Helinox Sunset Chair Review

 

 

The Helinox Sunset Chair is a comfortable, compact, lightweight, and stowable camp chair that utilizes a single shock-corded pole structure design that offers an easy assembly and disassembly. It provides a massive 320 lbs weight capacity, a high supportive back seat, multiple mesh sections for breathability, heavy materials and stout Aluminum legs and cross members. So sit back and enjoy things after a hard day of mountain bike riding or hiking.

There are plenty of affordable camp chairs on the market, some of them just fold together and others break down into manageable pieces to be easily stowed. Most of these type of chairs are not very durable and in reality just become another useless and disposable product. The Sunset Chair is durable, well built and has lasted me a long time without any wear and tear issues during multiple camp trips, picnics, outdoor concerts, backyard activities and just plain general hanging out.

The Sunset chair has a  5-year warranty comes in Rhubarb, Meadow Green and Black for $149.95, and a completely mesh version in Black for $164.95.

 

 

Features

The Sunset Chair’s frame is engineered using DAC’s advanced alloy TH72M which provide maximum strength with a minimum of weight. The technology was originally developed for poles on high-end expedition tents. Aluminum alloy components need to be anodized to protect against corrosion and preserve appearance, but the traditional methods utilize nasty nitric & phosphoric acids for the anodization process. DAC developed a Green Anodising system that uses a water recycling program in the facility to help reduce environmental impacts, and it gives the alloy sections a protective and durable finish. Elastic shock cord links the frame sections together and helps them self-locate into the high strength nylon hubs, offering easy setup. The seat is constructed high-grade fabrics, and it has rugged reinforcing panels and durable stitching for improved durability.

 

Set Up

The chair is simple to erect, just take the seat out of the stuff sack and unroll the seat and frame. Next, let the elastic cords pop each of the frame sections into place and insert everything together. Lastly, insert the upper frame sections into the top of the seat slots and the bottom sections into the lower seat slots. It did seem a bit easier to get the lower insertion down with the chair laying down, which provided a slight amount of flex from the frame.

 

Once the chair broke down the frame can be rolled up in the seat, and everything easily fits back into the stuff sack. The chair is compact and decently light at 3.25 lbs, though it’s more suited to car camping.

 

Impressions

The sitting height of the chair is about perfect and places you somewhere between the designs that sit you too close to the ground and the standard fold-up camp chairs. The closer to the ground designs are difficult to stand back up from, and I and my knees appreciated not having to roll myself off the ground. The height is also beneficial to pullup xt to a table or platform for advantageous eating instead of having to toss everything into your lap or the ground, although it is still close enough to allow you to pout a drinking cup/bottle/mug on the ground.

The high back of the chair let’s lean your head back and comfortably relax, making for a soothing way to hang out, whether its the end of a long physical activity day or just vegging. The open mesh vents on the side and back provide some additional breathability during warmer weather, so you don’t overheat sitting in the chair. I also found that the polyester material was comfortable and didn’t get overly hot in the sun and doesn’t feel sticky.

On soft ground, such as in gravel, sand or damp dirt, the small feet of the chair tends to sink, but if you just use some small tennis balls, you won’t have an issue, though Helinox does sell some accessary ball feet to perform the same functionality.

Bottom Line

The chair is compact and easy to erect and tear down, so tossing into the back of your vehicle for camping or post ride Hangouts makes it an ideal entity. The height of the chair off the ground was perfect for my old knees, making it easy to get into and out of the chair. The high back and dish of the seat made it extremely comfortable, with just enough upward tilt at the front of the chair for my legs to bend comfortably. 

Specs

• Lightweight folding camp or deck chair
• Sets up quickly and easily
• Single shock-corded pole structure
• Storage sack included
• Skin & Frame Weight- 3lb./ 1340g
• Construction + Materials – 600d Polyester fabric