Coleman Evanston Screened 6 Review

The Coleman Evanston has features that fail miserably in all but very specific situations. The fully netted and sealed floor performs quite well on warm days and bug-filled nights, but outside of that, it just doesn't stack up.

Performance Comparison

Space and Comfort

With 90 sq ft of interior space and an additional 40 sq ft of vestibule space, you will have plenty of square footage. The main tent will easily fit a full and a twin air mattress, while the vestibule will hold two chairs, a table, and then some. However, both areas are short, with a max height of 5' 8" — which is only at the top dead center. The vestibule area is a little shorter than that at 5' 4", forcing most campers to duck and change sitting down.

There are only two pockets in this 6-person tent, and in our version, the manufacturer sewed on one of the pockets backward. Getting in and out of the Evanston is also oddly difficult, as the doors only open halfway. Not only does this make things awkward, it is impossible to inflate or deflate your beds anywhere but inside the tent. The door also has a very strange window. They added windows on each side because the door only opens halfway, which places a large seam right down the middle. We should also point out that there are no clips or ties to tuck them away when the windows are open, so they just dangle in the wind.

The tent does have great ventilation, with most of the back and about half of the top being full mesh. When the rainfly is on and the side windows unzipped, you can still see outside, a nice feature and added reason to keep the fly on at all times.

Weather Resistance

The Evanston is a solid dome design with a fairly low profile and heavily slanted walls. It also comes pre-installed with guylines and a full set of totally adequate stakes, so this tent passed our wind tests quite well. Thanks to all of the open mesh and optional window covers, it is extremely well-ventilated with or without the rainfly.

However, when it comes to rain, this tent prefers to collect it rather than shed it. An open vestibule with an attached floor means while you may be dry inside your tent, all your gear will be taking a bath. Not a great design feature, to say the least.

Ease of Use

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. The poles also use a pin setup instead of the grommet setup seen on all the other tents in our lineup. Once the poles are on, it's time to move on to the fly. However, you can't put the fly on without fully staking the entire tent first. But because Coleman uses cheap elastic straps that clip to rings attached next to the poles, it is very hard to clip everything when under tension. The rainfly also must be velcroed to the vestibule area in four locations.

As mentioned before, the door on the Evanston only opens halfway. This means getting your gear in and out of the tent is much harder than it should be. Add only two pockets and a weight of 20.9 lbs, and you get a tent that scores very low in the ease of use category.

Family Friendliness

The size of this tent and the mesh-covered vestibule are great for a family. Four people and furry friends will easily fit with some extra room leftover. Storage is a problem with this tent, however, because it only comes with two pockets but because the vestibule isn't properly protected from the rain. A pile of wet gear does not make for happy campers. Likewise, should your family be stuck in the tent during a storm, there is no way to cook unless you do so completely inside the tent, which is never a good idea.

Quality

When it comes to quality, the Evanston falls short again. Fiberglass poles, cheap mesh, and tarp-like flooring are connected by mid-grade zippers and inverted seams (instead of the superior seam-seal). The bag is also poor quality and will inevitably require ducktape after the first or second season. The stakes and guylines seem adequate for the tent, and the rainfly, though frustrating to set up, is made of polyester taffeta 75D.

Should You Buy the Coleman Evanston Screened 6?

While the price of this tent is low, so is the quality and overall design. 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.

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