Coleman  Skydome Darkroom 4-Person Tent

Alright you all. I’ve been meaning to write this from a couple of perspectives. I work the graveyard shift and camped with this tent in Michigan which is hot (85+ degrees most days and very humid) I bought it for its light blocking technology so I could sleep during the day. First evaluation was the light blocking. It did great. If you keep the side, lower flaps closed it is very dark even in the middle of the day in full sun. Open the flaps by the ground and that lets in more ambient light but it’s still dim in the tent. The rainfly is elevated off the screen upper tent dome so air circulates well and hot air can escape upwards and out. For this reason and the light blocking, I was able to sleep during the day in the heat with only a little tent fan going on the hottest days. This would have been impossible in a traditional tent; I’ve tried. Secondly, durability. I took the tent up and down every other week and I’m not a hyper careful person. Tent was easy to setup up and take down and folded it up easily. The bathtub floor worked well for me and only got water in it once but that was during a tornado and I left the door part open with only the screen zipped on purpose. More on that next. This tent stayed dry even in some substantial wind and rains for me with no footprint. So! This tent survived a tornado that went through the campground that brought down easily 20-30 trees. I came back from the tornado shelter, aka brick shower/bathhouse nervous of what I would find but here was my tent. All standing. The guy lines were crooked from the tent stakes partially pulled up and there was a branch sideways in my rainfly but that was pretty much it. There was some water in the tent which I was able to soak up with paper towels but I think only because I left the door part open so air could get through my tent when I decided the weather looked dangerous. A tree landed on my car and multiple trailers in the park and tents were destroyed by falling trees just to give you an idea of how strong this storm was. Bottom line after several months of field testing this is the best tent I’ve used for car camping by far. Highly recommend. Coleman did a good job with this one.

I purchased this tent for working on wildfires in Alaska, since the sun doesn´t set there, and that can make sleeping difficult sometimes. I spent 16 nights in it and had to set it up and take it down thrice, so I feel as if I´ve thoroughly tested this tent. PROS: Set up is actually quite easy, much easier than take-down, I thought. The poles slide nicely into housing on 4 corners of the tent, and you just start clipping tent material to said poles. In all, it takes about 3-4 minutes to get the tent "standing." This tent could easily sleep 4 people. It´s quite roomy inside there! CONS: While this advertises "darkroom" technology, it doesn´t achieve much of anything in that regard. The rainfly and windowpane covers are made of this black, rubbery material that blocks out light, but the tent body itself is not. Thus, unless the sun is shining directly overhead, you´re not going to notice much (if any) light reduction. I would usually head to bed at around 11PM, and the light level was such that you could read a book inside the tent without any eye strain. The notion that this tent will provide you with a dark environment is simply not true. Biggest con: this thing is *extremely* sensitive to wind. Like, it will bow over on itself in a 5mph breeze unless you thoroughly stake this sucker down with the guylines. I repeat, STAKE THE GUYLINES DOWN. Simply staking 4 corners of the tent is not enough. This wants to be a kite more than any other tent I have used. Overall, 3/10, would not recommend. Roomy, sure, but not a great piece of equipment.