NEMO Moonlite Elite Reclining Hiking Chair – Reviewed and Tested

One track was running through Tim’s mind as he tested out NEMO’s new ultralight hiking chair: ‘Lean back’. Yep, it’s one of the lightest on the market AND it reclines… kinda. 

Here’s a little peek behind the curtain, I wrote the sentence above, which means that yes, I’m listening to the iconic track ‘Lean Back’ by Terror Squad, Fat Joe and Remy Ma as I write this introduction. And it absolutely still holds up.

Something that doesn’t hold up anymore however, is my ageing back when I plant my bum in the dirt after a long day of hiking. To make matters worse, my friends have begun investing in myriad ultralight chairs – leading to severe pangs of jealousy and more than a few requests to ‘get out of my chair Tim’.

Why should I do this review?

Having now tested all of my mate’s chairs, I was thrilled when Nemo asked if I wanted to give their new NEMO Moonlite Elite a spin. What’s more, at 510g it’s bang on with the Helinox Chair Zero (which is 490g if you throw away the bag). I immediately texted my mate who owns the Helinox. It’s on.

While the hikes I’m doing are only getting harder, I’m starting to value comfort a bit more once the tools are down and hiking chairs are one way to wake up the next day feeling more refreshed. I’m also valuing lightweight gear as every gram counts (for the same reason).

A recent lightweight coffee, about to carry the chair to a sunrise lookout spot

Quick Specifications

Weight: 510g (620g in carrying case)
Dimensions: 46 x 48 x 59cm
Packed dimensions: 32 x 8 x 10cm
Weight rating: 113.4kg
RRP: $299 AUD

Comfort

Oh you know we’re starting with comfort when it’s a chair.

But it’s not just a chair, it’s a r e c l i n e r.

Yep, I’m out here with a 510g La-Z-Boy, and I love it, let me explain.

Reclining

This style of chair has become ubiquitous in the outdoors, so much so that even goddamn ALDI makes one. Recently on a hike we had examples from Helinox, NEMO, Zorali and Alton goods, all with the same push together frame and bucket of fabric to sit in. If weight’s not an issue, you can get yourself an affordable one that weighs around a kilo – if it is – you’ll need premium materials and the associated dollars to play in the featherweight division.

The  NEMO Moonlite Elite has a key difference: they cut out a heap of fabric and replaced it with a very strong blended HTP and Dyneema® cord. This makes the chair adjustable, you simply pull on the toggles (like you’re belaying a rock climber) and, you guessed it, lean back!

Legs straight without pressure on the hammies, ooh baby | @jackjbrookes

So does it work? I reckon so! For chillaxin’ (people still say chillaxin right?) by the fire you can loosen up the  toggles, kick the feet back, and really luxe it up. You basically transfer the weight more onto the rear poles than the cord.

For cooking, where you want something closer to a stool, you can pull the toggles inwards to bring the stool more upright. It’s all very nifty. Maybe too nifty…

In reality, I left it somewhere in the middle. The chair’s design, with short legs and a longer, flexible back than some of its competitors, means that the lean to stool pipeline is still flowing without making micro adjustments, which is great.

Support

Can a small sling of fabric be comfortable? Surprisingly, yes! The cutout design, which is a lightweight evolution of the original 850g Moonlite, acts a bit more like a sling than a bucket like some of its competitors. This gives more room for the fabric to contour to your cheeks as it’s a bit more flexible.

Flexibility

Another area the Moonlite Elite excels in is how it conforms to your movement. While a Helinox chair is no doubt comfortable in one position, they can feel a bit confined when life causes you to move around. The ball-and-socket connectors on the Elite help counter this by allowing the fabric to pivot under load. It’s pretty nice.

While anything that relies on plastic being flexed is a red flag to me, if you hang onto your receipt Nemo offers a lifetime warranty. Challenge accepted.

Getting Up

Sometimes sitting in one of these chairs after a long day on the pins can cause you to sink into the chair like Augustus Gloop, by which I mean deliciously. However when you do need to get up it can be a real struggle. After testing this back to back I’d say that the Moonlite Elite excels here due to its clever design that assists more upright sitting, giving you more leverage over those weary legs.

Design

Design is like, NEMO’s whole thing. They’re sick for it. Just look at these tent pegs I found the other day.

I’d be willing to bet the name came before the product

When tasked with minimising their existing chair they took an approach called ‘skeletonising’ which, apart from being very spooky, led to significant weight savings.

It’s the little things that save weight here. The reduced size of the chair’s feet, the varying size of each pole, the clever decision to switch from tape to cord on the reclining bit.

What’s interesting is that, despite all of this getting the chair within fighting distance of the Helinox Chair Zero (20g) they throw it all away with the bag.

With the cords done up tight the Moonlite Elite sits more upright

The Platform Pack™

Did they really trademark that? Anyway. Instead of a straightforward and very lightweight bag, NEMO reinvented the chair here with a tool-roll style case. It’s nice, sure, but at around 100g it feels way over developed, with metal buckles, elastic cord, and overlapping fabric.

The reason for this is that it’s dual use; when rolled out the ‘platform pack’ becomes just that, a platform for the chair that stops its legs (now with minimal feet) postholing into the ground.

I don’t have a photo of the Platform Pack rolled up but here it is working to carry bulk hiking snacks

And that’s useful. Having seen these chairs sink into sand or even soft grass, it runs the risk of derailing your chill or worse, damaging the chair. I particularly liked it because I could put my phone and snacks down there, and move them if I moved the chair – this happens more than you think!

However it does seem over-engineered and any half-serious weight weenie, which we can assume this chair is aimed at, is going to leave it at home pretty quickly.

It’s worth noting that the Helinox equivalent, a ground sheet that you have to buy separately for $45, comes in at 160g.

The Colours

There are two colourways: citron and goodnight grey.

To put it plainly, ‘citron’ (pictured) is a lot. Looking into the greenygrey mesh gives me a feeling of liminal space and I begin to dissociate. It photographs well though.

Goodnight grey, with its orange highlights, is very nice and understated, and would probably hold up more strongly to my biggest critique of the citron colour: it shows mud really easily. The platform pack got filthy!

I quite liked the colour at night, very easy to see

Performance

Can we agree that a chair’s main performance is its comfort? I’ll keep this section short.

One thing I did notice was that the mesh material lets all the air in. We had freezing conditions whilst testing and my merino thermals and hiking pants were no match for the wind.

Other chairs were bad too, but the Nemo was definitely the breeziest. In summer, this would be a pro! But make sure you pack a little bit of foam or some trackies if you can’t stand a cold bum.

Sustainability

The mesh, webbing, and binding use 100% recycled materials and some of the hardware is bluesign® approved. I believe it also came in cardboard packaging – we love to see it.

Nemo as a whole is working to cut its emissions in half by 2030. They have a director of sustainability and a detailed sustainability page. Their sustainability report is publicly available, and I was particularly impressed by the advocacy and lobbying section, as that’s the real path to change.

Unfortunately GoodOnYou haven’t rated Nemo, but given the depth of information on this part of their site I suspect they’d score quite highly.

Jack and I deep in a conversation about white-labelled outdoor gear

Price

Ahh, it had to be something didn’t it? With an RRP of $299.95 the NEMO Moonlite Elite is expensive. That being said, a quick Google brings up multiple places where you can lock it in for around $240, so I do question if that RRP is that real.

It’s not competitive though, with the Helinox Chair Zero retailing for $199, and often less.

I’m not quite sure why Nemo saw fit to charge so much for the Moonlite Elite. It’s no doubt innovative and comfortable, but you know what else is comfortable? A hundred dollars.

$300 is a lot for lightweight comfort, maybe Nemo know their market?

Final Thoughts

The NEMO Moonlite Elite is a well-designed piece hiking chair. True to form, NEMO have done something different here and added a level of versatility and comfort to what’s becoming a common piece of kit. It’s study and comfortable, incredibly light and, I’ll be honest, very hard to leave behind.

If you can get one on sale (or ‘membership price’) then I think these benefits do give it an edge over the competition, and I love that NEMO are going out on their own. That’s never going to be the cheapest approach – whether that’s worth it is up to your buns.

Read More NEMO Product Reviews

• NEMO Dragonfly Bikepack 2P OSMO Tent – Reviewed & Tested
• A New 100% Recyclable Sleeping Bag By NEMO
• NEMO Hornet Elite OSMO™ 2P Tent – Reviewed & Tested
• Nemo Dagger 2P Tent Review – Nemo Dagger 2P Ultralight Tent