Wood Folding Tables vs Plastic Folding Tables (Pros/Cons)

When purchasing new tables, many of our customers have difficulty choosing between NEW Wood Folding Tables and NES Reliable Plastic Folding Tables. We are often asked "Which tables are better?" in hopes that we'll be able to definitively tell our customer and potential customers which tables are better. The truth is that both types of tables have pros and cons that you need to consider before you purchase your tables. To help you make your choice, we will look at some of these positives and negatives of both tables, including weight, strength, cleaning, flexibility of use, and overall longevity.

Weight

Weight is an important factor if you are going to be moving around the tables on a regular basis. If you need to move the tables around with limited labour, then the advantage clearly goes to the plastic folding tables. For example, the 6-ft NES Reliable Rectangular Plastic Folding Table weighs in at a scant 30.26lbs compared to the NES Wood Folding Table which weighs 48lbs. Lighter tables help reduce the risk of injury and damage to the table when it is being moved. If you will not be moving the tables then the weight advantage is likely a non-factor for your purchase.

Strength

When it comes to strength it is really a dead heat. Both the NES Reliable Plastic Folding Tables as well as the NES Wood Folding Tables are exceptionally strong. Need some proof? Take a look at the two pictures below. One is our 6-ft NES Reliable Rectangle Plastic Folding Table and the other is our new 6-ft NES Wood Rectangle Folding Table. Both tables had two 35lb 6-ft rectangle skids and 22 8-ft NES Reliable Rectangular Plastic Folding Tables stacked on top of on them; This is a combined weight of over 1100lbs. At the end of the one hour test, both tables were folded neatly and put away with no evidence that the test had been performed on them.

Cleaning

Each product in this case has a different advantage for cleaning. The plastic folding tables are great for fast cleanup of spills. Since it is a flat surface that does not have bolts in the top like the wood folding tables have, you can simply wipe the top clean. With that said some people do find that over time the plastic folding tables pick up marks that are either difficult to get off or they are not able to get them off the table. This is not as much of an issue with the plywood tables because they can be refinished.

Flexibility of Use

In terms of overall usability, the plastic tables come out slightly ahead of the plywood tables. Why is this? As I have already mentioned, the plastic tables are lighter than their wood equivalents, which makes them easier to manage. Additionally, they can be used in doors and outdoors. While the plastic folding tables will deteriorate over time if left outdoors, the deterioration will occur over a significantly longer period of time. Additionally if you wipe the tables dry after it rains this deterioration will be delayed further.

Overall Longevity

For overall longevity, wood folding tables are king-- although the wood table may not remain the size that you originally purchased. Many of our customers love that they can sand the tables, apply a new coat of varnish, and effectively have a brand new table. What happens if you break the corner? The 8-ft x 30” rectangle will simply become a different size, perhaps a 8-ft x 18” Training Table or a 6-ft x 30” rectangle. While plastic folding tables also last a long time in a rental environment, you are not able to refinish and reuse them in the same way that you can with the plywood tables.

So which type of tables should you buy? It’s really a personal preference. You need to decide what is important to you, so that you get table that's best for you on a day to day basis. At the end of the day, as long as you purchase a high quality table, we don’t think there is a bad choice between the two. We have many customers that wish that they switched to Plastic Folding Tables earlier and others that swear by the Wood Folding Tables. If you have any other questions about folding tables or any of our other products, please don't hesitate to ask us a question!

Top Image courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

We introduced our NES Reliable Plastic Folding Tables in Toronto more than 6 years ago and the response we have been getting from our customers has been truly amazing. While we have always known our tables are of substantially better quality than you will find with Canadian Tire folding tables or Walmart folding tables, we have never really done a good job of communicating this to our customers.

I realized that we needed to do a better job explaining why our tables are better than those you'd get at a big box store when I received a call from a prospective customer asking for some detailed information about our 3ft square plastic folding card tables. This gentleman insisted that the legs for our 3ft square plastic folding card table should NOT have legs that fold in pairs. He said he had purchased a Canadian Tire Folding Card table that had legs that fold in pairs and he said "the table was crap." Knowing that our NES Reliable Plastic folding tables were not the same 'crappy' quality as you might find at Canadian Tire, I proceeded to try to explain over the phone just how great our folding card table is. Needless to say, this gentleman never bought and I decided we had to do a better job of showing the strength and capabilities of our 3ft Square Folding Card tables. We did this when I tried to break our 3ft Square Folding card table by loading it with more than 1,100lbs of salt on top of the table.

We have done this and other stress tests to show what it takes to break our plastic folding tables. In each of the tests that we have done, we have never indicated what the weight rating was for the tables. When we realised this, we decided it was time we put together a list of the weight ratings that we have for all of our plastic folding tables.

We believe the capabilities of our NES Reliable line of plastic folding tables are comparable to the commercial quality of Lifetime folding tables and better than Costco folding tables but have not done any of our own in-house tests yet. Stay tuned over the coming weeks and months as we start to do some stress tests on Lifetime folding tables, Costco folding tables, and of course Canadian Tire and Walmart folding tables.