If you’d prefer to pitch your tent in a matter of seconds rather than minutes, the Coleman Instant Tent 6 has you covered. At only $146.99, it’s one of the cheaper 6-person camping tents on the market, and it delivers a foolproof approach to tent-pitching that can easily be accomplished by one person, perhaps even one-handed. Beyond that, it’s really just a budget tent that’s lacking in bells and whistles, along with less flashy inclusions—such as ventilation, better weatherproofing, and a second door—that would definitely boost its value. For those cloudless summer nights, this could make for an attractive option for families in search of low-cost camping, however there are still several competitive options out there at similar price points.

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See Our Best Camping Tent Review 2021 HERE!

If you’d prefer to pitch your tent in a matter of seconds rather than minutes, the Coleman Instant Tent 6 has you covered. At only $146.99, it’s one of the cheaper 6-person camping tents on the market, and it delivers a foolproof approach to tent-pitching that can easily be accomplished by one person, perhaps even one-handed. However, the Instant Tent also has a handful of drawbacks that make it less than universally appealing.

Comfort

The Coleman Instant Tent 6 has average dimensions for a 6-person tent, at 10’x9’ (90sqft). The peak height is 6’2”, which will allow most hikers to stand up without needing to crouch. In addition, this cabin-style tent has excellent verticality of the walls, so you shouldn’t need to crouch if you’re anywhere but in the direct center of the tent. This will most certainly be a tight squeeze for six people, but it could more comfortably accommodate two parents and two children. It would be quite roomy for a single couple.

You’ll find five windows on this tent: two half-windows at the entrance and three windows on the walls that are quite large. Unfortunately, only one wall of the tent features a door, and in fact, it’s only a single-door entrance. We felt the Instant Tent 6 would have greatly benefited from at least a double-door entrance for easier entry and exit for multiple parties.

The Instant Tent 6 is also lacking a couple of other features that would help it compete with several similar tents. For one, there are only two mesh storage pockets, which seemed to be a fairly large oversight; we would have hoped to find at least double that number (there is, however, at least a clip on the ceiling where you can hang a lantern). There’s also no room divider, but this was less of a priority given the lack of entryways. Our other main issue was the lack of a vestibule, which means that in the case of a sudden rainstorm, there will be no dry area to store your wet clothes before entering the tent. And although we did like the two deployable vents on the roof, you’ll want to make sure to keep those closed if the weather is at all questionable since they are liable to let rain into the tent.

Ease of Setup

Coleman isn’t mincing words when they call this an instant tent. The advertised setup time is a blistering 60 seconds, and we found that this was not an exaggeration—even if you start the clock with the tent still inside its travel bag. Simply heft the entire tent out of its bag, undo the strap, and unroll it so that the central hub is pointed up, then pop out the four joints at the corners of the roof and extend all four telescopic legs until they click into place. That’s it. The tent is freestanding, so any additional pegging can be accomplished at your leisure (unless wind is a factor). You’ll also want to set aside some extra time to strap on the secondary rainfly should you opt to purchase this along with the tent, but we’ll talk more about that later on. It’s also worth noting that this tent can easily be set up by only one person, something that cannot be said for several of the two-person tents in our review.

Weight and packed size for the Instant Tent 6 are 24.9lb and 48”x9”x9”, so it’s certainly a hefty tent that will take up a decent amount of space in your trunk. However, it’s very easy to unpack and pack away with respect to its travel bag, which we consider much more valuable. In the setup category, the Coleman Instant Tent 6 is a true standout amongst our 2021 review, and we were quite impressed with what it could do.

Weatherproofing

There are certainly some pros and cons associated with the Instant Tent 6, which is listed as three-season capable. As a single-layer tent, the Coleman’s exterior is waterproof; it utilizes welded floors and inverted French seams to keep out the rain. Although it technically has a rainfly as part of the base tent, it’s what’s called an integrated rainfly, which is really just a waterproof roof. Although this integrated rainfly should be capable of keeping your interior dry when the rain is coming straight down, adding wind to the equation is a different matter entirely. As mentioned, there are two deployable vents on the roof that will need to be shut if there’s any chance for rain, as well as all five windows. Thankfully, the flaps on the windows and door ensure that no droplets will sneak inside.

Our main issue with the integrated rainfly is that we lose all ventilation (and views of the outside) when there’s risk of rain, but there is a slight solution to this. For an additional $28, Coleman offers a secondary rainfly accessory made of Polyguard 2X that straps to the top and allows you to have open vents without getting your stuff soaked. Although it’s less than ideal to add a 20% upcharge to unlock this feature, it’s still much easier on your wallet than the majority of the tents in our review. However, this rainfly really only serves to add extra protection to the roof; it does not extend out far enough to provide sufficient protection for the doors and windows.

Durability

The floors and canopy on the Coleman Instant Tent 6 are made up of a rugged 150D polyester, which is noticeably thicker than many of the tents in our review and should hold up to a great deal of punishment. The aluminum poles are also quite durable; the leg poles are 16mm thick, while the roof poles are 12mm thick. All of these heavy-duty materials add a great deal to the weight—at nearly 25lb, this is the heaviest tent in our 2021 review. However, this was not a bother to us, as this tent really only needs to be transported from the car to the impact pad, and we’d rather heft a few extra pounds than sacrifice durability. There’s no included footprint with this tent, and we’d recommend purchasing either a 9’x9’ or 10’x10’ footprint, which unfortunately is not offered by Coleman. You can also save quite a bit of money by opting for a tarp instead. These will run you anywhere from $10-20, depending upon your desired level of quality.

Other Features

The Coleman’s lightning-fast setup time is really its only party piece. Besides this, it’s very much a bare-bones tent at an attractive price point. Its durable materials make it family- and pet-friendly, and we can appreciate that its single-layer design enables you to set it up in the rain while keeping the interior dry; just make sure to close up the windows and doors when you pack it away.

The Bottom Line

The main appeal of the Coleman Instant 6 is detailed in its name. Beyond that, it’s really just a budget tent that’s lacking in bells and whistles, along with less flashy inclusions—such as ventilation, better weatherproofing, and a second door—that would definitely boost its value. For those cloudless summer nights, this could make for an attractive option for families in search of low-cost camping; however, there are still several competitive options out there at similar price points.

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