Customer Reviews

Coleman Sundome 6 Tent

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We found the screens to be an advantage. The tent is very well ventilated. The dome cover kept out rain and night dew but the tent did not get steamy or stuffy when full of sleeping campers. We found the screen on top to be an adavantage, because of privacy we don't and I don't
know of anyone that sleeps with the tent windows open at night. This did well in the rain no wet spots. Coleman has a floor that wraps up several inches to meet the tent fabric. Huge advantage! We have never had a water
problem with any Coleman tent made in this fashion.

Product was received in timeframe it was susposed to. Love the tent but it had nothing to stake it down with or to attacth the pole to on the front right corner, which was a loop that was totally different from all the other corners. After e-mailing Coleman's customer service, they finally sent me a piece to put on the odd corner stating that they did not have a replacement tent for me. Nowhere on the site did it say that I was purchasing a second. I felt this is what I got. Actually a third. I felt like I should have been able to return the defective tent to Coleman and they send me a new one that was not defective. I am stuck with the odd cornered one. Otherwise the tent is great.

We bought this tent for our family of 4. I've had the 3 person version of this tent for 15 years nd it worked great the couple dozen times I used it. There was great debate about this type of a tent or a more expensive tent. We just wanted to see how our 3 and 5 year old would like camping without a major investment. Couple things I noted about the tent:
It's huge. I always want at least 1 more 'person' on my tent rating than I have in my party to allow for gear (so a minimum 5 person tent for 4 people). It really needs 2 people to set up. I set it up the first time with my 3 year old, but someone on the other end of the poles, which are crazy long. It doesn't take long to set up. There are 2 doors, but the windows only zip down to about 1/2 way, so you have solid fabric all the way around the tent up to about 3 feet tall. The other windows are literately the entire side of the tent from the 3 foot high mark all the way up. They don't have any zipper or other way to seal, so I wouldn't really call this a 3 season tent as I don't like the cold.

There is a little 'outlet plug' zipper if you wanted to run elecrticity to your tent, but I just can't understand why someone would. There is also a tiny door that my 3 and 5 year old loved to climb through, almost like a pet door. It even had a separate screen section to it just like the regular doors. There are 2 small pouches in the huge tent. We have only used the tent once, being the end of the season, so didn't use the privacy screen. It was the only part of the whole tent that 'smelled' when I pulled it out of the packaging, but I didn't really need. There are 2 little plastic doormats for each door. Small, but nice--we used only 1 door, and kept them at that end. On the Coleman tents, I like that the waterproof base extends up about 6-8 inches, but we always use a groundcloth.

The tent poles only slide through fabric at the very top of the tent, probably 4 feet total of fabric, at the bottom part they are held in place by plastic clips. When you first have all 4 poles up and locked into place it seems like something is wrong with assembly, but once you lock the poles into the clips it's fine. I'd never used this large of a tent before, so that was all something to get used to. Not sure how long the clips will last, wish it had stings to tie to the poles in addition.

If we use this 3-5 times/year I expect it to last us 3-5 years, max. The seams don't seem overly strong and look like they would rip easily. Maybe they are reinforced in a way I can't see, as my other Coleman has lasted 15 years. However, not knowing how our kids will like camping once the conditions are less than ideal (rain, bugs, etc.), I feel good having bought this as a test run and if we become regular campers will be willing to invest in a higher quality tent when this wears out.

THis tent fits our needs at this poitn: easy assembly, good pricepoint, and large enough so that everyone has plenty of room.

Bought the tent to replace a smaller tent from another manufacturer, thought that the Coleman name would mean I would get a quality tent. The tent is roomy and well ventilated, however upon setting it up and attaching the rain fly to the first corner, the elastic cord pulled right out - the loop holding the cord to the rain fly was never sewn completely. Not to worry, I thought I would just use my knife to modify the defective loop by cutting a hole in it - worked - attached the cord.

But - upon attaching the SECOND corner - SAME THING, the loop failed. What about the THIRD corner you ask? SAME THING! Ok, Fourth corner was different....The loop had ALREADY FAILED and the cord was already GONE, not even in the bag. I know like about everything, these are sewn in China but somebody should have caught that.

If this is indicative of the kind of QC Coleman has established, I would steer clear of the brand all together. Now starts the process of returning / warranty - wheeeee!

In my opinion, Coleman owns the moderately priced, mainstream camping market. There are other brands that might be higher quality (and higher price) but Coleman has never let me down.

This tent is easy to put up. I go camping with my 11 and 9 year old daughters, and we can put it up in 15 minutes without breaking a sweat. There are 2 cross poles for the tent, and 1 cross pole for the rainfly, and the rest is just staking it out.

I have found the tent to be sturdy, and most importantly, waterproof. The last 2 camping trips it has rained heavily, and the tent stayed dry(except for water that we tracked in as we went in and out).

There are mesh openings on all sides, which allows for good ventilation. For privacy, the rainfly covers the mesh on the sides, and the front and back mesh can be closed. I have not taken this tent cold weather camping for 2 reasons. First, I don't do cold weather camping, and second, this is a lightweight tent with lots of mesh, so it will not keep you warm. I would say this a 3 season tent, but don't plan on taking it on your extreme winter camping trip. They make different/better tents for cold weather camping.

A couple of nice little features include a simple divider which can be used to divide the tent in half and create 2 rooms, small pockets sewn into the inside of the tent in 2 places that can be used to put your glasses, flashlight, etc., and a pass through flap so you can reach your cooler without having to leave the tent.

Overall a nice tent, and well worth the price.

