The complete guide
Egg Chair Covers, A Practical Buyer's Guide
The problem with leaving an egg chair uncovered
An egg chair looks great in a garden photo. In real life it spends most of the year empty, sitting out in whatever the weather does. Rain soaks into the cushion and takes days to dry. Dust and pollen settle into the weave and turn gray. Sun bleaches one side of the rattan while the other side stays dark. By the second summer the chair does not look like the one you bought.
None of that is the chair's fault. Outdoor furniture is built to handle weather, but handling weather and looking good after three years of it are different things. UV light breaks down resin and fades dye. Water that sits in a cushion seam feeds mildew. Leaves rot in the base of the pod and stain it.
A cover stops most of it. It is the least exciting purchase you will make for your patio and probably the one that saves you the most money.
How a good cover actually works
There are three jobs a cover has to do, and cheap ones usually fail at least two.
The first is shedding water. That comes down to the fabric and the coating. This cover uses 100% 500D Oxford fabric with a double-layer PU coating. The denier number describes yarn thickness, so 500D is a chunkier, tougher weave than the 210D polyester you find on very cheap covers. The PU coating is the part that stops water passing through. Without a coating, even a tight weave will eventually wet out in sustained rain.
The second job is sealing the gaps. Water does not usually come through the middle of a panel. It comes through stitch holes and zipper teeth. That is why the seams on this cover are sealed with waterproof tape, and why the zipper has tape added too. A cover with great fabric and raw seams will leak along every stitch line.
The third job is staying on. This is where most covers lose. A loose cover in wind acts like a sail. It lifts, flaps, chafes against the chair frame and eventually tears at a stress point or disappears over the fence. The design here uses a strap around the middle with an anti-slip lock, a drawstring circuit at the hem and four buckles that clip underneath. You are not relying on one point of attachment.
Why the zipper matters more than you think
A hanging egg chair sits in a tall stand. Getting a fitted cover over the top of it, on your own, in a breeze, is genuinely annoying. People do it twice and then stop bothering, which defeats the point of owning a cover at all.
A side zipper changes the routine. You open the cover, walk it around the chair, close the zipper and then pull the drawstrings. Thirty seconds, no ladder, no second pair of hands. If you cover your chair overnight or whenever rain is forecast rather than only in winter, a zipper is the single feature worth paying for.
The trade-off with any zipper is that it is a potential leak path. That is addressed here with a waterproof zipper plus tape, so you get the convenience without the weak spot.
Getting the size right
This is the part people get wrong, and it is easy to get right.
The cover measures 75 inches long by 45 inches wide by 75 inches high, and it is built for single-seat hanging chairs up to 45 inches wide and 75 inches high. Measure your own chair in two places. Take the widest point of the pod, which is usually around the middle of the seat opening. Then measure from the floor to the highest point of the stand, not just the top of the chair.
If both numbers sit under the stated limits, you are fine. If either one is right at the limit, expect a tight fit, which is not a bad thing as long as you can still close the drawstrings underneath. If your chair is wider than 45 inches, you have a double or oversized model and need a bigger cover.
One more thing to check. Some stands have a wide footprint that splays out at the base. Measure that too, because a cover can clear the pod easily and still be tight around the feet.
Who this suits
This is the right cover if you own a single-seat hanging egg chair, a pod chair, a swingasan-style chair, or a wicker or rattan egg chair with a stand. The chair material does not matter much. What matters is the shape and the measurements.
It also suits anyone who covers and uncovers often rather than once a year. The zipper and buckle system is quick enough that it does not become a chore.
If your chair lives under a solid roof or in a garage during winter, you may not need something this heavy. A light dust cover would do. But for a chair that stays outside through rain, wind and full sun, a coated Oxford cover with sealed seams is the sensible choice.
Fitting it properly
Covers fail more often from bad fitting than from bad fabric. A few minutes of care pays off.
Start with a dry chair. Covering a wet cushion traps moisture against the fabric, and that is how you get a musty smell and mildew spots. If the chair has been rained on, give it a day in the sun first.
Clear out any leaves and twigs from the base of the pod. Organic matter under a sealed cover rots.
Fit the cover, then tighten everything. Pull the middle strap and lock it. Pull both drawstrings at the hem and tie them off. Clip the four buckles underneath and take up the slack. A snug cover barely moves in wind. A loose one works itself free over a few nights.
Avoid leaving a flat dip on top where water can pool. If the cover sags somewhere, nudge the chair or the cushion so the surface slopes. Standing water is heavy and it finds weaknesses.
Looking after the cover
Cleaning is simple. Brush off dry debris, wipe the outside with a damp cloth and a little mild soap, rinse with plain water, and let it air dry completely before folding. That is it.
What you should not do is put it in a washing machine or a dryer. Machine washing scrubs at the PU coating and can lift the seam tape, which is exactly what keeps water out. Heat does the same thing. Bleach and strong solvents will also attack the coating.
When the weather turns and the chair is in daily use again, fold the cover into the storage bag it comes with and put it somewhere dry. Storing it damp is the fastest way to ruin a perfectly good cover between seasons.
The short version
An egg chair cover is cheap insurance for a piece of furniture that cost a lot more. Look for heavy coated fabric, sealed seams, a sealed zipper and more than one way to hold the cover down. This one ticks those boxes with 500D Oxford fabric, a double PU coating, taped seams and zipper, four buckles and two drawstrings.
Measure your chair before you order. Width and height are the two numbers that matter, and the cover fits single-seat chairs up to 45 inches wide and 75 inches high. Fit it on a dry chair, pull everything tight, and check it after storms.
Do that and your chair will look the same in three years as it does now, which is the whole point.