The 4 Best Lightweight Camping Chairs (Bought & Tested!)

What counts as a lightweight camping chair

There’s no official cut-off, so I went by what I actually carry: the chair plus its carry bag. Only 4 of my camping chairs come in at 4 pounds or less, and there’s a clean 1-pound gap between them and everything else.

Weight includes the carry bag. The Helinox Chair Zero in the last row is a backpacking chair rather than a camping one, and it’s in the table so you can see where the two separate.

• Where the line sits: 4.0lbs or less, carry bag included.
• How many qualify: just 4 of my camping chairs.
• These are camping chairs, not backpacking chairs. A backpacking chair like my Helinox Chair Zero weighs 1.2lbs, and the lightest chair on this page is more than twice that. You carry these from the car, not up a mountain.
• The closest miss: the ENO Lounger DL at 5.0lbs, a full pound heavier than the Big Agnes.
• What everything else weighs: the other 17 camping chairs I own run 5.0 to 14.7lbs.

Check the weight and the packed size

Of the two, the weight is the number to trust. A scale reads the same for you as it does for me, while how small a chair goes depends on how tightly you roll it back into its bag, so treat the packed size as a guide.

The ENO Lounger DL isn’t a lightweight chair, and it’s here because it’s the smallest-packing one of everything else I own.

• The packed sizes are not as close as the weights: the Big Six is only 1.2lbs heavier than the Chair Two, and it takes up nearly twice the space at 994 in³ against 519.

• Where these sit against a regular camp chair: all four are under 1,000 in³, and every other camping chair I own is over it.
• What the weight buys you: all four together come to 13.6lbs, which is less than my YETI Trailhead on its own at 14.7lbs.

Aluminum is what makes them light, and not all of it is the same

A regular camp chair is built from alloy steel, because it has no reason to be light. Every chair on this page uses aluminum poles instead, and the grade of that aluminum is what separates them.

The thickest pole is the center bar on all four. The last column is how long each of mine went before something on it started to go.

• The order, best first: DAC aluminum, then aircraft-grade, then regular aluminum. DAC is a higher specification than aircraft-grade, and only the REI uses regular aluminum, which is the least strong of the three.

• Both Helinox chairs are on DAC, and I’ve had four Helinox chairs now. They all go about 5 years before the shock-cording wears out.
• The Big Agnes is aircraft-grade, and the waterproof coating on the back started peeling after 2 to 3 years.
• The REI is the only one on regular aluminum, and mine broke after 3 days, when the end of a pole pushed a hole through one of the bottom pole pockets. The weight limit is 300lbs and I’m nowhere near that, so I’m quite certain it’s just a manufacturing defect.

• What to do about it: test a new chair for at least a week, and check the pole grade rather than the pole thickness. The grade is the better guide to how many seasons you get.

The tradeoff: a smaller seat, and a much longer setup

The shape of these four is closer to a backpacking chair than a camping one, and that’s where the weight comes from. Every one of them has a scooped seat with a lot less depth than a regular camp chair.

Seat height is the real seated height, measured from the ground to the bottom of my seat while I’m in the chair. The ALPS King Kong is a regular camp chair, in to show what a flat seat looks like beside these.

• The width isn’t the problem, the depth is. These four give you 21.1 to 23.75in of usable seat width, which is more than my King Kong’s 19.5in because there are no steel bars in the way. The depth is where they lose: 11.0 to 13.5in against 20.0in.
• None of them has lumbar support. The seat is one piece of fabric that curves up at the sides, so there’s nothing behind your lower back.
• They sit low, with one exception. Three of the four leave you between 7.5 and 11.4in off the ground. The Sunset’s 13.0in is higher than some of my regular camp chairs.

These are my times after using each chair dozens of times, so it’s perfectly normal to take longer on a first try. The Coleman Broadband is a regular camp chair, in for the comparison.

• Why they take so long: you build the pole frame first, then stretch the four corners of the seat fabric onto it. A regular camp chair comes out of its bag and you pull the four corners apart.
• The range: 45 to 110 seconds, against about 10 to 20 seconds for a typical camp chair.
• The Big Six is the outlier at 110 seconds, because its poles plug into a center bar through V-shaped grooves instead of hubs.
• They cost more, too. All four cost more than most of my regular camp chairs, and the Big Six costs the most of the four.

So is a lightweight camping chair worth it?

It comes down to how far you carry your chair and how much you care about lumbar support. Here’s where I’d say yes and where I’d say no, after 5 months with all four.

• Worth it if: you’re carrying the chair any distance from the car, because the heaviest one here is 4.0lbs and the next lightest chair I own is 5.0lbs.
• Worth it if: you’re packing a full car, because these take up 496 to 994 in³ and every other camping chair I own is over 1,000.
• Not for you if: you want lumbar support, because all four have a scooped seat with nothing behind your lower back.
• Not for you if: you want to eat at a camp table, because three of the four leave you between 7.5 and 11.4in off the ground.
• Not for you if: you want to be set up in seconds, because the quickest here takes 45 seconds and the Big Six takes 110.