Screen houses don’t often have floors and are more standard in shape and size. Another way to use the skirt is to bury it (not all camping locations have this option, though), so the tent is completely anchored to the ground. Just because a manufacturer lists their materials as “heavy-duty” or “high quality” doesn’t mean they’re telling the truth. First, since many RVers essentially live out of their RVs for part of the year, they also need a big screened shelter to enjoy living partially outside.
Of course, as with all screen houses, applying waterproofing spray will definitely help keep the contents inside dry if it rains while it’s up. At 45 pounds, this Coleman screen tent is the heaviest on our list. A screen tent that’s easy to set up is a screen tent that’ll be used. If you buy a screen house that requires three people and 45 minutes to assemble, you’re not going to use it very often. If you have a big family or like to entertain, a larger screen tent is the way to go, and many of these measure 12 feet by 12 feet.
You can fold it up with 1 person but it does best to have 2 people to fold it back up. The Coleman Instant Screenhouse is made of heavy-duty 150D PolyGuard 2X double-thick material and has no-see-um mesh walls. It has a one-piece frame made of high-gauge powder-coated steel that sets up easily in about a minute.
The ceiling provides some shelter, but it’s often not enough. If you need extra space for storing extra gear or equipment, this screen house from Alvantor is the one to go for. It’s large enough that you can easily fit all of your gear inside and still have room to stand freely coleman sundome inside. All of these screen houses are great options for a usable space for family picnics. Comparatively, the Alvantor screen house is also fairly decent with a high roof design. This is great for making the mesh tent feel spacious when you’re sat underneath its roof.
With the full rainfly and floor kit, you could use this screen house almost like a cabin-style tent. This screen tent features a traditional fiberglass pole setup, but it’s easily accomplished in under one minute. Both the tent and poles collapse to fit in a carrying bag similar to a medium-size duffel bag.
Clam also sells a model called the Quick-Set Pavilion, which is the same as the Escape but supersized. L.L.Bean’s Woodlands Screen House is remarkably similar to our top pick, REI’s Screen House Shelter; the two canopies have an identical footprint and pole structure. It typically costs more and lacks the convenient carrying bag we like. This essentially means that it won’t prevent leaks in mild to heavy rainfall, but it can stop leaks from very light precipitation. Double layered thick fabric, named by Coleman as Poly Guard fabric, is used for the roof and parts of the body.
It has no floor, so if you’re not using a portable grill, you could easily assemble this around a pre-installed grill on the campsite. It’s even large enough to assemble around a built-in picnic table, and its shape allows for it, too. However, we would only recommend this instant screen house for those looking for a super portable option. This screen house doesn’t compare to the quality of the Clam. If you want a multi-use tent, you can also choose to remove the screen, which leaves behind a simple canopy tent.
It fell short in every category and scored among the worst in our entire lineup. This could perhaps provide good value if you are looking for a fair-weather tent for a bug-heavy area. But for most normal camping conditions, the value just isn’t there. If you are looking for a budget 6-person tent, we are sorry, but this isn’t the one we would recommend. The tent took our team 14 minutes and 20 seconds to pitch fully — much longer than the majority of our other tents and with much more frustration. First, the cheap fiberglass poles get snagged when pushing them into the sleeves.