Are you looking for a high-quality outdoor dining set for your backyard? Are you tired of shopping for and comparing a million different patio dining sets? Let us help you out!
The Outer Dining Collection has everything you need if you want a high-quality and long-lasting patio dining set for your backyard.
Read on below to learn more about this collection and why we love it!
Overall Score
5.0
Ratings Summary
Frame Material
Fabric Material
Cushion Material
N/A
Assembly
Shipping and Delivery
Warranty
Return Policy / Trial Period
Price
Pros
- Aluminum and teak frame material
- Weather-resistant fabric
- Excellent warranty
Cons
- 2-3 week delivery time
Summary
Outer’s Dining Collection is an excellent, high-quality, highly-durable, and comfortable outdoor dining set that is ideal for any outdoor area. This patio dining set is made from some of the best outdoor materials that can endure the rain, sun, heat, and wear and tear of your backyard. In all, this is a great patio dining set that can be a central part of your backyard for your friends and family to gather at throughout the year.
Outer's Outdoor Dining Collection
Highlights:
- Teak and Aluminum Frame
- Weather-resistant mesh fabric
- Excellent warranty
- Free shipping
- 14-day free returns/365-day home trial
What is Outer?
Outer is a leading, direct-to-consumer outdoor furniture brand that uses high-quality outdoor materials to make stylish, comfortable, and durable patio furniture that can last many years. They offer many great, eco-friendly patio furniture options like sofas, sectionals, chairs, ottomans, and coffee tables through their Teak, Wicker, and Aluminum outdoor furniture collections that can easily fit any backyard style.
Read our full review of Outer to learn more about the company and its outdoor furniture. Below are some other outdoor furniture options from Outer:
What's Included in Outer's Dining Collection?
Outer’s patio dining collection features a 26″ tall rectangular table that comes in two different sizes with four seating capacity options:
- 7-piece outdoor dining set (6 chairs)
- 9-piece outdoor dining set (8 chairs)
- 11-piece outdoor dining set (10 chairs)
- 13-piece outdoor dining set (12 chairs)
The dining chairs (called Director’s Dining Chairs) are cushionless chairs made with a sling (also called mesh) fabric. These chairs are foldable, which makes for easy storage and moving.
Extra features:
- Each set comes with an OuterShell, a protective cover placed on the top of the table to protect the tabletop from dirt and other debris when not in use. This is a great protective option that can be simpler than other protective covers that fully cover a patio dining table and chairs.
- Some patio dining sets in this collection feature an extendable dining table. The table comes with a hidden central leaf that can be extended to provide seating for additional guests. This can be a great option if you have many friends over to your place and you need a large outdoor table to host them all.
How Do We Rank and Review Outdoor Furniture?
We understand (because we are buyers of outdoor patio furniture, too) that shopping for outdoor furniture can be confusing. It is not always easy to find the best patio furniture because there are many different materials to understand, seating options to evaluate, brands and retailers to shop, and prices to compare.
So, that is why we developed an 8-criteria guide to rank patio furniture. In our view, these eight criteria provide a simple and consistent way to compare outdoor seating or table options. Read our ranking guide to understand better how we review furniture and for you to use as you compare outdoor furniture options.
Outer's Dining Collection Review
Frame Material
Ranking: 5-Stars
Reason: This dining set uses FSC-certified Grade-A teak wood and powder-coated aluminum as the primary frame materials, some of the best outdoor frame materials available.
Teak is one of the most popular wood options for outdoor wood furniture. It is an incredibly strong wood, and its natural oils make it exceptionally weather-resistant, making this material an excellent choice for outdoor and patio furniture. The natural oils of teak make it water-resistant, which helps prevent this wood from rotting, decaying, and cracking. Also, teak’s natural oils provide excellent protection from heat and UV rays. Read more about the pros and cons of teak wood here. Read our full pros and cons of teak wood.
Aluminum is an excellent outdoor material because it is lightweight, highly durable, low cost, and requires little maintenance. Aluminum is naturally weather-resistant and resistant to rusting, but it can still corrode, which is why we prefer powder-coated aluminum. Powder-coating is a finish that protects the metal from corrosive elements like water, saltwater, and chlorine and enhances the durability of the metal. Read our full pros and cons of aluminum for outdoor furniture post.Â
Stainless steel is another key material for this set in the x-frame for the dining chairs. Stainless steel is an excellent material for the outdoors as it is designed to be very durable and resist corrosion.
In summary, these are high-quality materials that are highly weather-resistant and durable. These materials typically require little care season to season beyond mild soap and water to wash off dirt and debris.
