# Stacking Chairs Buying Guide: Stack Height, Weight, Trolleys > How to choose stacking chairs for training rooms and events: stack heights, chair weight, trolleys, linking clips, and when folding chairs beat stacking. A buying guide from the Deskwell Gazette,… - URL: https://deskwell.co.uk/stacking-and-folding-chairs-seating-that-disappears-when-youre-done - Type: Blog post - Last updated: 2026-09-01 ## About this post - Written by Marcus - Published 2026-09-21 - Part of the series “Buyer's Guides” - Tagged Buying Guides, Office Chairs ## Article Most office chairs are bought to be sat on. Stacking chairs are bought to be put away, which is a different job and deserves a different set of questions. A training day needs forty seats on Tuesday and a clear floor on Wednesday. The Christmas do needs a hundred for one evening and nobody wants to look at them in January. If the chair cannot disappear properly, it is not doing the half of its job you paid for. This guide covers the four things that decide whether a stacking chair earns its cupboard: how high it stacks, how much it weighs, how it moves about the building, and whether it will sit in a straight row without being told twice. ## How high stacking chairs stack, and why it beats comfort Stack height is the number to look at first. A chair that stacks twelve high stores a whole seminar in the floor space of one chair. A chair that stacks four high needs three times the cupboard, and cupboards are the one thing an office never has spare. The [ISO stacking visitor chair](https://deskwell.co.uk/iso-stacking-visitor-meeting-and-conference-chair) stacks up to 12 high, and so does the [Polly polypropylene stacking chair](https://deskwell.co.uk/polly-one-piece-polypropylene-stacking-visitor-chair). The [Academy heavy duty stacking chair](https://deskwell.co.uk/academy-heavy-duty-stacking-medium-back-visitor-office-chair) stops at six, though it is the most comfortable seat of the three. That is the trade-off in a sentence: padding takes up room in a stack. Check the arms too. Arms almost always cost you stack height, and on some chairs they cost you stacking altogether. The armless Academy stacks six high; add the fixed arms and the spec table tells a different story. If the room only ever seats people for an hour, buy armless and thank yourself at pack-down. Twenty out for the morning. By lunchtime they are a stack in the corner. ## Weight is what your caretaker cares about Somebody has to carry them. The Polly weighs 3kg, so one person can take one in each hand and set out a hall before the kettle boils. The ISO is 4.5 to 5kg depending on the back. The Academy is 10kg, which is fine for a boardroom that changes twice a week and tiresome for a canteen that changes twice a day. Multiply the weight by the number of chairs and by how often the room turns over, and you have the honest cost of the chair, which is not the price. ## Trolleys and linking clips Two accessories decide whether a stack of chairs is tidy or a hazard. A [steel frame stacking chair trolley](https://deskwell.co.uk/steel-frame-stacking-chair-trolley) lets one person wheel a whole stack down a corridor instead of walking it two chairs at a time. It costs more than a few of the chairs it carries, and it is still the right buy for any room that turns over daily. The second is the humble linking clip. Venues often want rows joined so a row stays a row when a hundred people leave at once, and the [ISO chair linking clip](https://deskwell.co.uk/iso-black-nylon-chair-linking-clip) does that for £3 a pair of chairs. Cheaper than the argument with the venue manager. ## When folding beats stacking A folding chair stores flat rather than tall. That suits a cupboard with shelves rather than a corner with headroom, and it suits a van. The [Milan folding conference chair](https://deskwell.co.uk/milan-black-vinyl-folding-conference-and-visitor-chair) has a carry handle and rubber feet for polished floors. The [Capra folding training chair](https://deskwell.co.uk/capra-mesh-back-folding-office-training-chair-with-sliding-arms) has a mesh back, an optional writing tablet and a 150kg rating, which is unusual for anything with a hinge. Neither stacks, and both cost more per seat than a Polly. Buy folding when the storage is shelved or the chairs travel. Buy stacking when they stay put. ## Three questions before you order 1. Where do they live when nobody is sitting on them? Measure the cupboard before you decide between stacking tall and folding flat. A stack of twelve is taller than most people expect. 2. Who moves them, and how far? Under 5kg a chair and one person manages. Over that, or more than a corridor away, budget for the trolley. 3. How long will people actually sit? The Polly is rated for 4 hours, the ISO for 6, the Academy and the Banqueting for 8. A one-hour all-hands can sit on anything. A full training day cannot. ## Where to start The whole range is in [stacking and folding chairs](https://deskwell.co.uk/shop/categories/stacking-folding-chairs). If the room has a colour scheme, [blue stacking chairs](https://deskwell.co.uk/blue-stacking-chairs) is the quickest way to see what will match it. And if the budget is the brief, the Polly at £25 and the ISO from £37 both sit comfortably inside [office chairs under £100](https://deskwell.co.uk/office-chairs-under-100). One thing to know before the basket: the ISO, Polly and Milan are sold by the row, so an order of fewer than four carries a small extra charge. The product page says so, because that is where it should say so.