Homecall Beach Folding Camping Chair
Summary
Price At Time Of Writing | £34.62
Our Overall Rating | 69 out of 100
Pros - Simple setup, heavy duty fabric
Cons - Metal parts are low quality
Overall - You can certainly sit down on it
Technical Specifications
Open Size - 52cm x 35cm x 56cm
Weight - 3.49 kg
Load Capacity - 120kg
Materials - Steel frame, polyester seat
Our Analysis & Ratings
The Homecall Beach Folding Camping Chair is a basic, low-slung chair without any of the additions of drink holders or pockets. It sets up with what should be a sturdy crossed design, but in testing lacked the strength that we would expect from a chair of this design.
Construction and Design - Steel can often be stronger than aluminium, but here it feels brittle and flimsy. The joins seem carelessly assembled and we worry about the stability of the crossover points at the base. The fabric is high-density 600 denier polyester, so of reasonable quality, however on the whole it's not a great construction of a basic design. There are also no bells and whistles on this chair - not even a cup holder.
Setup/ Packdown - Setup on this chair is more about opening than unfolding - you grasp the feet and pull them apart. It does the job, but also feels like it never fully opens - as if your weight is required to keep it in its fully open position.
Portability - At 3.49kg the weight is reasonable, however because of its design it packs into a tube rather than flat shape. It comes with a carry bag that it fits reasonably well into and you then sling that over your shoulder - given it's a one-shoulder strap the bag does bounce around a fair bit when walking, and we did need to use a hand to adjust the strap every so often, limiting the amount we could carry.
Comfort - It gets points for not having any uncomfortable bars that dig in. There's no facility for it to recline, so it is strictly a chair for sitting in only, and we would have liked more padding on the armrests. However, we found it to be reasonably comfortable to read a book in over a few hours.
Durability - We were happy with the durability of the fabric on the chair - the accompanying bag was thinner and more susceptible to tearing. However, as mentioned above, the metal frame was where we had concerns - one of the rivets actually popped while we were using it.
Summary - We've added this as an option at the lower-cost end of the scale if you're after something basic, but we feel there are better options out there.
