The Helinox Swivel Chair
Price: £115
Weight: 1,296g
Country of manufacture: Vietnam/Korea
Having somewhere comfortable to sit when you’re using a small tent just adds that little touch of luxury that enhances the camping experience.
The Helinox Swivel Chair is a simple-to-assemble yet sturdy seat with the added advantage that you can rotate to do different tasks.
We found this particularly useful when, for instance, using our stove and using items to one side or the other. The temptation with a chair that doesn’t swivel is to reach round and risk overbalancing, but with this Helinox seat, you simply turn around to reach those things behind you. We found arranging our cooking ingredients, water etc in a little circle around the chair meant you weren’t overreaching or placing them too close to the stove.
The components of the Helinox feel very sturdy. The four DAC aluminium legs are held by shock-cords and slot easily into their sockets on the rotating hub. The upper seat supports are in a smaller diameter DAC aluminium and are also held by shock cords, so it’s impossible to try to put the legs or supports into the wrong sockets.
The support struts fit into strong holders at the corners
The longer, upper supports are in two shock-corded sections that slot together. These then fit into the reinforced corners of the fabric seat. Once these are in place, put the chair on its back and hook the lower corners on to the two shorter lower aluminium supports and the chair is ready to use.
The seat fabric also has a tough feel and is rated to support up to 120kg (18st 13lbs). The main seat and back are solid material and the sides are mesh. The whole seat unit has contrast binding.
Comfort was good, with seating position just about the right angle of recline and the design of the seat supported well without digging into the underside of the thighs. It was the right height to be able to reach items on the ground such as a lightweight stove. The Helinox Swivel Chair felt stable both when reaching forward to cook and when reclined in a more relaxed position.
The Helinox Swivel Chair
Quality from this Dutch brand is very good. The materials and assembly are top notch, which is reflected in the price. The chair has a three-year guarantee.
The Swivel Chair comes in a zipped pouch which has daisy chain webbing on its underside to enable it to be attached to, for instance, the outside of a rucksack. Pack size is 42cm x 12cm x 14cm.
With a little care, this sturdy little chair should provide campsite comfort for many years. At more than a kilogram, it’s probably just too heavy for a big backpacking expedition but is great for basecamps when using a small tent.
Our Swivel Chair was supplied by Helinox. More details are on the Helinox website.
Comfort: 48/60
Ease of use: 18/20
Quality: 9/10
Value for money: 6/10
Total score: 81/100
Cal
29 July 2020Excellent, detailed review with superb photography.
I bought myself a Helinox Swivel Camp Chair as I wanted the ability to move, particularly inside the tent without leaning too far or over stressing areas or parts of a fixed position chair.
Quality is absolutely essential! My chair needs to fully support me within it's arc of movement. I will be inside a small tent, close to an extremely hot titanium tent stove on which I'll be cooking.
Were a chair to fail in this situation it may cause me to fall onto the stove and stovepipe, which could cause major burns and injuries, hence my requirement for top quality!
My Helinox Swivel Camp Chair has a 5 year warranty, and having closely examined it in detail I believe it will outlive me.
With my Walkstool Comfort 55/22, I now have the very best quality camp chair and stool that it's possible to buy, and with a round tray, my Walkstool converts into a camp table!
Whilst initially expensive, the cost per year works out to be pennies.
Whilst I'm going to be cycling, I still try to keep it lightweight and for the comfort, support and practicality that this chair offers, it has earned its place in my kit.
robin
10 November 2022Helinox is Korean not Dutch...