The Best 05 Zero Gravity Chairs For you

We believe the Timber Ridge is the best zero gravity chairs after spending four weeks relaxing at the park and the beach, watching movies while lying back, and experimenting with a neutral-posture office setting. The Amazon Basics is a good option if you don’ mind using lower-quality materials and a smaller seat. We advise the chair from Best Choice Products as a canopy alternative to block the sun.

The 5 zero gravity chairs we tested

Chair	Price	Quality	Easy Reclining	Locking Mechanism	Extras?
1. Timber Ridge – Oversized XL	$$$$	5/5	5/5	5/5	Cupholder
2. Amazon Basics	$$	3/5	4/5	3/5	None
3. Best Choice Products	$$	3/5	3/5	2/5	Canopy, cupholder
4. Caravan Sports Infinity – Oversized	$$	3/5	1/5	5/5	None
5. Belleze	$$	2/5	3/5	3/5	Canopy, cupholder

Top pick: Timber Ridge

Although the Timber Ridge – Oversized XL Zero Gravity Chair is not as inexpensive as some other models, we believe that it is still worth the extra money at roughly $100.

The Best Overall: Timber Ridge

Compared to the other models we tested, this is a nice improvement. Superior construction, a cupholder that stays with the chair when folded, and better materials. Although the price is double, the goods is far better.

This is unquestionably the design we’d choose if you want to commit to a chair that promotes neutral posture throughout the day. If you remove the pillow from the seat, your head will be slightly below the level of your knees. This seat reclines farther than any of the others.

The Timber Ridge’s colors and pattern are a little bolder than those of the other types, so it might be more difficult to match it to your decor.

Regarding materials, the Timber Ridge uses wood for the armrests and cushioning for the seat. Although manufacturer/distributor Westfield Outdoor doesn’t specify what type of wood it is, it might be maple. These are great additions that dramatically improve the chair’s appearance and comfort, but they do make it less suitable for outside use.

This chair simply won’t withstand prolonged exposure to sun and rain as well as the plastic armrests and mesh seats on the other designs, even if the padding dries in a few hours on a bright day and the wood appears to have been treated to repel water. If you like the style but require the chair to withstand more weather, there are alternatives made of mesh and plastic; nevertheless, you won’t save much money.

Key takeaways:

• The zero gravity chair made by Timber Ridge is the best-built, including finer materials and a comfortable seat.
• This design has more better folding and reclining motions than the previous seats.
• This recliner has a lock that is strong and simple to use, increasing its dependability.
• When the chair is folded, the integrated cupholder can actually stay attached and functions properly.

Budget pick: Amazon Basics

An excellent illustration of Amazon’s branding strategy is the Amazon Basics – Zero Gravity Chair. They have chosen a well-known product, located a dependable manufacturer, and ordered a unique variation with all the necessary characteristics in a budget-friendly package.

It’s difficult to predict how variable quality control will be with only one sample from each company represented. However, of the chairs we received, Amazon’s is marginally superior than the others in the low price range. It is easier to fold and recline, and there are less loose threads.

Budget Pick: Amazon Basics

When folded, the Timber Ridge chair’s cupholder remains in place. The seat is more pleasant to sit in and reclines further than any of the others. The Timber Ridge’s hues and pattern are a little more striking than those of the other variants.

The seat and armrests of the Timber Ridge chair are padded and made of wood. On a bright day, the padding dries in a few hours, and the wood appears to have been coated to repel moisture. If you require this chair to withstand more weather, there are mesh and plastic versions available.

Key takeaways:

• The zero gravity chair made by Timber Ridge is the best-built, including finer materials and a comfortable seat.
• This design has more better folding and reclining motions than the previous seats.
• This recliner has a lock that is strong and simple to use, increasing its dependability.
• When the chair is folded, the integrated cupholder can actually stay attached and functions properly.

Budget pick: Amazon Basics

An excellent illustration of Amazon’s branding strategy is the Amazon Basics – Zero Gravity Chair. Amazon has purchased a unique version of a well-known product from a reputable manufacturer. It’s difficult to predict how variable quality control will be with only one sample from each company represented.

Budget Pick: Amazon Basics

This particular model has a straightforward twist-knob locking mechanism that presses a cam lobe against a sliding tube. It is possible to turn the lock tightly enough so that your chair will remain upright as you sit up or move your weight. If you apply any significant pressure to the friction-sleeve lock on the Best Choice chair, it will begin to budge.

Key takeaways:

• The formula employed by Amazon Basics, which creates a basic version of a well-liked product using reputable suppliers, is ideal in this case.
• Even though it has less spectacular materials, this zero gravity chair reclines nearly as well as the Timber Ridge.
• Although you can secure this chair as much as you need with the friction lock, it is not our preferred mechanism.
• No canopy or cupholder, but we believe the improved quality justifies the trade-off.

Best with a canopy: Best Choice Products

The Zero Gravity Chair offers a detachable cupholder, a built-in canopy, and an easy-to-use flip-lever lock. If you want the chair back to stay in place while you walk around, the friction-sleeve this chair utilizes to lock isn’t very secure.

