that were applicable to the original items in your DG Delivery order.
Weighing about 8 pounds, the Coleman chair is lighter than most traditional models, so it’s easier to grab from deep in a car trunk or to carry for long distances. Like others in its category, this chair comes with an over-the-shoulder carry bag, but some testers found it was light and compact enough to carry without the case. We found it to be the easiest full-sized, non-collapsible fire pit to carry. The addition of the handle also makes the Y-Series easy to flip over to dump out the ashes.
The use of charcoal, along with the optional Outpost Grill attachment, makes the Y-series a competent barbecue. You can cook over wood as well, and the height of the grill surface is adjustable so you can keep clear of the flames. We appreciated the adjustable legs which raised the top of the fire pit up to 20 inches and made the grill surface easier to reach. The 15-inch body height allowed for more heat to be felt on our lower extremities. Once they were burning, we walked toward each pit until we could feel noticeable heat, then circled them to see how even the distribution was and how much it was affected by wind. We also looked at them through a Flir infrared camera to see if there were any concerning hot spots on the fire pits’ bodies.
Several Wirecutter staffers have owned the Coleman chair for years, using it on camping trips, in backyards, and at sporting events. For the most part, it’s held up well, but one common quibble is that the seat bottom begins to sag after several years ozark trail screen house of use. 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).
The 4-pound, steel-framed REI chair has an attached carry strap, rather than a carry bag (which the other chairs have). After a couple of camping trips, we concluded that a strap is more convenient than a bag—it’s quicker and ozark trail canopy easier for a kid to grab the chair and go, without parental help. It has the most comfortable and supportive seat shape of any chair we tested. The Dual Lock chair has a firmer backrest and seat bottom than the competition.
At 22½ pounds, it’s one of the lighter models we tested and a cinch to lift into cars. It’s also one of the lowest-priced wagons we considered, but it performed as well as or better than wagons that cost twice as much. The similar Mac Sports XL is bulkier than the regular Mac Sports, but also has a higher weight limit and more space for all your tools—or toys.
The Ozark Trail Oversized Mesh Chair from Walmart, although similar to our pick in size, was far less comfortable, with rough-feeling material that was obviously of lower quality. We later found, after six months of frequent use, that the stitching along one arm had come unravelled and that the small straps holding up the back of the armrests had both ripped in half. Walk around any campground or tailgate party, and you’ll notice the popularity of this variety of accordion-style seat. You can pick one up at just about any big-box store (sometimes for as little as $10), order one with your favorite sports team’s logo, or pay a premium for a similar model from Cabela’s or REI.
And it comes with the same durable build of the standard Mac Sports wagon, but with twice the internal volume. Please go back to your cart to review and delete any out of stock items. Changing your order type may impact availability of items already in your cart. The box-shaped cupholder is a little roomier than the round cupholders on the Coleman and ozark trail canopy 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. Testers with knee and hip issues reported that when they were getting in and out of this chair, its armrests felt more stable than those of any other model.
I also took them to the beach, rolling them down the beach path and testing them on the sand. Additionally, I tested each wagon (filled with soccer equipment) on grass and bumpy, broken concrete surfaces, paying attention to how the suspension and wheels performed under different conditions. In spring 2021, I tested four additional beach-friendly wagons during several trips from my home in Santa Monica to the beach (10 blocks away) and back. I hauled both of my sons along with beach gear like boogie boards, coolers, chairs, and endless amounts of sand toys. Moon Lence released a new generation of its Portable Camping Chair; this new version has a redesigned base and more mesh ventilation than its predecessor.
Since 2016, our testers (with different body types and physical needs) have subjected camping chairs to multiple camping trips. We chose the Coleman Cooler Quad Chair as the model with the right combination of comfort, durability, usability, and price for most campers. With many exciting drybag coolers now on the scene, the IceMule Pro 33 handily holds its own among the rest. The large roll-top design allows easy access to its contents, so you won’t have to remove everything on top to reach that ozark trail canopy last cold soda at the bottom.