The Camping Buddy’s Verdict
While nothing fancy, the Coleman Skydome tent gives you decent value at an incredibly low price. During our testing, we found the tent to be overall spacious enough, comfortable, and had a few nice perks, although some design choices used made us question its durability and weather resistance. Overall, it’s an excellent option for the extremely price-conscious camper, although better quality can be found at slightly higher prices.
| Overall Rating | 4.0/5 |
|---|---|
| Space & Comfort | 4.2/5 |
| Weather Resistance | 3.2/5 |
| Ease of Setup | 4.0/5 |
| Material Quality | 3.7/5 |
| Value | 4.8/5 |
Specifications
List Price: $114.99
Trail Weight: 10 lbs 6 oz
Floor Size: 56 sq ft (84×96 in)
Peak Height: 56 in
Packed Size: 24x9x5 in
Doors/Vestibules: 1/0
Capacities: 2P/4P/6P/8P
Other Features: Gear Loft, 1-Year Warranty
Product Pros
Spacious Interior: The 56-inch peak height and nearly vertical walls were nice features, as we could comfortably sit down anywhere in the tent.
Dark Room Is A Nice Perk: While it costs extra, the dark room feature works as advertised. No sunlight will get through and interrupt your sleep with this add-on.
Good Value For Money: The Skydome tent comes in at close to the cheapest available price, while still checking most of the boxes in terms of features.
Product Cons
Setup Time Was Misleading: The 5-minute setup time is a big selling point that Coleman makes for the Skydome camping tent, but it took us around 10 minutes to pitch.
Some Materials Were Not Top Quality: The poles are made of fiberglass, which is prone to break with wear and tear. The fabric was also thin in some places.
Below Average Weather Resistance: The tent struggled in our severe weather test, and we would not trust it in anything beyond a mild rainstorm.
Our Detailed Evaluation
While we specifically tested the 4-person version of the tent out in the field, we obtained several of its different versions to give you a complete review. Continue reading below to see how it scored against our standard rating criteria.
Comfort And Space
The Skydome tent scores very well in the comfort and space category. At 56 inches of peak height, it is well above the average 4-person tent out there. The steep walls maximize the indoor space even more, giving the tent a roomy, cabin-like feel even though it is technically a dome tent. We could all comfortably sit up straight inside the tent even on top of a queen-sized mattress.
The floor space is about what you’d expect from your average 4-person tent. While we were able to squeeze 4 standard-sized sleeping pads inside with sleeping bags on top, we would recommend a larger-sized tent (possibly a 6 or even 8 person) if you’re camping with a group of 4. This is the case for most 4-person tents out there, however.
The tent has 4 small mesh storage pockets in addition to a gear loft, which we found to be plenty of space to store all of our small items. A vestibule for things like dirty boots would’ve been a nice feature to see, but is not included with this particular tent. If we were testing in worse weather, we would not have been happy tracking mud inside.
Weather Resistance
Our biggest area of disappointment with this tent was its weather resistance. Although the Skydome is advertised to handle winds up to 35 miles per hour, we wouldn’t trust it for anything near that. Its tall ceiling design means gusts of wind catch right on the tent body, and it blew over during our wind field test. Stick to using this tent in calmer weather conditions, and take extra care to stake it down well.
The tent’s half-rainfly design also caused some concern for us during our rain test. While the tent held up fine in light showers with no water getting inside, sideways rainfall quickly breached the mesh exterior that the fly didn’t cover.
The areas that were designed to be waterproof did hold up well. We were impressed by Coleman’s signature WeatherTec technology. The fabric on many budget tents gets wet when exposed to enough rainfall, but this wasn’t an issue here.
The tent has plenty of mesh ventilation, which was more than enough to keep it cool even though we had some warm nights while testing it. The three-season designation is likely a bit questionable though, and we wouldn’t trust this tent on nights under 50 degrees Fahrenheit or so, especially not without some blankets and a warm sleeping bag.
Ease of Use
While it wasn’t a super difficult setup, taking us about 10 minutes on average from unpacked to completely pitched, we find it hard to believe that anyone is setting up this tent in 5 minutes as they advertise.
However, the setup is still pretty straightforward compared to most camping tents and we were able to do it easily with one person. The pre-attached pole design is unique and certainly saved a bit of time putting everything together, and the ceiling is still low enough that it’s not hard to reach the top. The poles slot into the corner pockets (quick corner setup system) using a ball located at the end of each, which is one of the easiest methods available.
