Coleman Instant Cabin Tent

Who likes complicated and confusing?

So we were a little hesitant on making this purchase after reading the 3 star and below reviews. However, some close friends and camping partner family own this tent. Here is what we did:

Just got back from a weekend of camping with my brand new Coleman 6-person Instant Tent and I love it but I want a bigger one. I shopped around a lot and read many, many reviews both here and on Walmart.com before I purchased this tent and I took several photos to go with my review based on some of the complaints I’ve read about it. The tent is well made, with a good “Fit and Finish” feel to it, the material feels strong and sturdy and the zippers move smoothly. The floor is 10 x 9 but since the sides are sloped you do lose some interior space but not nearly as much as a comparably sized dome tent. The floor of this tent is thicker than some I’ve seen but I would still always use a tarp underneath. There is no “porch” area so you are stepping directly into the tent and can track in dirt and such so perhaps using a larger tarp under it would give you some place outside for shoes and stuff. This tent would be fine for two people if they slept on twin sized beds separately or a full sized air mattress together but I think anything larger like my queen double high makes the tent too full for much moving around other than just dressing and making up the bed. It does go up really quickly, I had it up in about 3-4 minutes because I was being very careful to avoid the breakage issues I’ve read about but I needn’t have worried because it went fine. Next time I’ll be faster. Take down is a little tougher and you’ll want to remember to leave a window or two partially open to help the air escape. I noticed that mine came from the factory that way. All and all a great little tent for one or two people, very convient and looks like it will last a long time. I will be giving mine to my 19 year old son and buying the 14 x 10 for me.

I notice that most of the reviews for this tent involve no more than a few nights in use. I purchased the tent, and used it on a 15 day geology class tour, setting up and taking down almost every night of the trip. Here are my thoughts…

Edited 7/16/2016 to add: We have used this tent for 4 summers now as a 2-person (plus dog) tent, and it has been great. We go on 4-5 camping trips per summer of 2-7 days each. The tent has never leaked, although if rain is expected we use a rainfly just in case. When the day comes to replace it, I will definitely buy another Coleman Instant Tent.

We just returned from camping in this tent. First time out of the box I think we had the thing set up in under two minutes. It could easily be done in 60 seconds or less next time. It reminds me of setting up our graco pack and play. I LOVED the way it set up! I was really surprised that it comes down just as easy. Fitting it back in the original bag took a couple minutes, but not any more than other tents we’ve had.

I just purchased this tent despite the warnings from some other reviews that it leaked when it rained. Figuring I am not dumb enough to go camping when it is supposed to rain, I decided the ease of setting it up would override any other deficiencies it may have. Full disclosure, I am a pretty novice camper so if you like to camp in the Sierras in the middle of winter and hike your stuff in, this may not be the tent for you. The tent was amzazingly easy to set up. I am always skeptical of other peoples’ claims about this but in this case it is true. You literally just take it out of the bag, unwrap it, and slide the 4 legs into their locking slots and you are done other than staking it down. As I said, I would never camp in the rain so on the second night when I was awakened by the sound of rain pouring down on top of the tent the reviews about the leaks immediately flew back into my head. After an hour or so of staring at the ceiling preparing to be dripped on, I fell back to sleep. When we woke up in the morning there was not a drop in the tent. It rained pretty good for at least a couple of hours so I think that was a fair test. I don’t know if they have improved the rainproofing since some of the other reviews were written but I can tell you this tent does not leak. It comes down just as easy as it goes up and is even pretty easy to get back in the bag. I would say plan on it fitting 4 pretty comfortably rather than the 6 as advertised. Lots of head room inside. Highly recommend this tent to anyone who dreads the work of setting up and taking down a tent but still wants a spacious, well built tent.