Coleman Skydome Dark Room Tent, 6 Person

Update: I wrote the original review after setting up the tent in the back yard and getting initial impressions. I've owned and/or slept in many tents before from both the low and high end of the price spectrum and went off my past experiences as to how I figured this tent would perform. Well, after my first trip I can tell you I was very wrong and will be returning this tent: 1. There is a defect in one of the poles. I knew about ths when I wrote the initial review and figured that it wasn't a huge deal because coleman was more than willing to send me a replacement pole. But along with the other defects it points to some major quality control issues 2. The seam between the back floor and the wall was never completely stitched. There is about a one inch gap without any stitching in the back corner between the floor tarp and the wall.. This caused me to cut short my 3 day camping trip to 2 days as there was rain in the forecast on the final day . 3. The door zippers on this tent are just terrible. They catch fabric about 90% of the time unless you zip/unzip with two hands to prevent it from happening. This is a pain in the rear end to do every single time. Got a flashlight or a water bottle in your hand? You have to put it down to open the tent. The more the zippers catch on the fabric the quicker they will start taking water. On top of all of that, I have decided the darkroom aspect of this tent is just not for me. I can say that for the most part it does work as advertised except that light easily penetrates the floor tarp material. However that would not bother me much if I was trying to take a nap. And I did like that it allows you to sleep in longer in the morning. This is an undeniable plus. But Coleman also advertises that the dark coating keeps the tent cooler, and that is not what I found. During the middle of the day it was high 70s outside and pushing what felt like 100 degrees in the tent with the door closed. If I open the door then it is no longer dark, and with the tarp on you can't really get good airflow with only one window. Besides, I found during the day I don't want to have it dark inside the tent. It really helps to have light in there when you want to tidy up, look for a change of clothes, find your toothbrush, etc. And finally, after further consideration I think the rainfly is probably inadequate. It is not a full coverage rainfly and after a few uses water will probably seep in around the tent seams. I could in good conscience only recommend this tent to someone who either a) cannot afford to spend more or b) uses a tent rarely and never in wet weather or c) someone who really really likes it dark in their tent Original Review: I think for the money this tent is good value. I have owned many tents over the years, both backpacking and car camping style. This tent is pefectly fine, good even. While you could technically sleep 6, you probably wouldn't want to, and some of your gear would have to be stored outside. But every manufacturer sizes their tent this way. The dark room feature does block out a lot of light, but it's not perfect. As other reviews have mentioned the floor lets in a decent amount of light. It still helps some, though. The tent comes with a few extras I wasn't expecting-- a gear loft and a matt for your shoes outside. The rain fly does not have edge to edge coverage, and I wouldn't expect this thing to perform all that great in a strong storm, but for light rain it will probably be serviceable for a few seasons. One thing I like about these coleman tents is the bathtub tarp floors. They're pretty durable and waterproof. You just have to be careful that there are no pointy rocks where you pitch your tent that could poke pinholes. My tent came with one defect-- one of the main poles was missing a rubber ball on the end. The tent was still usable, but over the exposed pole edge would probably cut into the fabric. I called up coleman, and customer service was actually pleasant to deal with. They sent me a replacement part without any hassle, which meant I didn't have to deal with a return. That's a win for both Coleman and myself. There is a loop for a lantern at the top and a few pockets, but more storage pockets are always better. I'm also not sure if the mesh is fine enough to keep no see ums out, but that isn't a problem where I live.