Best with a Canopy: Best Choice Products

The Belleze chair from Best Choice Products has pinched-tube footrest joints and a twist-lock mechanism. This is a decent deal if you don’t need to lock your chair safely in a semi-reclined position. Obtaining a complementary add-on canopy will be difficult at best.

Key takeaways:

• A cover and cupholder are included in Best Choice Products to make reading outside on a bright day even more soothing.
• By pulling a lever, it is simple to activate the friction lock, although it is not very secure.
• Although this chair’s quality is virtually on par with that of the Amazon Basics model, we are unsure how reliable it will be given the price.

Best Overall: Timber Ridge

This folding chair is amazing because of the great material and the great design. We discovered that this was the most effective way to apply the neutral-posture experience.

Caravan Sports – Infinity Oversized

The locking mechanism on the Infinity Oversized chair is a decent, more affordable alternative to the locking rail system used by Timber Ridge. It is four inches wider than conventional chairs. It’s difficult to use, doesn’t recline all the way, and if you put weight on the armrests, your joints bend in a terrifying way.

Belleze

Belleze – Zero Gravity Chairs are sold in sets of two at an incredibly low cost per chair. The quality of these chairs isn’t quite on par with that of the other chairs. The death knell, finally? The canopy won’t remain in its stored, clipped configuration.

How we selected

We searched the internet for reviews from experts and enthusiasts, but we couldn’t find much. Even Reddit has very little information about the advantages and disadvantages of the several kinds of zero-gravity chairs.

There are some really elegant and pricey designs for therapeutic and ergonomic chairs. The majority of customers cannot afford to purchase $3,000 seats. We chose the best-selling products on Amazon, Walmart, and Target with fewer than 300 reviews. Reviews for these chairs often vary from 4-5 stars.

How we tested

If you wish to take tablets to the park or the beach, they can be folded down to put one or two in a trunk. Five of them fit into the back of a minivan that we use to transport people to a friend’s moving-in party.

Build quality

Expectations are low when buying furniture that costs less than a C-note. Having said that, we did deduct points for any material or quality control issues.

The models that cut corners receive the most criticism: Belleze appears to have cut corners on quality control and used subpar elastic. The Caravan Sports chair has protruding fasteners and wiggle-y joints. When you’re simply looking at the chairs, it’s difficult to spot the issues, but after sitting down in each one, we began to identify the losers.

Recline performance

The primary function of these chairs’ design is to recline. It’s not quite as simple as the lever on your grandpa’s recliner, but all the chairs require you to push out with your feet on the bar at the end of the footrest in order to recline them. We discovered that on the better seats, they provided a constant and dependable technique to smoothly lower the chair back.

The only chair that actually works to lift your knees is the Timber Ridge. Elevating the legs is one of the most frequently mentioned benefits among those who really like these chairs, even though the NASA neutral-body position specification doesn’t specifically take the angle of recline into account (since it’s designed for floating astronauts rather than people sitting in a gravity-laden environment).

Locking mechanism

Each chair is equipped with a locking mechanism that should stop it from unexpectedly reclining or shifting back up. The three 17-inch-wide chairs we tested employ a straightforward friction lock to prevent a tube from sliding, whereas the wider chairs (like our top pick) use a rack of teeth to enable a more firm grasp.

Depending on how tight we could get the friction locks, they would either work better or worse. However, if you want the chair to stay halfway down, you’ll need to tighten the knobs on the Belleze and the chair from Amazon rather a little. The Best Choice model only has two positions for the lever.

What is a zero gravity chair?

How would you stand if you didn’t have any weight on you? Which position is the most neutral for the neck, spine, arms, and legs?

When measuring crew members’ body postures during the first shuttle missions and the Skylab space station in the 1970s and 1980s, NASA attempted to find an answer to that topic. The man-system integration guidelines were originally developed to assist in crew member problem-solving in space, but they have now been applied to designs for use on Earth, such as these “zero gravity” chairs and ergonomic vehicle seats.

The “average” turns out to be a poor fit for some people, and NASA’s follow-up studies aboard shuttle missions have very clearly disproved the notion that there is a posture that is ideal for everyone. But compared to the slab-like position many recliners and lounge chairs offer, lying back with your hips bent and your knees raised has been found to be more comfortable.

The “Perfect Chair” from Human Touch is one of the first instances of a furniture firm incorporating the NASA requirements into a chair design that promises treatment for pressure points and back problems. However, the chair is quite expensive.

You may possess a piece of NASA’s legacy on your patio or in your living room for less than $50 thanks to some smart and unidentified engineer who discovered how to make neutral-posture reclining work on a mass-production scale with bent steel tubing and plastic joints.

The bottom line

We put the available quality levels for these chairs to the test, and it is clear that you get what you paid for. The Timber Ridge zero gravity chair, which costs a little over $100, is better in every manner and has nicer materials. Those who sat in this chair were all in awe. The cupholder doesn’t have to be removed in order to store it, and it reclines farther than the others.