The first night out in this tent there was a huge thunderstorm. I thought for sure water would come in or the stakes would come up as the tent rocked but neither did. I even had a dream that night that our sleeping bags got wet but when we woke up everything was dry. We still had pretty good ventilation even with the rain fly on. The tent took less than 10 minutes to put up/take down with two people and can be done alone in 15 min. The only thing I question about this tent is the ability to sleep 6. Six children, maybe. We had 2 adults and one 7 year old and our duffel bags with the clothes we needed for 2 days in there and I dont think we could have comfortably slept more than 4 total. This doesnt bother me since I bought the bigger size to have extra space, not to sleep 6 but it could be important to another buyer. Having been in leaky tents before I am so glad I purchased this one. I definitely recomend it.

We live in Florida, and stuffy or leaky tents are an issue. This tent was built in a fashion that neither of these issues were a problem. The plastic bottom extends up the sides about six inches, making a great lower water barrier. The top half of both sides of the tent are netting. The rain cover extends out over the front and back doors, and about six inches from the netting on the sides. This allows for ventilation, but also assures privacy (as no one can see in through the netting unless they actually bother to come and stick their head in between it and the cover). The rain cover extending over the doorways also helps to keep out rain if you are slipping in and out of the tent during a shower. The last weekend that we used it, we had a twelve hour Florida rain. All of our belongings stayed nice and dry. It was about 50ºF out, but with the doors totally zipped, it didn't get too cool either. It comes with a couple of neat features. There are pockets sewn into the inside, to help you keep track of your pocket items, glasses, and other little things. There is a door on both sides, and plastic "welcome mats" the stake down outside, which helps keep the sand out (beach campers here). There is a small zipper in the back to allow electrical access, without opening up your entire tent. There is also a small (approx 12") access door down low to the side. It has both netting and a full cloth door. It says that it is so you can access your cooler or place a fan. We were thinking it would be perfect if you have a small dog that needs to go out at 3 am. Put it on a leash, unzip the small door, and not have to get out of your sleeping bag (just be sure to pick up anything he may have "left behind" come morning). I like that in addition to hooks, the rain cover also has Velcro straps that wrap around the tent poles. It was pretty windy during parts of the last storm, but it stayed firmly in place. Due to the large amount of netting used in this tent, I am not sure how well it would do in very low temperatures, but for Florida it is a great product. As long as you are camping in mildly cool to warmer weather, I can recommend this tent to you.

A year ago I was invited to go to an anual camping trip, which I couldn't attend, but since I know that I would be invited again this year, I began the task to find a camping tent that when the time came, filled all of my needs. At the end, this tent was the "winner", and after the trip, I am very satisfied.

When I was looking for the right tent, I took many aspects into consideration.
1. Price - To be affordable.

About the price, given the size of this tent, this was a real bargain.

2. Rain - To be able to withstand a storm and keep me dry.

There was rain with some wind 3 of the 4 nights, the tent was literally water proof, not a drop of water came in, everything inside was as dry as the desert. The other tents at the site flooded and had to be dried and set again.

3. Room - To have enough room to fit a queen size airbed, store all my gear, allow me to stand up (I'm 6'3 feet tall)

As the others campers refered, my tent was a palace, I was able to lay the air bed, all my gear, hang a lantern from the ceiling, accomodate another bed from the flooded tents, and still had spare room.

4. Easy to set - I knew I would be getting at night to the camping site after a long drive, so I wanted a tent that was easy to set so I would have a shelter in which I could rest.

We arrived at 22:00, didn't have many light to work with, and this was the first dome tent that I had ever set up, and the first tent in over 20 years. Less than 20 minutes later, I was laying in bed inside the tent.

Summary.
The other campers have gone to this camping trip every year for the past 15 years, they have had lots of tents, and this year, they all wanted to be in my tent, which from now on will be the tent to which all other tents are meassured.

We purchased this tent from a different vendor (only because we needed the tent right away and couldn't wait for shipping), but I know I LOVE Amazon's reviews when I am looking to purchase a new product so I thought I would review this item. The light system is a neat idea and my kids loved the remote control to turn the lights off and on. We had light rain when camping and there were no leaks but I have to tell you, I was quite nervous with the wide open screened area and the rain fly barely covering it. I wouldn't trust the tent in a bigger storm, especially if there was wind. The very first time setting up the tent as a test run before our camping weekend, the seam on the rain fly ripped some where the guy lines attach. I didn't think I had the tension too tight either. We went on a two nighter weekend campout and upon taking the tent down noticed that one of the corded poles for the rain fly had snapped at the nylon cord. I checked out the cords on the tent frame too then and saw two areas that were just hanging on by a thread and about to break too. I wouldn't trust this tent on another outing. While the tent wasn't very expensive to start with, I surely expected more than one use out of it! Off to contact Coleman for a refund.

My family went camping in Yosemite and bought this tent there when we found the poles for our 4 man tent were left behind. This is a much better price here at Amazon. We had rain off and on for 2 days and never had any leaks. On the third night the hard rain turned to snow. The tent was surrounded with 3 inches of snow, and still we were dry inside. A large amount of snow fell from a tree above us and caved the top of the tent in, but we were able to knock off the snow from inside and pop the top back up. I have to say I'm very pleased with this tent. Granted, there wasn't any wind which could have changed things but it held up to hard rain and an unexpected snow. We didn't have to scoop up my 3 year old and run to the car for cover. My only complaint is that the top of the tent is made up of large screens with no way to zip them shut. It's rated as a 3 season tent, but spring and fall can be cold and being able to cover the screens with more than just the weather cover would have helped in retaining our body heat to warm the tent.