Marmot Aeros 3P Tent

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

I am 6'6" tall so we looked for tents that were long. The Aero 3P looked like it had everything, was very compact and light, just long enough for me so we bought it and tried it in our back yard.

Problem #1. They claim you can use just the fly and the footprint, but the tent has two 'roof' poles that are held in place by the inner tent clips before you put the fly on. If the inner tent is not there, the two main support poles need to be bound together and held in place with some additional equipment such as a velcro strap or some wire until the fly is in place. Not a big issue but a simple plastic clip or strap could have been supplied with the footprint.

Problem #2 ventilation.
The inner tent is mostly gauze that lets air through, but if you have the flysheet on, you have almost zero ventilation. If there is no breeze driving air under the sides of the fly, the only way you can get any air in is to open the doors. If you open the doors you have zero privacy.

The night we tried it it was hot and humid and no breeze. As we got in we realised that we had not even noticed that there were no vents on the fly! We slept with the doors wide open.

The next morning there was condensation under our sleeping mats and our bedding was damp. No good. So it went back into its bag and back to REI.

Getting in and out for someone my height is not easy. It would be better if the doors were closer to the side of the fly that has the opening.

There were 4 slide toggles on a short loop of cord on the main tent. Not sure what they are for. Two of them could perhaps be used to tie the fly door back, but they are too low for that to work well for that purpose.

Only two inside pockets. Nice hangers in the roof. Nice clips that go onto the poles and I liked the way the flysheet clipped into the corners of the tent. Stake tape is also a nice light method of staking the corners down.

Another small touch is that the guy lines were supplied as a single length of cord with the 4 slides. Not everyone knows how to melt the ends of nylon cord so that it does not fray and the cost of the Chinese labor to assemble the guy lines for us can't be that much...

There were two small loops of stretch cord with a grommet - for staking down the fly. The ends of the cord were joined with a cheap bit of metal crimp. A simple knot would have been better (and even lighter)

The places where the guys attach are wonderfully reflective at night. Problems is its the guy lines that people trip over and need to see, not the attachment points. Now that reflective cord is available, all tents should have it as standard...

Tent stakes were good and the proper number were supplied in 2 colors. Patch material for each color and type of material were also supplied.

Service and delivery comments:

Tent was ordered online and it arrived within 2 weeks. Pickup and return was no problem at all.

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

This tent is an engineering wonder... The bent pole design is great because it keeps water from accumulating near the walls of tent. The design is perfect for withstanding constant moisture environments. It received its first real test for me in the Hoh Rainforest in Olympic National Park. My only concern is the sturdiness of the mesh. Time will tell. So far it has been outstanding, making it the perfect tent for the desert. The mesh and rain-fly design also helps to keep condensation from developing in tent, which makes sleeping much more comfortable. I am extremely happy with my purchase.

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

Purchased this tent to use backpacking with 2 kids (10, 9). Needed a somewhat lighter tent, but roomy. This was a good deal, much more space than other tents in same weight class, also unique design of "bent" poles make it roomier and avoid head/feet rubbing on side of tent (I am 6'0).

Used it for first time, easy to setup, kids helped easily, and was up in 10 minutes max.

No rain that night but very windy (In Colorado mountains), and cold (below freezing). Tent held up great and not noisy as other reviewer stated, we actually did stake out the side of the fly, there were areas on fly that allowed us to do that.
Tent stayed put, protected us, and we stayed surprisingly warm despite all the mesh.

No condensation next morning. Wish it had better gear storage, only two pockets, and vestibules are smaller than would like, but other than that, a good deal on sale, would buy again.

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

This a very easy tent to setup. No more pushing the poles throughout the tent sleeves. Erect the two long poles, first, do the center clip to prevent the poles from collapsing. Now do the rest of the clips and then the rainfly.

Once setup, it's very comfortable inside, the space is great due to the bend-pole design. It's also very sturdy in the wind because it is very low profile. Ventilation is excellent due to the mesh canopy.

I have no problem with vestibules, you can pull the vestibules tight by angle the guy lines toward the opening of the vestibules. This will provide tightness when the vestibule door is open.

You have to roll the doors up neatly and then there is a loop to keep the rolled-up door in place. The door has never come loss on me and I have never got wet from the morning dew either.

