Sumo Sultan big bean bag chair review

You may be wondering what a bean bag chair has to do with gadgets, but if you look back on the years, we’ve reviewed a few here. The first thing I think of when I think of a bean bag chair is something that belongs in a game room, is small, and has lots of little balls inside that go all over when your pets manage to rip the thing open. The Sumo Sultan bean bag chair does not have the little balls like most bean bags, has a suede cover that can be changed and washed, and is huge. Since I have an unfurnished den, I thought I’d try out the Sultan and see how it fit in.

If you go online, you can see videos of vacuum packed bean bag chairs being opened for the first time, and it’s really awesome. I was totally excited to open mine when the box came. It was compacted down quite a bit to be able to fit. I dragged my sister over to video the opening so I could show it to you guys, but sadly it did not inflate as some of the others did. It was a gradual process. As you can see though, it’s quite packed in there. The inner lining of the bean bag chair is a yellowish tan and can be seen through the plastic above. I chose the ‘earth’ color for my micro-suede cover, which comes packaged in its own bag.

The instructions say that once unwrapped, you’ll need to pull apart the innards into chunks to allow air inside to start the expanding process. The expanding process took quite a while. The above picture is about 2 hours after we unwrapped it. I learned one thing watching videos on bean bag chairs, and that was to put the cover on before it is fully expanded to make things a lot easier. I waited until just before this picture and it still took some effort.

Since I was seeing little progress, I waited until the next morning (about 15 hours later) to take this next picture. I fluffed it up as much as I could during this time by rolling the bag around my den. You can see it is filled out quite a bit, but it is not finished expanding yet.

During each fluff session, I would lay down on it and see if there were any big chunks still needing pulled apart. Well, after those 15 hours, it started getting the dog’s approval. The microsuede cover is quite soft and feels pretty durable. I could still feel those chunks digging into my side, so I decided to give it another day of fluff sessions.

After two days, we managed to get most of the chunks gone. The process I would use to find chunks was to roll the bean bag on one side, lay on it, and then pull apart any larger chunks I felt under me. Then I’d turn it to another side and repeat about four times. A few hours later, I’d do the same thing again. It’s a lot of work to get the chunks out, and I was very thankful to have a large, unfurnished den to roll it around in.

Now if you’ve had a regular bean bag chair before, you may wonder, “Why there are chunks when there should be little balls of foam inside?” This bean bag chair has larger, half inch to inch sized polyurethane foam pieces (from what I can feel) instead of the standard small foam balls. In my opinion, the larger pieces allows it to be firmer on the sides. When sitting on it, I could not feel the bigger pieces, though when you run your hand over it, you can.

It took a solid four days for the bean bag chair to fully expand. Sumo’s website lists the Sultan’s dimensions at 60″x60″x38″. You can see how tall it is via the yardstick in the picture above. The height (without having been sat in) was around 32″. Once it was sat in, it expanded upward slightly in the back so was a few inches taller.

We got the futon moved back into the den and set the bean bag chair next to it and I have to say, it looks nice in here. I don’t think I could see this looking good in a main living room, but in a den or game room, it looks pretty awesome. It’s also not terribly heavy, so it can be moved around. A few hours after this picture was taken, I noticed that it had been moved to be in the middle of the rug, in front of the TV. Apparently one of my housemates decided to use it over the futon for their gaming.

I have to say, I was skeptical at first about a giant bean bag chair being comfortable. It’s amazing for laying on your side and napping, as well as sitting and playing games. It was not as comfortable if you needed to sit straight up, due to the back not being flat when sitting on it, but it’s good for lounging positions. I added one of the futon pillows and it made it more comfortable for sitting positions. Also, it is big enough that multiple people can sit on it. After having it for several weeks, I really enjoy the new addition to the den. We’ve also had visitors over who commented favorably on it, both in looks and comfort.

The only real downside other than being huge is that when you sit in the same spot for an extended period (or multiple times), the bean bag chair keeps the imprint of however you sat. In the above picture of the den, you can see how we normally sit on it. You just need to turn it on its side, fluff it, and turn it back and it is back to normal.

So would I recommend this? As I said before, I would not recommend it for a living room. However, if you want a nice addition (and have the room to add) to your game room or den, you may want to look into the Sumo Sultan. It can fit a couple kids or two adults comfortably and the price is not terribly high if you see it as a piece of furniture, since it is large enough to be one.

Source: The sample for this review were provided by Sumo. Please visit their website for more info.