Customer Reviews

ABO Gear Instent Max Shelter

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I searched the Internet far and wide for a beach shelter big enough for two people to lay down inside comfortably and be completely protected by the sun -- with very easy set-up and take-down. This one seemed to fit the bill perfectly, although I was concerned about the negative reviews here with respect to wind damage. When it arrived, my boyfriend and I opened it up at home as practice before hitting the beach (great advice from previous reviewers). We were very impressed with how quickly it really does pop up and come down, and how easy it is to get back in the carry bag.

Fast forward to its first day on the beach. We pop it up, we weigh down the pockets with big rocks from the beach, and we tie a knot on top (also great advice I got here). It was wonderful for about two hours -- until it BROKE! On the first day out! One of the curved plastic rods on top broke at one of the joints, and the whole thing collapsed because of it. I think one of the other negative reviews mentions that the plastic used in this tent has basically no structural integrity, and I certainly believe that to be true, as well. There was a sea breeze, but when is there not a breeze on the beach? And plenty of other tents in our vicinity made it through the entire day.

I was ready for battle when I contacted Amazon to get a refund. I had read here that other people had a horrible time getting their money back, but now I think those people may have purchased through ABO Gear directly. I'm SO glad I purchased through Amazon. No questions asked, no battles fought -- I just called for a return shipping label and then they informed me when they received the product, when the return was processed, and again when they had credited my account.

So, I'm disappointed that the tent turned out to be useless on an average day at the beach (here in the Northeast US, at least), but I'm so impressed with Amazon's customer service. After this experience, I'll be much more likely to purchase bigger ticket items through them in the future.

This shelter is easy to set up and take down. I just got back from 3 days at the beach and it was fairly windy and it worked fine.

I read the reviews of people who said it kept collapsing and was a bit nervous but all you have to do is tie the two ropes used to pull the tent up into position in a knot at the top as per the directions. Mine held up fine.

The first day I used the stakes and filled the side pockets with sand. The second day stakes alone worked fine.

Beach chairs, which are a bit lower than your standard backyard aluminum chairs, fit comfortably with plenty of head room.

Finally, the best feature was the TWO openings/doorways. It CAN get stuffy in these things and when it does you open the other door half way and its like being under an umbrella... it airs out immediately. Hard to do with tents with one door.

Out of 7 days at the beach during normal August weather in North Carolina, we were only able to use our Abo Gear Instent Popup Tent once. It was easy to setup and takedown, but with any wind, the tent collapsed in on itself, despite being anchored well.

We saw most beachgoers had First Up Outdoor Shelters, that they left up throughout their stay.

We have used an Instent for 5 years on NC Outer-bank beaches in summer and South Beach, FL in the winter. The secret in making them stable in the wind is HOW you tie them down. The center knob MUST be held stable so it doesn't move forward or the entire tent will collapse upon itself. You simply use one of the tie down lines by looping it around the knob and staking it in the direction from which the wind is blowing - simple. As an added precaution, you can tie a line to each of the hinges (half-way up the rear struts); also in the direction from which the wind is coming. To be EXTRA safe for heavy gusts, I'd also recommend using "screw" anchors for those tie-downs and not the smooth stakes that come with it. It will withstand very strong winds gusts if you do this - but, do you REALLY want to be on the beach when it's THIS windy!? Of course you do, if the sun is shining! We could have sold our Instent 10-times over to tourists on a week holiday being spoiled by breezy/windy conditions.

This shelter is just what I was looking for. We have three boys and go to a lot of ball games. Our youngest boy is still a baby and he burns easily. I wanted this shelter so that he and I could sit in it and watch the games. It goes up so easy which was very important to me. I don't have time to mess with poles etc. It also comes down in a sinch. I love that you can zip it up completley. We sat thru a very cold ball game a few weeks ago. I zipped up the tent and played with the two little ones in it. We were nice and warm while everyone else was freezing. I will say that on a hot day it would be best to keep it in the shade of a tree or something, it gets hot inside. You really need to vent it with the widows and doors. It is also large enough to put a couple of full size chairs inside or without chairs you can hold a family of six! It is a great size.

One minus about this tent. It does not hold up to winds. Do not even attempt to put it up with winds. Once it is up it is fine as long as you have some heavy stuff in it. Also, I wish it were made up of a stronger material. The fabric is quite thin. I have not had any problems with it in the last month I have owned it but I am affraid it wont hold up for years.

Everyone who sees it loves it and I got a great price. Overall I think this is the best shelter for what I was looking for.

I have this for a little over 1 year and used it just (3) times before one of the joints broke. After further examination I found that the joints are under a lot of stress but are only plain injection molded plastic and are not fiber plastic or aluminum which is what they should be made of.

The design is good the implementation is just plain cheap. The joints are way to weak and I am surprised it lasted even as long as it did.

I would not recommend this item. A far better solution is a small dome style tent with fiberglass rods with aluminum joints. It will perhaps take you a bit longer to set-up but at least it will not collapse while you are on vacation.

So my advice is give this item a pass I will be contacting the manufacturer but do not expect to much form them.

you have to be very careful with this tent, it's too fragile. We bought it for our little girl and went to the beach. A soft wind was more than enough to put it almost down (like this /). We ended up leaving this tent, already broken, at the same beach.
Don't buy it, look for better options!

I've only used this once but I was really impressed with it. It's light and easy to carry when still enclosed in the storage bag. It lets you zip up all the doors and windows, which is great if you want to change clothes.

I previously tried another manufacturer's shelter that was advertised as "pop-up" but that required a complicated procedure assembling together segments of pole and running them through the shelter. I'm not camping, I just want to sit on the beach! In contrast, the Instent Max is really set up almost instantaneously, it truly does just pop open. It has large pockets on the side that allow you to put a sizable amount of sand into them, weighting the shelter down very securely without the need for stakes (though they are supplied as well if you are on grass or another surface). My wife and I were searching for the instructions until we realized that they were attached to the inside of the storage bag on an indestructible piece of fabric that could not rip out. Smart!

The shelter felt quite substantial for a product of this nature. The frame poles seemed secure and sturdy.

Taking the shelter down afterwards was fairly easy as well, and fast. We had a little difficulty initially getting it to collapse, but as the directions note, don't force it, rather open it up and try again. It was down and put into its compact storage bag within a few minutes.

I look forward to using this more, and my overall view is that the people that designed this put a lot of thought into small details like mentioned above. I guess the only downside is that it seemed kind of expensive for what it is, but you get what you pay for.

Just got back from our vacation on Cape Cod. We thought his shelter would be perfect. It does not hold up in the wind at all - even when we used the sand pouches and stakes that were provided. The problem occurs because the poles fold in half for storage, yet there is no way to keep them rigid in a breeze. They collapse under the pressure. One of our poles got tangled up in the tent material and the pole's folding mechanism snapped when we tried to free it. We were very disappointed. There were many less expensive shelter models on the beach that held up better in the wind. They took a few moments longer to set up, but no one was spending time during the day picking up a collapsed shelter.

This tent opens quickly and easily on my pool patio. Opening it on the beach is another story. We couldn't set it up the first time because the wind was too strong. That's ok. The instructions warned that would happen in wind. The second time, one of the supports would not unfold correctly. It took a long time to solve that problem. Once the tent was up and we were swimming in the ocean, we watched it slowly collapse until it was flat. But we have not given up!! We will try again.