Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Let me start by saying I sell outdoors and emergency supplies. I have tested tons of tents. We just purchased the Ephor 6 Tent from CEC last week. Immediately we packed up the tent and all of the rest of our camping gear and headed off to the Gila River in Winkelman, AZ to test it out for 5 days. The following is my review of our experience:
Ease of Setup:
I put the tent up with my wife and daughters (7 and 11 y.o.) in about 30 minutes without any mishaps at all. Be prepared though, there are a ton of guy lines that have to be staked down in addition to the tent corners, and I found that the tent will unfortunately not stand up without them.
Size and Comfort:
The tent was HUGE! It housed my wife and I, our 3 children (11, 7 and 2 y.o.) and 2 dogs for 5 days. The ventilation was sufficient when we opened the side vents to the living areas. We really enjoyed all the extra space that this tent provides. Each inner tent has ample space complete with several storage pockets. The queen sized, double height inflatable bed that my wife and I use fits perfectly in one of the inner tents. The center living area is very large and fit all of our supplies for the week with lots of extra room to spare.
Overall
The stitching and fabric are made from strong, durable materials, however a stake loop on the front of one inner tent broke completely free leaving a hole in it's place. I suspect this simply was not sewn in completely at the factory. This will need to be re-sewn right away otherwise water will find it's way into the "totally waterproof - fully sewn in ground sheet in the SLEEPING AREA". The tent poles are strong and thick as well as being color coded; together the poles alone weighed over 30 pounds so I expect they may be able to hold up a small car. The tent stood up to strong winds without any problem at all. The tent stakes were unfortunately not as advertised. The company website and instruction set advertises that the tent comes with 55 "durable zinc plated steel stakes" however mine came with 40 cheap plastic stakes that bend easily. I had to immediately spend over $50 to get reasonable tent stakes from a local outdoors shop because we were leaving the following morning and I did not have extras on hand.
Rain
Everything was great right up until the night good ole' Mother Nature decided to dump rain on us. All four sides of the blue rain fly on top filled with water immediately and the whole tent went down to about half height under the pressure. Then the water started coming in from all the vented areas that were meant to be covered by the blue fly. There is no attached floor under the main living area so water started coming in from everywhere on the ground. The description on the company website states the following about the living area floor:"A tub style, fitted, removable ground sheet in the LIVING AREA that is attached to the rain fly with the use of hooks and toggles" In reality I found that the "tub style" floor was just a regular tarp that you stake to the ground via the four corners, there were no hooks or toggles for connecting the floor to the rain fly. This is supported by the instructions that come with the tent.
Overall Opinion:
From what I have seen so far I really like the tents that Camping Equipment Company designs. If you are looking for a huge tent for your family and you camp in mild conditions this is the tent for you. If however you are looking for a tent for camping in areas that may experience heavy rains I suggest you look at another tent model. This is a large tent with lots of extra room for storage but as a result you might want to set it up a couple of times in the backyard to get familiar with it prior to taking it camping for the first time.Pros:
Huge tent. Lots of storage space. Assembles easily. Good quality materials. Good ventilation. Color coded tent poles and inner tent hooks/toggles. Large removable front dual screened/weatherproof door.
Cons:
Rain fly collects water. Cannot stand on it's own with poles and stakes, needs guy lines or it will fall down. No tub floor under living area as advertised. No zinc plated steel tent stakes as advertised. "Totally Waterproof" inner tent floors do not account for the possibility of tent loop coming free and exposing hole to floor.
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