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

We (two adults and two dogs) just returned from a 6-day trip on the Colorado trail and used this tent. The quick setup was definitely appreciated when setting it up in the rain. One of our dogs chewed a small hole in the side so we just used one of the adhesive patches that were provided. A few times during the day we found ourselves needing to take some quick shelter from the rain and just hung the fly from some trees (thankfully the guy rope was all one piece so we that could cut a few short and a few long pieces). Kept us warm and very dry at night. Quality of materials is exceptional (super high quality poles and stakes). The design provides an exceptionally roomy feel inside. We would highly recommend this tent.

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

I just used my new Marmot Aeros tent in the Sonoran Desert for a few nights. The only complaint I have about the tent is how loud the vestibule is in a light breeze.

All night long the tent sounded like we were camping in a typhoon, when in fact, it was only a light breeze. If Marmot had only put a guy line attachment point at the bottom of the vestibule mid-way, the tent would be the ultimate, light weight, three person tent.

Because of the noisy rain fly, however, I will return the tent to REI.

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

I just purchased this tent last week for a campout this weekend. I've been a backpacker for years and have always had a very cheap tent just to get by. With 2 young boys that like to hike/backback, it was time for a light-weight upgrade.

So I packed in all 6 lbs myself since I had neither of my sons to split the weight and it still wasn't as heavy or bulky as my old tent. So far so good. Setup was easy and straight forward...especially since the REI rep helped me build 3 in the store before I decided.

Here's the cool thing. We're camped at the top of this mountain at about 4200 feet. No big deal but the wind starts HOWLING at about 4:45 a.m. I mean HOWLING. I look up (full moon..so I could see well) and the side wall of the tent is being blown so hard its pushing down and touching my forhead. I look up and see the 4 pole system pushing in really hard. I realize that I only staked down my four corners of the main tent and clipped in the rain fly but I had not tied down anything else. I debated getting out of the tent at 4:45 a.m. at 28 degrees with the wind howling and decided against it. But everything held up just fine. It was kind of cool wondering if the new tent was going to hold up and whether I was going to be chasing the rainfly down the mountain. Starting being happy at the extra $$$ I paid.

Other things I really dug were the little cloth hooks in the top of the tent to hang things, the double doors, the vestibule. The tent is SUPER roomy due to the angle of the poles keeping the walls nearly straight up for foot or so. Also, I love the ability to actually touch the sides of the tent and not worry about rain or dew getting in. Since that outer shell is REALLY the wall of the tent, you actually CAN'T touch it. Some of my buddies that have really expensive 1 man tents were super impressed with how thick the rainfly was at that light weight.

The only thing I didn't like was that with the vestibule staked down it was sort of hard to get in and out through the door. The door really should be move a little to the right so that its lined up with where the vestibule unzips. Also, the bag is WAY big for the tent. I've got it on my list to go buy some smaller bags so that I can actually split the tent into sections so as to distribute the weight with my oldest son. hopefully we can average it out to 3 lbs per person.

I was also slightly concerned about what looks like the lack of ventilation with the rain fly on. Having only camped in it in the winder, it was no issue.

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

This tent took on 1/4" hail, buckets of rain and 50 mph gusts and kept two of us safe and dry - I'd recommend it to anyone.

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

Updating my earlier review. This tent has handled all the elements well, except one. I have spent at least 80 nights in this tent. I have pitched it in heavy snow, pouring rain, hot beating sun, and 50-60 mph winds. I am seriously amazed how it handles wind, but if you don't use all the lines it will fold. The only situation this tent fails is for beach camping including wind. The mesh is the perfect entrance for wind blown sand. I camped several nights in the Florida Keys and it was quite annoying having to continually brush the sand off my lips as I was attempting to sleep. By morning, I was making sand castles inside the tent. Otherwise, it is still a gem in my book. I will just get another tent for the beach or use my old North Face Tadpole that I purchased from REI almost 20 years ago.

Comments about Marmot Aeros 3P Tent:

Honestly, I haven't taken this outside yet. I just bought it, and so far, have only set it up in my living room. It fills the entire room. I don't have the world's largest apartment, but...I'm impressed. This tent is like a castle. The walls really are almost vertical, and I can sit comfortably in almost any place inside the tent. Granted, I'm pretty short, but my head doesn't come too near the ceiling. I can't wait to play cards while camping with my friends.

I'm mildly concerned about the strength of the construction, but I trust it. I'll probably be super careful with it for the first few trips, but it seems sturdier than it looks. I'm not worried enough to call it "flimsy".