Tents · Head-to-head
Cheap Tents VS. Expensive Tents: $100 vs $500 (REAL Pictures!)
I bought both and camped in them for weeks: a $100 Coleman Sundome 6 against a $500 North Face Wawona 6, same 6-person size. These are the 13 differences that actually showed up.
- 13 differences
- $100 vs $500 same tent size
- 3 hrs of rain, zero leaks
- ~5 min read
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The short answer
The $100 tent is fine
The Sundome 6 pitches in 11.5 minutes and held 30-35 minutes of heavy rain.
The verdict ↓Pay for the $500 tent
3 hours of the heaviest rain of the year, 3 days running, and nothing got inside.
The rain tests ↓Space and storage
9 pockets and a 51.0 square foot vestibule, against 2 pockets and no vestibule at all.
The numbers ↓The full comparison
$500 tent vs $100 tent, side by side
| The North Face Wawona 6 ($500) | Coleman Sundome 6 ($100) | |
|---|---|---|
| Vestibules | 1 | 0 |
| Vestibule area | 51.0 square feet | 0 |
| Number of poles | 4 | 3 |
| Set-up time | 20 minutes | 11.5 minutes |
| Doors | 2 | 1 |
| Pockets | 9 | 2 |
| Loops | 8 | 1 |
| 1-hour rain test | Passed | Failed |
| Waterproof rating | 1,200-1,500mm | None stated |
| Seam taping | Yes | No |
| Zippers | SBS | No brand |
| Mesh | Micro mesh | Regular mesh |
| Flooring | 150D polyester | Polyethylene |
| Body & rainfly | 75D polyester | 68D polyester |
| Pole material | DAC MX aluminum | Fiberglass |
| Warranty | Lifetime | 1 year |
I filmed the whole side-by-side test too: the video is here.
Part 1 of 6
One has a vestibule. The other has nothing.
The Sundome is a plain dome tent. There is an overhanging rainfly pole, but it shelters the door and nothing else, so footwear left outside still gets wet in light rain.
That vestibule measured 51.0 square feet. Inside, the difference carries on: the Sundome is 2 poles crossed into a dome, so the walls slope in hard and two steps from the peak my head touches fabric.
The Wawona adds a third pole that pulls the front wall up and out, until it is completely vertical. I can stand with my back flat against it.
What the extra features cost youTime. The Wawona’s extra pole and vestibule took me 20 minutes to pitch. The Sundome, with 3 poles and no vestibule, took 11.5 minutes, roughly half.
Part 2 of 6
Door quality is the difference you feel every single day
$500: Wawona 6
- + 2 doors, a big front one and a small one at the back
- + 70 inches tall, so I never duck
- + Snag-free, one-handed, 3 seconds to unzip
- + SBS branded zippers
- + Wide enough to walk a double sleeping pad straight out
$100: Sundome 6
- − 1 door only
- − 56 inches tall (14 inches shorter, so I duck every time)
- − Unbranded zippers
- − The storm flap catches in the zipper track
- − Two hands needed: one to hold the flap clear
Part 3 of 6
Mesh: how small the holes are, and how much of it there is
The Wawona’s mesh is fine enough to stop the small stuff. Bugs sheltered under the vestibule every time it rained and not one of them got into the inner tent. It feels silky to the hand, too.
Those bigger holes will not keep out no-see-ums. On quantity, three-quarters of the Wawona’s front wall is mesh, and all 4 walls join into a mesh ceiling. The Sundome has less, but for the money it is not bad. I have seen far worse on no-brand tents.
Why the cheap tent has lessNo-see-um mesh costs more to manufacture than plain mosquito netting, and mesh costs more than fabric. Budget tents save money on both.
Part 4 of 6
Storage: 9 pockets and 8 loops against 2 and 1
Placement matters as much as the count. Budget brands drop pockets wherever they fit. On my Coleman Instant 4 they sit on the side walls, and during my rain test they leaked water straight into the tent.
Every pocket in the Wawona sits behind either the back door fabric or the rainfly, so the seams have something over them.
Part 5 of 6
Rain protection is the biggest gap of the lot
The Sundome’s first drops came through the untaped corner seam after 30-35 minutes of heavy rain. And it is one of my better Coleman tents. My Coleman Instant tents leaked inside 15 minutes, and the pop-ups did the same.
The Wawona took 3 hours of the heaviest rain I saw all year, then 3 days of it at 3 hours a day. Only on the third day did the back wall go slightly damp to the touch, and it never dripped.
- Waterproof ratingEvery part of the Wawona (rainfly, flooring and tent body) carries a polyurethane coating, rated 1,200mm on the rainfly and 1,500mm on the floor. Coleman does not state a rating, and after thorough testing I found the fabric absorbs water rather than shedding it.
- Seam tapingEvery seam on the Wawona is taped, rainfly and interior alike. Coleman’s WeatherTec system uses inverted, untaped seams instead.
If you are taking a cheap tent into rainAlmost all the leaking in my tests came through those inverted seams. Seal them yourself before you go.
Part 6 of 6
Materials and warranty
The Wawona’s flooring is 150-denier polyester, the body and rainfly are 75-denier, and all 4 poles are DAC MX, top-of-the-line aluminum. They snapped together easily and did not bend once across weeks of testing.
The Sundome runs budget materials throughout: polyethylene flooring, which is tarp material and crunches underfoot, 68-denier body and rainfly, and 3 fiberglass poles. None of that is an accident. I break down exactly why tents are so expensive, cost by cost.
Thin fiberglass breaks. This rainfly pole from my Coleman Red Canyon 8 snapped on its first use, straight out of the box.
And the warranties say the rest. The North Face gives you a limited lifetime warranty. Coleman gives you 1 year.
Cheat sheet
So which one should you buy?
| If you… | Get | Because |
|---|---|---|
| Are camping for the first time | The $100 Sundome 6 | You find out whether you like camping before spending $500 on it. |
| Camp a couple of times a summer, in fair weather | The $100 Sundome 6 | One of the better budget tents out there, and a decent family tent for $100. |
| Camp often, in unpredictable rain | The $500 Wawona 6 | It will last years, so per year it gives you more than replacing a cheap tent does. |
- The $500 tent (North Face Wawona 6)Amazon · REI Co-op · Backcountry · my full review
- The $100 tent (Coleman Sundome 6)Amazon · Dick’s · Coleman · my full review
The bottom line
The $500 tent buys you a vestibule, twice the storage, taped seams, aluminum poles and a lifetime warranty. The $100 tent buys you a roof that holds for half an hour of heavy rain and pitches in half the time. Neither is the wrong answer. It depends entirely on how often, and in what weather, you camp.
Quick questions
FAQ
Is a $100 tent good enough for camping?
For fair-weather summer camping, yes. My Sundome 6 pitched in 11.5 minutes, fits a family of 3 to 4, and held 30-35 minutes of heavy rain before the first drops came through. It is strong winds and prolonged rain that a budget tent cannot handle.
What is the biggest difference between a cheap and an expensive tent?
Rain protection. The Wawona took 3 hours of heavy rain, 3 days running, without a drop inside. The Sundome leaked through an untaped corner seam in 30-35 minutes. Taped seams and a stated waterproof rating are what you are actually paying for.
Can I make a cheap tent more waterproof?
Yes, and it is worth doing. Almost all the leaking in my rain tests came through the inverted, untaped seams, so seam sealant on the inside of those seams (especially the bathtub floor seam in the corners) is the single highest-value thing you can do.
Keep going
Where to next
Both tents were bought with my own money, and every figure here I measured myself.
