If you need a new camping chair for your caravan holidays, have you thought about buying an inflatable chair? If not, read on, as we think they’re an excellent – and often overlooked – option.

Here we are reviewing the SunnCamp single flocked sofa, a two-tone chair that will set you back just £19. We looked at it as part of a group test. And as another product from SunnCamp, the 5 in 1 sofa bed, scored a glittering five out of five and was declared our group test winner, the best inflatable camping chair we reviewed, expectation is high when it comes to this smaller seat. So, why should you consider inflatable furniture?

There are a few obvious drawbacks. They can puncture, once blown up they can be quite bulky and cumbersome, you’ll have to top them up with air every few days, plus you might need to erect an awning in which to store them, because if left outside, they might simply blow away.

On the other hand, they’re often bright and colourful, and they can be matched to your other caravan accessories. They are also, on the whole, not too expensive, they’re light, which is essential when packing all your holiday kit into your caravan, and, once deflated, they take up very little space, another bonus.

Inflatable furniture has come a long way in recent years. And while some may argue that you’re never going achieve the levels of comfort enjoyed at home when on tour, we think that these blow up options prove that when on holiday there is no need to compromise. Engineering a supportive backrest has proved something of a challenge for the makers of these chairs, but if you think an inflatable chair is going to be wobbly and unstable, prepare to be surprised.

We put every one of the chairs reviewed through the same tough test procedure. We wanted to see how long it took to inflate and then deflate each, and we used the same, 12V pump every time, to make sure our tests were fair. Some (like this chair) had large-diameter valves, which let more airflow in and out, for easier and quicker inflation, while on the best products the valve can be taken out completely, massively speeding up deflation.

Value for money was also considered, and as these camping chairs can be quite sizeable once blown up, this and the total seating area they give you were taken into account, too. Finally, but very importantly, our test team rated each product for comfort, in terms of getting in and out of each chair, how far off the ground they are, and what they’re like for sitting upright in and for lounging in.

What did the Practical Caravan review team make of this SunnCamp single flocked sofa? We immediately took a liking to it thanks to the speed and simplicity of setting it up. We needed only one minute and 14 seconds to go from dead flat to ready, thanks to the large-diameter valve. Deflation is similarly straightforward.

This club-chair design is inviting, and while it’s not uncomfortable, you definitely have to get used to it. At 35cm, the seat base height feels a little lower than ideal. And although the backrest only reaches the mid-back, there is enough give in it to allow quite a relaxed seating posture – the longer we were in the seat, the more it won us over.

This chair received a four-star rating – and if you remember that it costs just £19, it makes for a very good value option for your caravan holidays. What other chairs did we evaluate? As well as the group test winning SunnCamp 5 in 1 sofa bed, we also reviewed the Bestway Nestair, the Bestway Comfi Cube, the Bestway Moda, the Intex Café Chaise, the Intex Beanless Bag, the Easy Camp Movie Seat Double, the Vango armchair and the Gelert ABD099.