Takedown took about the same amount of time as setting up the tent did. When we were packing the tent back up, we found it tough to fit everything back inside the provided stuff sack, which is a common issue for camping tents. We ended up storing it in a larger bag that we brought along instead.
Material Quality
Given the tent’s budget status, we could tell that some corners were certainly cut on material quality. First of all, the tent uses fiberglass poles, which are much flimsier and prone to breaking than the higher quality aluminum style included with many tents.
The stuff sack fabric was pretty thin, and while this was not a problem with our tent specifically, we did notice during our online research some complaints about frequent rips. The tent is made of a polyester material (which is known to rip sometimes), so we see this as something to note.
On the positive side, the bathtub floor and the double-walled fabric are of very good quality. The tent walls and floor are both PU coated, so no water will be soaking through the fabric. Sealed, inverted seams are also a nice addition that previous versions of Coleman tents did not have.
Value
At a listed price of $114.99, it will be hard to find a cheaper tent than this one that won’t fall apart at the first sign of stress. While it doesn’t score the highest on quality, it’s one of the few tents you can find in the $100-150 range that is suitable for taking beyond your backyard.
If you’re the type of camper that takes a casual weekend camping trip or two per year, in warmer weather, then you can’t go wrong with this tent. It’s one of the best value options we’ve reviewed.
Similar Products
Kelty Discovery Element 6: Large, comfortable, and with excellent value relative to price, this is the top-budget camping tent in our lineup. Read our complete review here.
Nemo Aurora Highrise Tent 4P: One of the most spacious car camping tents on the market, with excellent quality to boot, although a bit more pricy than the Skydome. Read our complete review here.
Coleman Sundome Tent 4P: A smaller, slightly cheaper version of the Skydome camping tent we reviewed in this article. Read our complete review here.
Big Agnes Rabbit Ears Tent 4P: Another pricier option, but with excellent material quality and comfort you’d expect from a Big Agnes tent. Read our complete review here.
Looking At The Rest of The Skydome Tent Line
Each version of the Skydome camping tent was relatively similar across the board, but there are a few key differences that we want to highlight.
Coleman Skydome 2P, 6P, and 8P Tent Review
The other sizes of the Skydome camping tent are basically the same as the one we tested. While they of course scale up and down proportional to their size ratings, the design doesn’t change at all.
We found this disappointing for the larger tents, as many in the 6 and 8-person range for other brands come with features like vestibules or a room divider. Because of this, we thought the smaller versions offered better value.
Coleman Skydome Tent With Dark Room Technology Review
This version of the Skydome tent comes with all the same features as the one we reviewed in detail above, with the addition of their signature dark room technology. One of our testers spent a night in this tent and was extremely impressed.
Walking inside, you can immediately see the difference between the base version of the tent. It legitimately blacks out all light when the door is closed and we were not woken up early in the morning by the sunrise.
The feature costs an extra $35 over the base version. If you enjoy sleeping in late and like all the other features that this tent has to offer, you should consider upgrading.
Conclusion
In sum, the Skydome is a decent quality tent at a bargain price. It offers good interior headspace, has all the features you’d expect from a three-season tent, and is simple to deal with for any camper. If you’re looking for the cheapest option out there that could handle a few casual weekend camping trips per year, this could be the tent for you. If you want to spend a little more money, our favorite budget tent we’ve reviewed is the Kelty Discovery Element 6.
If you’ve tried a Skydome camping tent before, we’d love to hear about your experience with it in the comments. Happy camping!
Why You Should Trust Us
All of our tents are rated using the criteria that we outline on our “How We Test And Review Camping Tents” page. This ensures that every product we look at is reviewed against the same unbiased standard, ensuring fairness in our ratings and helping you judge the difference between each product.
Affiliate Disclosure – Some of the links on this page are affiliate links. If you use one of these links to purchase a product, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. These commissions help us continue to provide high-quality, unbiased reviews to help you make all the right camping gear decisions.
Carl is a content writer for The Camping Buddy, specializing in informational camping articles and product reviews. Carl has been a freelance writer for outdoor news sites while spending his time backpacking across the world. His favorite camping spot is Malaekahana Beach in Hawaii.
