Therm-a-Relaxation Z-Seat Pad Assessment | CleverHiker

Backside Line

Positive, it’s a stretch to listing the Therm-a-Relaxation Z-Seat Pad as a “backpacking chair.”  However we needed to discover a place to counsel this piece of substances as a result of it is useful so typically. CleverHiker employees use it on a regular basis for snow tenting, and each break to take the sting off of the chilly, arduous floor. We’ve used it in emergencies to maintain our companions safer as we waited for an evac. So sure, it isn’t a backpacking chair, however it’s value contemplating having as a part of your backpacking system.

This sit pad is so mild, packable, and helpful that we simply couldn’t assist ourselves. For the previous decade, this foldable foam seat has been CleverHiker Founder Dave Collins’ go-to for backpacking journeys starting from the Sawtooths, Yosemite, and Banff to the Uintas, Wind River Vary, and Mount St. Helens. 

Clearly, you’re not going to get again assist from this easy sit pad. Nonetheless, it received’t hog your packspace, softens up rocks and logs into higher camp seats, and retains your backside off the bottom throughout lunch breaks, relaxation stops, and summit selfies.  For those who’re searching for a extra conventional chair, try our information to one of the best backpacking chairs. Nonetheless, when you’re searching for an ultralight seat for the backcountry, the Therm-a-Relaxation Z-Seat is an effective selection. 

How We Examined

It isn’t arduous to check the z-seat. Simply unfold (or not) and sit. So, we sat. We sat on the snow, on rocks, on sand, on dust, and on logs. We packed it and unpacked it. We weighed it. Then we in contrast it to our different favorites. The Z-Seat is in a league of its personal, however deserves a spot on our website. 

Consolation

The Therm-a-Relaxation Z-seat ranks excessive for weight, packability, stability, and ease of use – however not consolation.  

This featherweight seat received’t present again assist or dole out recliner-style consolation. Nonetheless, its ¾ inch of closed cell foam takes the sting off the rocks and logs that function our campsite furnishings.

Our pad gives a refined but appreciated consolation increase for sitting. We had been completely happy to have it round a hearth ring on stacked rock chairs at a backcountry tent pad. It additionally added a bit of insulation when our gear analyst sat on a snowy, trailside stump to slide on his winter traction gadgets because the path acquired slick above the snowline within the Sandia Mountains. 

For nature photographers, it’s additionally a necessity. Reasonably than sitting within the snowmelt or letting pine needles poke, it’s a hotter, drier, and cushier photographer’s seat subsequent to the tripod. The number of use circumstances for the Z-Seat provides up. 

Total, the Z-Seat’s consolation is a greater match for breaks and different brief sits. It’s a low-risk, low-reward backpacker seat that provides a bit of cushion and insulation – with out including weight.

Weight & Packability

Weight and packability are the place the Therm-a-Relaxation Z-Seat actually shines. At 2 ounces, this sit pad is the lightest “chair” on our listing – which is why many minimalists sing its praises and carry it into the backcountry.

The accordion-style Z-Seat additionally packs down small. You possibly can clip it or strap it to the surface of your pack. Nonetheless, this sit pad is sufficiently small which you can additionally stash it inside your backpack if that’s the way you need to roll. Its packed dimensions are smaller than the ten different backpacking chairs we weighed, measured, and packed on our escapes into New Mexico’s excessive desert mountains.

Stability

Technically talking, the Z-Seat can also be a high decide for stability. In spite of everything, your odds of falling off a 3.4-inch-thick sheet of froth are low. This sit pad saved our middle of gravity low after we used it within the subject. 

On the identical time, the Therm-a-Relaxation doesn’t add any stability to a wobbly log or slanted rock slab, both. It’s nonetheless your physique that provides all of your stability and stability when you perch the Z-seat on a rock for a lunch break or lean it in opposition to a tree for a cushioned backrest.

In the long run, although, you’re not tipping over if you’re sitting on the Z-Seat, except it’s the whiskey.

Ease of Use

Most backpacking chairs are intuitive to make use of. You merely piece collectively poles linked with shock twine, connect the seat, and sit – a course of that usually takes a minute or much less. The Therm-a-Relaxation Z-Seat is even simpler. You unhook the bungee and unfold it – a course of that takes 5 seconds or much less.

The one query is which aspect of the Therm-a-Relaxation sit pad goes up or down? The silver aspect is extra comfy and displays radiant warmth, so that you usually use the Z-Seat with the silver aspect up, particularly in cool climate. Nonetheless, you possibly can reverse it in scorching climate – turning the silver aspect down for a cooler seating floor. 

There’s additionally a draw back to this easy foam pad – it blows away simply when you’re not cautious. Gear analyst Jory Brass chased his Z-Seat down a snowy ravine when the wind caught it on the Sandia Crest Path—and nearly had the pad blow off a cliff at Embudito Canyon. Watch out utilizing this sit pad on summits, saddles, and different windy spots the place it’s good to take a break – it’s possible you’ll lose it.  

Once more, ease of use is one other class the place this sit pad excels.

Ought to You Purchase the Therm-a-Relaxation Z-Seat Pad?

The Therm-a-Relaxation Z-Seat isn’t a lot for cushion or assist, nevertheless it retains backpackers’ behinds drier, hotter, and extra comfy – and solely weighs a few ounces. 

It’s a low-risk, low-reward seat cushion for thru-hikers and different gram counters who don’t need to carry a 1-2 pound backpacking chair. For those who’re the kind of backpacker who recordsdata down your toothbrush to avoid wasting weight and house, you’ll most likely like this extremely packable sit pad to your relaxation stops, summit pictures, and campsite meals. It’s our high decide for minimalists – and one of many most cost-effective seats on our listing, too.

What Different Backpacking Chairs Ought to You Think about?

If this sit pad isn’t fairly what you need, you’ll discover a number of alternate options in our full information to the finest backpacking chairs, equivalent to these seats:

Gossamer Gear Thinlight Foam Pad Assessment: The opposite foam pad on our listing, the Thinlight has a bigger floor space to cushion each our butt and again.

REI Flexlite Air Chair Assessment: Of all the standard, tent-style backpacking chairs in our information, the Flexlite is the lightest, most packable possibility for backpackers. 

Helinox Chair Zero Assessment: Our top-ranked backpacking chair, the Chair Zero scores excessive throughout the board whereas weighing only one pound, 2 ounces.