For its reasonable price, Coleman does a respectable job in this department. Although it can’t be set up in the rain as easily as their single-layer tents, the same can be said for many of the camping tents in this year’s review. We would certainly hesitate to opt for this tent if the forecast calls for torrential downpours, but it can absolutely hold up to the occasional spat of rain. The rainfly should even be capable of repelling anything beyond sideways rain.
This freestanding tent is in my opinion designed for car camping. It weighs around 22 lbs in the bag so it’s not a tent I would want to have to carry for a long period of time. What differentiates the Elite Model from the regular Sundome is the Elite is a little larger and comes with an LED lighting system and hinged door. The Sundome is a well though out tent with some very nice features, but it also a few shortcomings. After seeing how it performed over a few days and nights, these are my conclusions. We had mixed feelings about the overall durability of this tent.
The low wide profile and included guylines hold up well in the wind, and the tent floor has a tub design. As long as you can avoid a tear or puncture, you should stay dry. However, it isn’t the design that coleman instant tent is at risk — it is the construction. The use of weaker materials like cheap plastic clips, elastic connection points, fiberglass poles, and the tarp floor is where the Sundome could fail after harsh use.
The only caveat is that you will need to blow up the air mattress inside the tent since an inflated mattress won’t fit through the door. If your campsite doesn’t have power, you can use a car power converter to blow up the mattress along with an extension cord, or use a battery operated pump. So I am a solo car camper, so for me size and weight is not an issue, that’s why I decided on the coleman instant tent 4. I thought about getting the 6-person tent so I could stand inside, but was worried it might be a bit tough to set up alone so I decided on the 4-person. I cant stand up inside this tent but with 59″ of headroom it’s much taller than my 2-person tent. Also with a footprint of 9 by 7 feet I have all kinds of room. My one complaint in this area is the flimsy fiberglass tent poles.
A few features on the tent had somewhat questionable build quality, such as plastic clips and less than elegant zippers. The Coleman® 4-Person Sundome® Dark Room™ Dome Camping Tent blocks 90% of sunlight (vs. a comparable Coleman tent) so you can put the kids to bed early or sleep in past sunrise. It also reduces heat inside the tent for more comfortable rest at any time. With a double-wall design and generous use of mesh on two sides and the ceiling, the Coleman Sundome 6 offers very good ventilation. Adding to the breezy feel is its partial rainfly, which when guyed out allows for a significant amount of airflow on warm summer nights.