Leader Accessories is one of the highest-rated pop-up shelters on the market, but is it the right one for you?
In between trips, we turned a neighbor’s large, flat yard into an ad hoc camping-gazebo testing ground. We erected our shelters just in advance of a 24-hour rain and checked for leaking and rainy-day ambience midstorm. We also timed setup and breakdown times for each shelter, and we repeatedly zipped and unzipped doors and windows, looking for annoying snags. Our favorite of the eight canopy tents we tested, the REI Co-op Screen House Shelter ticks all those boxes. However, it isn’t meant as a place to sleep; for that you should choose a regular car-camping tent. If you’d rather have your shelter geared more toward camping, we’ve also reviewed the best camping tents and top backpacking tents on the market.
Overall, this is a fun beach accessory that is great for guarding gear and valuables and offering periodic shelter from the sun. Our shade-loving experts poured over hundreds of the best canopy tents available before choosing 14 for side-by-side testing. We selected products best suited for farmer’s markets, corporate gigs, and beaches. ozark trail screen house We also chose canopies optimized for camping, spectator sports, and adventure. From there, we tested each product for several months in Utah and California, subjecting them to sun, wind, and rain. All the while, we assessed key performance metrics such as functionality, ease of setup, protection, craftsmanship, and portability.
Despite the change in fabric, this REI shelter still weighs just 13 pounds, several pounds less than many others of this type. One thing we love about tents are the accessories that can be added to the shelters. These include sidewalls, weight bags, and a host of other great add-ons that can really increase the use and versatility of the canopy tent. Perhaps our two favorites are camping tent additions that connect to the frame of the shelter and leverage the stability of the 10×10 frame to support a camping tent structure.
Its fully enclosed design protects users from sun, wind, rain, and bugs, making it a perfect shelter for camping. It was followed closely by the Eurmaxand E-Z UP Pyramid, though neither has sidewalls for complete bug protection. The Tagalong and Caravan V-Series scored slightly lower than our top scorers, but they still have straightforward setup processes. The setup for both was simple; however, they scored lower because of additional variants that affected the overall ease of the process. The aluminum poles are quite long and awkward to maneuver, and it takes extra time to slide them through the fabric sleeves and bow them into place. We found the V-Series just as easy to set up as the other cathedral canopies we tested; however, it scored a little lower because it still incorporates spring-loaded adjustment pins to lock it into place.
Over the years, I have evaluated gear for magazines including Wired, Popular Science, and National Geographic Adventure, where I was a senior editor. The REI Co-op Screen House Shelter is easy to set up and pleasant to use, providing good protection from bugs, sun, and gentle rain showers. A high ceiling makes the tent feel brighter and more airy than other camping shelters with a similar footprint.
The Eurmax was followed closely by the Quick-Set Escape and E-Z Up Pyramid. Every stress point on the Quick-Set Escape is reinforced, and all its seams are double-stitched and taped. We feel the E-Z Up Pyramid is almost as well-made as the Eurmax; however, its frame and canopy materials are slightly thinner. Heavier cathedral-style canopy tents can often be challenging because of their weight; however, most are fairly simple to deploy. The Eurmax and E-Z Up are counted among these heavier tents, but setting them up was surprisingly straightforward. It’s constructed with heavy-duty 210-denier poly oxford walls and the heftiest bug-blocking no-see-um mesh we’ve encountered in any tent.