Outdoor furniture is crazily expensive, so it makes sense to take good care of it. This means keeping your patio furniture covered when it’s not in use. Since covers are rarely included with furniture (regardless of how much you spend on it) you’ll want to buy some good waterproof covers to protect from the sun, the rain, and anything else that might happen, like pollen.
Having just bought all new patio furniture, I’ve spend hours researching and testing the best waterproof patio furniture covers. Here are my findings.
Solving My Patio Furniture “Problem”
My home has a large deck — about 15′ by 50′ or over 750 square feet of space. Now I don’t feel like it needs to be packed with furniture, but any way you cut it there was going to be a significant amount of investment in patio furniture. With all this spending I wanted to make sure my chairs, sofa, tables, lounges, etc. would last.
I started to research furniture covers and found a set of products that were all relatively affordable but indistinguishable from one another. My fix? I spread out my purchases across different brands to find the best covers.
Best Waterproof Furniture Cover
Of the covers I tested, the most waterproof, heavy duty cover was the Duck Covers Ultimate Water-Resistant model. I have this in the 62″ size covering a wicker loveseat and it’s done its job quite well.
Duck Covers are heavier than most of the competition with features that are designed to stop rain and lock it on the outside. This means a waterproof coated exterior, double stitched seams, and smart material choices which are strategically placed around the cover.
The Duck Covers Ultimate patio furnitures covers are a bit on the expensive side relative to the competition but it’s a heavy cover that features a mixture of materials with strong double-stitching everywhere. The top seams — the one where the rain hits — are taped for the best possible rain resistance. Taped seams are normally reserved for high-end rain coats from brands like Patagonia, so it’s nice to see them here.
It’s a higher-end cover thanks to its construction, nice looks, and the Duck brand which has universally good reviews. It’s held in place with leg straps on each corner and an elastic hem that you can tighten.
The high-end Duck Covers Ultimate is also sold in a patio chair version which costs about $35, or about 2x the price of a standard waterproof cover.
The Duck Covers does not include an interior pillow (also known as an air bag), but you can get this for a few dollars more. What this bag does is, when inflated, it makes the cover convex so that water slides right off.
This cover is so waterproof that it stops water even when it’s not used with a cover. I’ve come home a few times to a standing pool of water on the Duck Cover and completely dry furniture. This isn’t ideal because it will get the cover dirty and standing water attracts bugs, but the cover can take the water.
While I like and recommend this furniture cover, it could use handles and some air vents to make it easier to use and deal with wind.
Also, as my Duck patio furniture covers are over a year now, I can say that they will bleach in the sun. The dark brown color has lightened — really, greyed — significantly. It’s just as effective and hasn’t cracked, but it doesn’t look as nice or new as it once did.
Best Budget Waterproof Furniture Cover
If you don’t need or want the “ultimate” model then I’d recommend trying out the Vailge Patio Covers.
These are very similar to the Duck brand covers but they end to be more affordable and lighter weight. They are a bit harder to get on and the lightweight design means they are more prone to blowing off than the Duck covers, but they still do better than the majority of products I’ve bought online as well as the no-name brands I’ve bought at my local hardware super-stores.