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

Backside Line

Certain, it’s a stretch to record the Therm-a-Relaxation Z-Seat Pad as a “backpacking chair.”  However we needed to discover a place to recommend this piece of drugs as a result of it is useful so typically. CleverHiker workers use it on a regular basis for snow tenting, and each break to take the sting off of the chilly, exhausting 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 price 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 help from this straightforward sit pad. Nevertheless, 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.  If you happen to’re on the lookout for a extra conventional chair, try our information to the very best backpacking chairs. Nevertheless, in case you’re on the lookout for an ultralight seat for the backcountry, the Therm-a-Relaxation Z-Seat is an effective alternative. 

How We Examined

It isn’t exhausting to check the z-seat. Simply unfold (or not) and sit. So, we sat. We sat on the snow, on rocks, on sand, on grime, 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 web site. 

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 help or dole out recliner-style consolation. Nevertheless, its ¾ inch of closed cell foam takes the sting off the rocks and logs that function our campsite furnishings.

Our pad offers a refined but appreciated consolation enhance for sitting. We had been completely happy to have it round a fireplace 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 units because the path bought slick above the snowline within the Sandia Mountains. 

For nature photographers, it’s additionally a necessity. Moderately 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. 

General, 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 record – which is why many minimalists sing its praises and carry it into the backcountry.

The accordion-style Z-Seat additionally packs down small. You may clip it or strap it to the skin of your pack. Nevertheless, this sit pad is sufficiently small that you would be able to 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 be a prime decide for stability. In any case, your odds of falling off a 3.4-inch-thick sheet of froth are low. This sit pad saved our middle of gravity low once we used it within the discipline. 

On the similar 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 steadiness in case you perch the Z-seat on a rock for a lunch break or lean it towards a tree for a cushioned backrest.

In the long run, although, you’re not tipping over whenever you’re sitting on the Z-Seat, until 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 down – 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 facet of the Therm-a-Relaxation sit pad goes up or down? The silver facet is extra comfy and displays radiant warmth, so that you usually use the Z-Seat with the silver facet up, particularly in cool climate. Nevertheless, you possibly can reverse it in sizzling climate – turning the silver facet down for a cooler seating floor. 

There’s additionally a draw back to this straightforward foam pad – it blows away simply in case 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 virtually 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 – you could 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 help, 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. If you happen to’re the kind of backpacker who information down your toothbrush to avoid wasting weight and house, you’ll most likely like this extremely packable sit pad on your relaxation stops, summit images, and campsite meals. It’s our prime decide for minimalists – and one of many most cost-effective seats on our record, 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 greatest backpacking chairs, corresponding to these seats:

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

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

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