That said, if you don’t expect to use your tent in rugged environments, this is a solid option for a nice big canopy tent at a bargain price. During the winter and early spring of 2017, we added four more canopy tents to our testing lineup. In addition to the models from REI and L.L.Bean, ozark trail canopy which became our new top picks, we tested the Coleman 15 × 13 Instant Screenhouse and the Wenzel Sun Valley Screen House. L.L.Bean’s Woodlands Screen House is remarkably similar to our top pick, REI’s Screen House Shelter; the two canopies have an identical footprint and pole structure.
At the forefront of features, this canopy has a roller bag with large, wide-set wheels so one person can easily pull this beast across gravel, dirt, or grass. The E-Z Up also has a simple setup and can even be deployed solo, depending on age and strength. Its heavy steel frame and massive metal stakes easily hold this shelter steady, even during wind gusts, and glaring sun and rain are also no threat. The weight of this Ozark Trail is lighter than most of the same size alternative steel frame canopy tents, coming in right about 29 lbs.
The massive screened walls keep insects where they belong — away from you. This shelter is also fully surrounded by a 10-inch-wide ground skirt, which goes the extra mile to keep creepy crawlers and flying annoyances at bay. 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. It’s advertised as a 10×10 tent, but your canopy is actually 7.8’ x 7.8’, for about 61 square feet of space under the canopy. If canopy coverage is important to you, this is a very good reason to go with a straight-leg option.
Our favorite canopy tent is a simply designed, comfortable shelter that offers protection from bugs, sun, and rain. The legs are locked into place with old school metal push button locks, something you won’t see on many modern pop up tents now-a-days. These push locks get very difficult to use over time, especially if the tent is used on the beach and exposed to sand and saltwater, causing rust build up. Many newer tent brands like EZ-Up use revolutionary thumb lock sliders or larger easy to release buttons, which are a much better user experience when setting the canopy up or taking it down. With the push buttons you need to worry about pinching fingers or not being able to release the button when it gets rusted, which is never a pleasant experience. The legs extend to give the top peak a height of about 8’10” which will be plenty of headroom for anyone underneath.
Like the REI and L.L.Bean canopy shelters, this Clam tent has a generous fabric skirt at its base that is designed to keep determined insects—and pooling rainwater—out. If we were camping somewhere infested with mosquitoes or no-see-ums and could fit the Clam in our vehicle, we’d prefer it over any of our other picks. The shelter has a 10-by-10-foot footprint—the most common size for tents of this type—and a peak height of 7 feet. It will shelter a standard-size picnic table, but with little room to spare.
If you want a lighter, more portable camp-style shelter, we highly recommend checking out the REI Co-op Screen House Shelter. The Eureka Tagalong Shelter is also a decent option but is not fully enclosed. Likewise, the Pacific Breeze Easy Up is very portable but limited in size. While the previous version of this tent used beachy-feeling aqua and orange, the current version is a drab olive green more typical of other tents.
That’s why when you dive into online reviews, you see slant leg tents that have broken at different connection points, and customers complaining that it failed after only a few uses. Our second grading metric involves how fast and easy it is to set up and take down each shelter, but it also considers how simple and intuitive both processes are. While we recommend a minimum of two people to set up most shelters, the ease of this process can vary drastically depending on the design and quality of materials. While being timed, we set up and took down each product a minimum of 10 times. We also noted special features, like quick-release levers, that make setup easier. If your budget is tight, the Pacific Breeze Easy Up is an inexpensive beach canopy that provides the essentials for a quick, hassle-free setup but may not be built to endure many summers of use.
The heavy 400D polyester top provides 99% UV protection and is water and fire resistant. There are 4 walls included and one of the walls has a zipper in the center for easy access under the canopy. The canopy folds down to 52.5″ in length and easily fits into the roller bag with all of the accessories. It’s worth highlighting that despite the advertised dimensions of the 10×10 Ozark Trail, because this is a slant leg shelter the top only measures 8×8. The benefit of the slanted legs is that these tents are more stable laterally which can increase the stability of the frame and make it less prone to toppling, an important benefit if on a windy beach.