This page contains affiliate links, and that means that I may earn a commission if you buy something, at no extra cost to you. You can find my full disclosure policy here.

Discontinued Coleman no longer makes the Coleman Elite Sundome 6, so I’m keeping this review up as a testing record. For tents you can still buy today, see my Best Coleman Tents roundup — and the closest still-sold sibling is the standard Coleman Sundome 6 review.

See the 8 tests

1. In the Box
2. Set Up & Take Down
3. Spaciousness
4. Comfort & Features
5. Ventilation
6. Rain Protection
7. Quality
8. Portability
9. Pros, Cons, Recommendation
10. Bonus – MUST read!

In the Box

I bought my Coleman Elite Sundome 6. Inside the package I got the tent body, the rainfly, a foot mat, 6 poles, 15 stakes, and a lantern plus power pack in a small box.

Set Up & Take Down

• Set-up time (1 person) 16 min
• Take-down + pack-up (1 person) 12 min
• Poles 6 fiberglass2 body, 2 rainfly, 2 hinged-door

• Stakes / guylines 15 / 6

The Elite pitches on 6 fiberglass poles. Two cross in an X for the body. Two thin poles hold the rainfly out. Two more frame the hinged door.

You clip the body on, then stake and guy the rainfly.

I did it all solo at 5’3″. Set-up took 16 minutes, take-down 12 minutes.

Spaciousness

• Capacity 6-personfits 7 pads; comfortable for a family of 4
• Peak height 74.5in
• Base area 110.0 sq ft11ft 7in × 9ft 6in — shy of the marketed 12 × 10ft

At 74.5in peak I stand fully upright. It’s a dome, so the peak is dead centre — two steps back and my head touches the roof.

The measured floor is 11ft 7in by 9ft 6in (110.0 sq ft), a touch under the marketed 12 × 10ft. I fit 7 regular sleeping pads inside — one more than rated.

Or run 2 queen-sized mattresses for 4 people, with gear room to spare.

Comfort & Features

• Doors 21 hinged D-door

• Windows 2auto-rolling; back 42 × 25in, front 29 × 22in
• Room divider Yes2 rooms

• Pockets 29 × 8in each
• