The Coleman 6-Person Dark Room Sundome Tent is a wallet-friendly, unadorned camping tent designed to allow sleep no matter the time of day.
The Coleman Carlsbad 6-Person Tent is a great family car camping tent with an attached screen room to help keep away the bugs. It’s a great tent for dry-weather camping.
Contents
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Comfort and Space
When camping with a group, it’s important to find a big enough tent to sleep everyone. Here are the basics of the Coleman Carlsbad 6-Person tent.
Floor Space
This tent is more than big enough to sleep up to six people. The floor space measures 10ft x 9ft (304.8 cm x 274.3 cm) and can fit two queen-sized air mattresses.
On warmer nights, you can even sleep another in the attached screen room.
Because this is a dome tent, sleeping six adults can get crowded. The edges of the ten slope down, making sleeping there somewhat cramped.
But if you don’t mind squeezing and want to maximize your sleeping space, this is a great option.
Head Space
At peak height, the Coleman Carlsbad 6-Person is 5’8” (172.72 cm). Children and shorter adults can stand up in the center of this tent without issue.
The dome presents a bit of a problem with standing height. This tent slopes away from the center, so the standing room quickly goes away.
That being said, there’s plenty of room to sit around on rainy days playing cards!
While this might be on the shorter side for a six-person tent, it means it won’t blow around so much on windy nights.
Rooms/Vestibules
The screen room on this Coleman is a major bonus. The separate room measures 10ft x 5ft (304.8 cm x 152.4 cm) with a completely enclosed screen to keep the bugs away.
The screen room also has a floor to keep everything dry and off the ground. It makes for a nice space to lounge and enjoy the outdoors without annoying bugs.
As I mentioned earlier, you can even sleep another person in the screen room on warmer nights without rain.
Breathability/Ventilation
While this tent has Coleman’s Dark Room features, it still has big screens to let air move through the space.
The front has blackout and screen doors. The back wall has a big blackout and screen window as well.
The two screens work together to create good airflow that will keep the tent cool.
The Dark Room technology helps to keep the tent cool even when all blackout screens are closed.
The attached screen room helps to keep the bugs out of the main tent.
RELATED: Best Blackout Tents for Camping
Weather Resistance
The Coleman Carlsbad 6-Person has protected seams and an attached floor to help keep the rain out.
Rain can still get in the tent through the door and window, but the canopy does a pretty good job of keeping most of the water out.
The canopy does lack in breadth. It doesn’t fully cover the sides of the tent, so you’ll have to be cautious and find a level high spot that won’t fill with water.
The screen room is a nice feature for keeping the bugs out, but it doesn’t have its own canopy. Rain and water can easily get into the screen room, making that space flood.
Durability
The floor of this tent is made from 1000-Denier polyethylene, a similar material used for tarps. Water won’t get through the floor.
The fabric is polyester taffeta 75D, so it is a durable tent, just like the entire Coleman lineup.
The truth is you can’t go wrong with Coleman. They make great tents and this one is no exception.
There could be some problems along the seams with heavy use, but for the most part, this tent will work nicely and keep the weather out.
The poles are fiberglass. Fiberglass poles aren’t as durable as aluminum ones, but if you only plan on using this tent a few times a year you won’t have any issues.
Ease of Use
This tent has Coleman’s Fast Pitch technology, which just means there are two hubs for the poles. The first hub goes at the apex of the tent and color-coded poles attach to the hub and the corners of the tent.
The other hub is for the screen room, where two poles meet to create the screen room.
It is possible to set up this tent by yourself, but with another person, it takes only about a minute to fully pitch.
It is an external frame and has quick clips for attaching the tent to the poles. You won’t have to worry about feeding the poles through a finicky sleeve.
One drawback is that the screen room is not fully freestanding. You’ll need to stake the front of the screen room down to create the right tension for the room to stand.
The screen room is not detachable to the rest of the tent, meaning you will have to set it each time.
Packed Size and Weight
Despite the size of this tent, it packs down to 26x11x11 inches. It has a bag to pack it into for easy storage and travel.
I wouldn’t recommend this for a backpacking trip, however, because the body of the tent itself takes up a lot of space when packed down.
That being said, it is a great option for car camping. If sleeping six people, you’ll need to store most of your gear in a vehicle or outside in the screen room. Just remember that the screen room isn’t covered by the canopy.
The tent weighs 22 lbs, making it too heavy for backpacking trips.
Pros and Cons
Here I’ll break down the best and worst features of this tent.
Pros:
- The screen room helps keep the bugs away
- Fast Pitch system makes this tent easy to set up
- Dark Room blocks almost all light
- Large sleeping area fits up to six people
- Bathtub style floor will keep most rain out of the tent
Cons
- Fiberglass poles aren’t as durable as aluminum
- The canopy doesn’t cover the screen room
- Dome shape means there’s less headroom
Rating
| Comfort and Space | 7 |
| Weather Resistance | 6 |
| Durability | 6 |
| Ease of Setup | 8 |
| Size and Weight | 7 |