Fabric Material
Ranking: 5-Stars
Reason: This set is made with PVC-coated polyester mesh fabric, which is highly weather-resistant and durable.
PVC-coated polyester is a fabric (often called sling or mesh outdoor fabric) created by covering polyester fibers with a PVC (polyvinyl chloride) coating. This coating makes the material more durable and weather-resistant. It is a popular outdoor furniture fabric choice because it is low maintenance and easy to clean. You can simply wipe the fabric with soapy water to clean away any dirt or debris.
A big advantage of this fabric is that it repels water, and water quickly passes through the mesh, which makes this material very quick to dry. Additionally, the company states that this fabric resists mildew and endures sun and heat without fading.
Cushion Material
Ranking: N/A
Reason: This is a cushionless patio dining set
Although we don’t have a ranking for this category since this patio dining set does not have cushions, we do recognize the PVC-coated polyester is a very comfortable seating option. Many people love sling (or mesh) fabric chairs because the fabric is very comfortable and provides great support without being too rigid.
So, if you are looking for a patio dining set that is comfortable without cushions, the mesh material used in this patio dining set can be the perfect option for you.
Assembly
Ranking: 4.5-Stars
Reason: Minimal assembly is required to attach the tabletop to the table frame; no assembly on the chairs
This patio dining set is very easy to assemble. The only assembly required is attaching the tabletop to the table frame. We estimate this can be done in less than 30 minutes following the provided assembly instruction.
A big plus is that the dining chairs in this set do not require any assembly.
Overall, this is an excellent option if you are looking for an easy-to-assemble patio dining set.
Shipping and Delivery
Ranking: 4.5-Stars
Reason: Free shipping, delivery in about 2-3 weeks
Outer’s excellent shipping policy includes free shipping for all orders within the contiguous 48 United States.
When shipped, this dining collection should take about 2-3 weeks to be delivered to your home. We prefer (and rank more highly) sets that take about a week to deliver, but this 2-3 week delivery time frame is still very reasonable compared to industry standards.
So, if you want a new dining set from Outer, get your order in so that you enjoy it as soon as you can!
Warranty
Ranking: 5-Stars
Reason: Table and chair frames have a 5-year warranty, and chair fabric has a 3-year warranty
A 1-year warranty is an industry average for patio furniture, though this short period is rarely enough to protect outdoor furniture that needs to stand the test of time.
On the other hand, Outer’s warranty is one of the best in the industry. The table and chair frames have a 5-year warranty, and the chair fabric has a 3-year warranty, which is some of the best warranty timeframes in the market.
This excellent warranty will give you peace of mind knowing that your furniture is built to last.
Return Policy / Trial Period
Rating: 5-Stars
Reason: 14-day 100% money-back return period; 365-day trial period with 20% return fee + cost of shipping
A great part about any purchase from Outer is that the company offers a 100% money-back return period of 14 days. Plus, the company accepts returns up to a whole year after delivery of your patio furniture item (although there is a 20% return fee + cost of shipping).
These return and trial period options are better than many other brands and give you great flexibility in making sure that you truly love your dining set from Outer.
Price
Ranking: 4.5-Stars
Reason: At the time of this review, the price of this furniture set was ~$6,000 for the 7-piece dining set, which is slightly above the average price range for comparable high-quality dining sets. However, similar high-quality sets do not have as many 4- and 5-star ratings (e.g., warranty and return policy) and other excellent features (e.g., the OuterShell) like this set, so there is a lot of value incorporated into the price of this set.
Any outdoor furniture purchase can be a significant investment for any buyer.
At the time of this review, the price of this furniture set was ~$6,000 for the 7-piece dining set, which is slightly above the average price range ($2,000 – $5,000) for comparable high-quality dining sets.
However, we feel the higher-than-average price is justified given the dining table’s high-quality materials, great warranty, return policy/trial period, free shipping, easy assembly, and extra features like the OuterShell and extendable table option.
Final Ranking and Conclusion
Overall Ranking: 5-stars
Outer’s Dining Collection is a beautiful, high-quality, and comfortable patio furniture set that is perfect for any outdoor space. We rank this set 5-stars because it is made from some of the best outdoor materials that can withstand the wear and tear of your backyard with little maintenance. Additionally, the 5-year warranty on the frames and 3-year warranty on fabric are excellent warranties, and the 14-day, 100% money-back return period coupled with the 365-day home trial offers you the opportunity to make sure you love the dining set. Plus, the other factors like free shipping and minimal assembly make this an all-around fantastic patio dining set.
So, if you are looking for the best patio dining set for your backyard, this dining collection from Outer can be an excellent option for you!
