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See the 14 tests

1. In the Box
2. Set Up & Take Down
3. Peak Height
4. Base Area
5. Screen Room
6. Doors
7. Windows
8. Storage
9. Screen Room Comfort
10. Dark Room
11. Ventilation
12. Rain Protection
13. Quality
14. Portability
15. Pros, Cons, Recommendation
16. Bonus: Must Read!

In the Box

I bought my Coleman Carlsbad 4 from Amazon, and inside the package I got a black carry bag, the tent body, the green rainfly, a foot mat, 4 fiberglass poles and 15 steel stakes.

Set Up & Take Down

• Set-up time (1 person) 11 min
• Take-down + pack-up (1 person) 10 min
• Poles 4 fiberglass

• Stakes / guylines 15 / 7

Setup runs 4 fiberglass poles: 2 longer body poles cross into an X, a shorter green pole raises the screen room, and a black-tipped pole runs down the rainfly. Solo, screen room included, it took me 11 minutes; take-down and pack-up ran 10 minutes, and everything went back in the bag without ripping the expander strip.

Find the set up a little fiddly? See how a simpler tent compares in Coleman Skydome vs Carlsbad.

Peak Height

• Capacity 4-person4 pads in the dome, about 5 with the screen room
• Peak height 60in

At 60in peak I can just about stand, but I’m slouching with my head against the roof at 5’3″, and only dead centre, since it’s a dome. The measured dome floor is 8ft 8in by 6ft 9in (58.5 sq ft), a little under the marketed 9 × 7ft.

Base Area

• Base area (dome) 58.5 sq ft8ft 8in × 6ft 9in, under the marketed 9 × 7ft

I fit 4 regular sleeping pads shoulder to shoulder in the dome, with no gear room left, or 1 queen mattress for a roomier 2-person setup with space to spare.

Screen Room

• Screen room 27.6 sq ft8ft 8in longest, 5ft 9in shortest, 3ft 10in wide

• Screen-room peak 54in

• Total base area 86.1 sq ft

The headline is the screen room: an extra 27.6 sq ft I measured myself. It runs 8ft 8in at its longest, tapers to 5ft 9in, and is 3ft 10in wide, bringing the total base area to 86.1 sq ft.

The catch: the screen room peaks at only 54in, lower than the dome, so I couldn’t stand up in it either.

Doors

• Doors 1 + 1one dome door, one screen-room door

The dome has 1 door (47 × 35in, 52in tall) and the screen room adds another that spans almost its full length at 5ft 2in, though it’s only 50in tall. I duck through both at 5’3″.

Windows

• Windows 32 side 35 × 18in, 1 front 34 × 20in

There are 3 windows: two side panels (35 × 18in) and one in the front door (34 × 20in), each with a bug net and a latch. Storage is basic: 2 pockets (9 × 7in each), 2 lantern loops and 1 e-port.

Storage

• Pockets 29 × 7in each
• Lantern loops 2
• E-port 1

Screen Room Comfort

The screen room doubles as living space. I could lie down in it, bug-netted from the outside, which is genuinely useful in the evenings. The Evanston is my other screen-room Coleman, and I compare the two in Coleman Evanston vs Carlsbad.

Dark Room

• Dark room Yes

It also has Coleman’s dark-room fabric, but mine underperformed. It’s darker than a regular tent, yet nowhere near the 90% light block Coleman markets. I traced it to translucent black fabric near the base (the arrow) that should have been pitch black like the windows, so I suspect mine was defective. Check yours the day it arrives; is the feature even worth it? I break that down in Is Coleman’s Dark Room Worth It?.

Ventilation

• Vents 1full-length mesh-wall vent
• Windows 3
• Mesh wall Yesopens fully with the rainfly off

Ventilation is a strong point. There’s 1 mesh-wall vent running almost the full length of the back wall; with the rainfly staked down over it, I could leave it open even in heavy rain while the windows and door stayed shut.

On a hot day I pull the rainfly off entirely and that mesh wall opens the tent right up. Just know you lose some privacy without it.

Rain Protection

• Light rain Dome dry30 min; screen room soaked

• Heavy-rain hold 30 minbefore the untaped bathtub-floor seam leaks
• Screen-room cover Nonerainfly stops where the screen room starts
• Bathtub floor ~9inpolyethylene

• Seam taping Rainfly onlytent-body seams inverted, untaped

In light rain the dome stayed completely dry inside, but the screen room is a different story. With no rainfly over it and big mesh side panels, everything in there got wet within the 30 minutes it rained.

For heavy rain I ran a hose on the front. Around 30 minutes in, a few drops came through the untaped, inverted bathtub-floor seam (the tent’s usual first leak), while the screen room flooded outright.

Note Seam-seal the bathtub-floor seam before heavy rain, and pack a tarp or canopy if you want the screen room usable in a storm.

The core problem is coverage: the rainfly stops right where the screen room begins, so the screen room has no rain protection at all.

Quality

• Floor Polyethylenebathtub ~9in
• Body & rainfly Polyester
• Seams Invertedrainfly taped, tent-body not

• Mesh Regularnot no-see-um
• Poles 4 fiberglassnot color-coded
• Dark room Yesfabric scraping a little after a few years

The floor is polyethylene with a 9in bathtub wall, and the body and rainfly are both polyester. No issues with either. The rainfly seams are taped; the tent-body seams aren’t, though the lower ones are at least inverted to shed water.

Stitching is double and consistent, with just one tiny loose thread. The mesh is regular (not no-see-um) and the zippers are catch-free. My one gripe: the 4 fiberglass poles aren’t color-coded and are all about the same length, and the screen-room pole sleeve is long and snaggy. After a few years of light use, some dark-room fabric is also scraping off, not badly, but worth noting.

Portability

• Packed size 26 × 11.5 × 8in
• Weight 14.4 lbseverything, incl. stakes, guylines and foot mat

Packed, the Carlsbad is 26 × 11.5 × 8in and weighs 14.4 lbs with everything in the bag. The extra screen room makes this 4-person tent pack as big as my Sundome 6.

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Coleman Carlsbad 4?

Generous base area

You can squeeze 4 adults into the dome, or about 5 counting the screen room. Roomy for the price.

Easy set up and pack away

Just 11 minutes to pitch solo, screen room included, and everything packs back into the bag without a fight.

Decent ventilation

The full-length mesh wall keeps air moving on hot days and rainy days alike.

No rain protection for the screen room

The rainfly doesn’t cover it at all, so you’ll want a tarp or canopy if rain is likely. And the wet mesh is a pain to clean out afterwards.

Can’t stand in the 4-Person version

Both the dome and screen-room doors are low, so I had to keep ducking, a strain if you have back trouble.

Dark room tech seems slightly defective

Mine was a lot less dark than other Coleman blackout tents, which I put down to the translucent base fabric, so inspect yours right away.

Bonus: Must Read!

Every figure above is from my own testing. Measured by hand, bought with my own money.