Customer Reviews

Stansport Cabana Privacy Shelter, Green/Tan

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(12)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Not strong enough to hold even 2 gallons of water in a shower. This is shown with a shower hanging in it but the only way it would hold it is empty. Not usable as a shower. Good if you are looking for privacy or changing room but not for a shower.

Though I carry it in the car, but things add up - tents for the bedrooms, canopy for the living and dining room, private toilet and changing room, and maybe shower room. So I like the small size (before setup) and light weight.

You may get the wrong impression from the reviews - the design is actually fairly standard, from standard tents, 12' x 10' or bigger canopies, to a tiny beach cabana. But tents are more likely to use clips to fix the tent to the poles, while all other things tend to have loops for the poles to go through. This is common for larger things or curvy things, resulting in lighter weight, stronger, and more choice of shapes to suit the application. The pins are universal. But since there's no ground sheets to hold the cabana together, they use 4 poles flat on the ground instead, resulting in more pins.

Really the shower bag in the picture is misleading. The poles are very light and flexible so it can't hold anything heavy. But if you can find one that can hold a 5 gallon bag, I probably don't want to carry the weight. Another misleading figure is the girl, who is actually very tall. There's a lot of headroom standing in there, and if you have to, you can put two loos in there close.

Thanks to the standard poles in loop design, the shape is rather good, unlike some box like designs. If it's partially hidden, others may mistaken it as a big tall tent. No ground sheet is the only choice. You don't want to stand in mud or dirt, but it's worse when mud and dirt come into the cabana with a ground sheet. For this reason we only go into the tent for sleeping. I used to have a beach cabana for changing but this one is better. There's enough space even with the loo inside.

There are two windows, not just air vents. If you sit down inside you can watch the scenery around you, and if anyone is approaching. Of course you can close it. There are two air vents on the sides near the bottom of the cabana.

Incidentally, it's the same design as my huge canopy that can cover a standard picnic table with space to run around. This one isn't any harder than a standard tent. I set everything up by myself only. But indeed you need a little more muscle to bend the roof poles. Perhaps it's a lot more challenging to erect a small but tall shape than a dome tent.

I don't always nail tents to the ground at the 4 corners, but this one is a must because of the small and tall shape. So bring a hammer if you must. Supplied ropes are not necessary to reinforce the cabana. If you are inside, you can support it at high winds; if you are not in, it doesn't matter. But I use one rope to reinforce one pole at the door. Since the zipper goes sideway near the top, with the pole reinforced, I can close the door easily with one hand.

Once erected, the shape is almost perfect as seen, except for a slight twist at one of the poles. The pole itself is perfectly straight, and everything seemed square, but again it's hard to maintain a perfect shape of this nature. The slight imperfection doesn't bother me a bit, it doesn't worth extra $10 to $100 to go for other designs.

There's a tiny plastic ring at the roof for you to attach your own gadgets, and a small net on the side to hold bits and pieces. This minimal design is alright as you can't please everybody. I would put a hook at the roof to hang a lantern, and a rack to hold clothes while changing.

I have used this shower twice. The major problem with it is it is not sturdy enough to hold your standard camping shower. It has already collapsed on a family member showering. I wish it had a another pocket as well to hold more items. But, it will do out in the middle of the woods

Worked good for a shelter to put a porta-potty for the ladies of the camp but was not strong enough to hold shower bottle. We used a 4 gallon bag for showers but tried filling 1/2 way. The shower bag was still way too heavy. We had to deal with some crazy wind and the shelter survived. It laid down a few times but stood back up when wind laid a little. I am happy with the purchase but will probably build a rack out of PVC pipe to support a shower water bag.

Most tents, after they are assembled can be moved around like an empty box, the Stansport Cabana Privacy Shelter falls apart. You must spend an additional 20 minutes securing each joint with twine or it will just come apart when touched. Save your money. Buy a regular dome tent for changing instead.

This was purchased to be a shower shelter for camping. If you don't want to use it as such, then feel free to buy one. The rods are sturdy and once it's up, it seems like nothing short of hurricane-strength winds could take it down.

However, one of the tan rod-pockets tore off the first time it was set up, because of the enormous amount of pressure you need to put on it to get the rods in and connected at the top.

Whoever designed the "shower" capability was an idiot. It has one nylon loop attached at the top, supposedly for hanging a shower bag. I doubt it could even hold one gallon, let alone a standard five-gallon bag. Said nylon loop itself is sturdy enough, but the stitching holding it only to the top of the shelter is NOT. It was only stitched to the fabric of the roof, not even using the support of the poles. You'd think if it were advertised as a shower, it would be engineered to function as one. As it was, the first time we attached a full shower bag, it held for about two seconds before snapping and dropping the 35-lb bag on the showering person's head. It's useless to us now.

Good shelter, tried it out as a shower this weekend. Only problem was dressing after a shower, no room for keeping clothes dry. Good head room though

When I read many of the reviews I was a bit leary about buying this cabana, I read the sellers site information and decided to get it because they have a no questions asked return policy. The Cabana got here fast and I immediately began to set it up.

You just put the 10 diffrent shock corded tent poles together which is a very straight forward process then you insert the top two roof poles in their slots followed by the 4 side wall poles, attach the side poles to the two roof poles all while the cabana is laying on the ground then at the bottom you insert the small pins into the base of each side pole.

You will have to bend each connection a bit especially when connecting the roof poles to the side poles but it is fairly easy to accomplish.

The final steps are to insert the 4 base poles into the side poles with the same attached small pins (remember there are 3 pins at each corner of the Cabana, the center pins are used for the side poles and each of the outer pins are used on the bottom poles) once you have done all that you just lift the tent into an upright position and use the 4 stakes to secure it in the ground. I did this myself and required no assistance at all.

I then left it up overnight during a nice Florida rain storm and it didn't blow over. I also took my 5 gallon solar shower filled it up and hung it from the attachment point in the cabana and the cabana held it up just fine.

All in all this is a very nice privacy tent, it's extremely lightweight and compact. It looks like it will hold up really well also.

For the people reviewing this as a shower, it is not meant to be one. No where in the description of the product or on the box does it mention it's designed to be a shower. That's about all I can say to defend the Stansport Cabana. It's poorly made and difficult to put up for one person. The door is hard to zip close at the top because of the tension on the poles. The poles feel like they are going to break when assembling it. There are two windows at about waist level on the sides for limited ventilation and none at the top. And if you close the two windows for privacy, you'll have no ventilation. The shelter doesn't have a floor in it. That may be a plus or minus for you depending on how you are using it. We sent it back.

Shelter is well constructed and can be securly fixed to the ground, so you are not exposed to the world when a breeze comes along that attempts to blow it away. A folding rack placed in the interior keeps clothes off the ground. It has a small interior pocket large enough for soap and small shampoo bottles. Overall, a well designed item.