Amazon Basics Metal Dining Chairs

Is the Amazon Basics Metal Dining Chairs worth buying?

Yes, the Amazon Basics Metal Dining Chairs are worth buying at £126.69 for four if you want seats that survive a working kitchen rather than a formal dining room. Each chair carries 149.6 kg, stacks, and 1,979 owners rate the set 4.6. A family with children, a busy island or a patio door that stays open all summer is exactly who these are built for.

The four seats work out at £31.67 each, which is £14.17 more per chair than the mcc direct White Dining Chairs. That premium pays for a 149.6 kg limit, a frame that shrugs off water and rust, and a stack that stores in the floor space of one chair. If your table is only used for dinner and you want padding underneath you, spend the difference on cushions instead.

What does the 149.6 kg load rating mean in practice?

Each Amazon Basics Metal Dining Chair takes 149.6 kg, which is about 23.5 stone and 29.6 kg more than the 120 kg limit on the padded mcc direct and VASAGLE sets here. An X-bar runs under every seat and spreads that weight across the frame instead of loading four leg joints, which is why a steel chair of this shape outlasts wooden legs at the same price. No one in a normal household gets close to the limit.

The seat height is 17 inches, or 43.2 cm from the floor, which sits roughly 2.8 cm lower than the 46 cm seats on the padded sets. Under a standard 72 to 75 cm table that leaves a slightly larger gap across the thighs, and it puts the chair at a comfortable height for a shorter sitter. A taller adult will notice the drop more than the load rating.

What comes in the box and what is it like to live with?

The box holds four black powder-coated steel chairs with solid square backs, an X-bar under each seat, and plastic pads fitted to both the X-bar and the feet to stop scratches reaching a hard floor. Each chair is 51.1 cm deep, 43.4 cm wide and 85.1 cm high, and weighs 4.26 kg, so the whole set comes to 17.04 kg. Assembly is three steps per chair.

Stacking is what changes the day to day: four chairs take up the floor area of one when the table is cleared, and at 4.26 kg a chair you can carry the stack outside in a single trip. The frame is water and rust resistant and the powder coating is the layer doing that work, so a summer shower on the patio will not mark it, though bringing them in for winter keeps the finish sharp. Cushions and covers are not in the box.

Where does it fall short?

The seat is bare powder-coated metal with no padding, no fabric and no give, so a long dinner is a firmer sit than the 10.5 cm cushion on the Yaheetech set. The chair is armless, and the back is fixed at one position with no tilt or recline, so you sit how the frame decides. Add your own seat pads if meals at your table run past an hour.

Two more things matter before you order. At 43.2 cm this is the lowest seat on this page, a whisker under the 44 cm Klihome four, so it wants a standard table rather than a tall one. And at £31.67 a chair it costs £14.17 more per seat than the mcc direct White four, which is £85.02 more across six places.

How does it compare with the mcc direct White and the Yaheetech sets?

Against the mcc direct White Dining Chairs at £69.99, these cost £56.70 more for the set and £14.17 more for every chair, and in return you get 29.6 kg more load per seat, a water and rust resistant frame and the stack. The mcc direct set is the smarter buy for a carpeted dining room indoors, where 120 kg is plenty and the padding wins.

Against the Yaheetech Faux Leather Dining Chairs at £119.99, the difference is only £6.70 for four chairs, or £1.67 a chair, and the Yaheetech set holds 135 kg against 149.6 kg. That set brings a 92.5 cm high back and a 10.5 cm padded seat, so it takes the long-dinner vote, while these take the wipe-clean, stackable, carry-it-outside vote at almost the same money. Neither is a bad chair, they just answer different questions.