Coleman 4-Person Cabin with Instant Setup Review Tested by GearLab

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credit for the amount of the item at the time of purchase. Darkroom technology sets the Coleman Cabin Tent with Instant Setup apart from competitors. This tent blocks out 90% of the sun’s rays, making it easy to take a midday nap or enjoy some shade when spending the day on the beach. Interlinked poles mean you just unfold this tent and maneuver it into its natural shape. During our testing, we found this tend to be super simple and quick to assemble.

This convenience and additional features — including a ladder and a built-in mattress — mean rooftop tents tend to be on the higher end of the price spectrum. It suits anyone who is looking for a tent that sets up instantly, and that can comfortably fit 2 people, or those that enjoy solo camping in a tent with a generous amount of space. In fact, this dark room feature isn’t limited to Coleman’s instant tent. You can actually buy quite a few Coleman tents with the dark room feature.

Some tents have bigger windows, like my Coleman 10-Person Instant Tent, and my Core 9-Person Instant Tent. So, I would say that ultimately, for waterproofing, Coleman tents have a slight edge over Core tents, because they have tub floors, while Core tents do not. Instead, the fabric extends all the way to the ground, so I did my best to keep them away from the light flooding in my yard. So, if you’re expecting many hours of heavy rain, I recommend buying seam sealant and waterproofing spray and using it generously for both these brands. Your tent fabric will also come with a water-resistant coating, the corners of the flooring will be welded, and your zippers will come with zipper cuffs. We pitched each of the tents in our yard to test for durability, comfort, space, and water resistance.

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where some exclusions may apply. Refunds are issued to the original form of payment, unless returned in store where some exclusions may apply. Coleman makes no dedicated footprints for its tents—the idea being that the polyethylene is tough enough not to need one. (Still, we suggest that you buy a groundsheet.) The tent has two small, internal pockets—fewer than on any of our other picks—and a loop at the ceiling center to hang a small, lightweight light.

It is possible but might be a little bit difficult all alone, an extra person to help would be better. No, a floor saver is not included and there is not one available to purchase separately made by Coleman. When we tally up the ratings of a single tent, we examine a good deal of things, looking for points where the tent could beat out other comparable tents and where it is coming up short.

Some tents are also built to keep out the sun’s rays, making them great for those who like midday naps on vacation. Chances are, though, you won’t want to spend half your trip setting up your tent. Manufacturers have found clever ways to make tent setup easier, including attaching the poles to the material so there are no pieces to assemble. Some family tents can be erected as quickly as 60 seconds, especially once you’ve gotten the hang of it. The main structure isn’t the worst, with the entire tent made of 150D polyester and all seams sealed. However, the zippers and the mesh netting are poorly made, and the bag will not last more than a season before it rips or springs a leak.

This is a three-person tent at best—if the third person is a small child. Additionally, while the tent can’t stand on its own without the rainfly, the rainfly is attached to the frame. Removal of the internal tent can turn this into a sun tent, adding versatility. While it held up fine in drizzling rain, there are only two guylines to secure it coleman cabin tent to the ground, so we’re skeptical it will be able to stand up to heavy winds. Two storage pockets were roomy enough for a wallet, a phone, an e-reader, a couple of headlamps, and even a children’s audio player and headphones. An added E-port electrical sleeve allows you to easily run a cable to an outlet without compromising warmth in the tent.

coleman cabin tent

While many of these tents claim they can be assembled in 60 seconds, that doesn’t include laying down a tarp, putting in tent stakes, securing guylines, or putting on a rain fly. For our testing, we allowed a 5-minute start-to-finish setup time, to be completed by one person, with all of the additional steps. Any tent that took longer than 5 minutes to fully set up was docked half a point. Each tent was assembled by yours truly, and some were additionally tested by family friends.

On the other hand, both my CORE tents have at least a few ground vents, which keep out rain much better than the Coleman’s mesh wall vents. However, for rainy day ventilation, coleman tents I think CORE tents are slightly better. On the other hand, other tents have smaller windows, like my WeatherMaster 10-Person Tent and my Core 10-Person Cabin Tent.

With enough room for a queen mattress, good ventilation and a reasonable price, this could be the perfect tent for you. Double thick, durable polyester fabric makes up the canopy and integrated fly, and you also get Coleman’s high-quality Weathertec system. Both Coleman coleman sleeping bags and CORE typically use polyethylene for the flooring of each tent, and the tent fabrics are usually made of about 68D polyester. In addition to just the zippers, I also looked at the materials used, the stitching around the tent, and also the mesh quality.