Outdoors & Fitness · Head-to-head
Therm-a-Rest Z Seat vs Big Agnes TwisterCane BioFoam Hiking Seat
Which should you buy? Our verdict on both, pulled from our full The Best Sit Pads: 4 Compared (and One to Skip) comparison.
The Z Seat is the lightest published weight here, puts 0.75 inches of closed-cell foam under you and offers a reflective face on some colours, which is a lot of insulation per gram even though Therm-a-Rest never quantifies it. The TwisterCane is the one that tells you what it does, and 1.7 is a real number you can plan around.
Therm-a-Rest Z Seat
Buy itThe lightest published weight here, a reflective face on some colours, and no published R-value.
- 0.75 inches of cross-linked closed-cell foam at a stated 2 oz (about 57 grams), the lightest published weight here.
- Reflective ThermaCapture surface on the Blue and Limon colours, which returns radiated heat rather than only resisting conduction.
- Accordion fold rather than a roll, so it packs flat against the back panel of a pack and never re-rolls itself.
- Closed-cell foam has no air to lose, so there is no puncture failure mode.
- No R-value published anywhere on the product page, which is the figure the product exists to deliver.
- The product description is a single sentence, so the specification table does all the work.
- Accordion panels trap grit in the folds and the pad gets grubby quickly.
Big Agnes TwisterCane BioFoam Hiking Seat
Buy itThe only sit pad here that publishes an R-value, and it publishes a modest one.
- States an R-Value of 1.7 alongside thickness, length and width, which no other product in this comparison does.
- Rolls tight for carrying, and Big Agnes pitches it from summer trips to high alpine winter conditions.
- EVA foam containing more than 60 percent sugarcane biomass, with the carbon story made specific rather than vague.
- Textured on one face and smooth on the other, so it grips a sloped rock instead of sliding off it.
- 0.5 inches thick, the thinnest pad in this comparison, and thickness is most of where insulation comes from.
- An R-value of 1.7 is genuinely low, which is useful to know and not especially reassuring.
- No reflective layer, so it resists conduction without doing anything about radiated heat.
Side by side
The 9 criteria below are the ones our full comparison judged every product on, narrowed to these two.
| Therm-a-Rest Z Seat Our pick | Big Agnes TwisterCane BioFoam Hiking Seat | |
|---|---|---|
| Our verdict | Buy | Buy |
| Best for | Backpacking and cold ground, where grams matter and you want the most foam for the fewest of them. | Anyone who wants to know what they are buying, and is willing to trade a quarter inch of foam for it. |
| Price tier | $ · budget | $ · budget |
| Published R-value | Not published | 1.7 |
| Thickness | 0.75 in / 2 cm | 0.5 in / 13 mm |
| Weight | 2 oz (about 57 g) | Not published |
| Construction | Cross-linked closed-cell foam | EVA foam, 60 percent sugarcane |
| Reflective layer | ThermaCapture on Blue and Limon colours | Not published |
| Seat dimensions | 13 x 16 in | 20 x 12 in |
| Packed size | 12 x 2.5 x 2.75 in | Rolls |
| Failure mode | None, solid foam | None, solid foam |
| Weight per inch of thickness | About 76 g | Not published |
Which one is right for you?
Pick the Therm-a-Rest Z Seat if
backpacking and cold ground, where grams matter and you want the most foam for the fewest of them.
Know before buying: no R-value published anywhere on the product page, which is the figure the product exists to deliver.
Pick the Big Agnes TwisterCane BioFoam Hiking Seat if
anyone who wants to know what they are buying, and is willing to trade a quarter inch of foam for it.
Know before buying: 0.5 inches thick, the thinnest pad in this comparison, and thickness is most of where insulation comes from.
The bottom line
Our overall pick is the Therm-a-Rest Z Seat - The lightest published weight here, a reflective face on some colours, and no published R-value. Choose the Big Agnes TwisterCane BioFoam Hiking Seat instead if anyone who wants to know what they are buying, and is willing to trade a quarter inch of foam for it.
Want the full picture, including the other options we compared and the popular one we'd skip? Read the complete The Best Sit Pads: 4 Compared (and One to Skip).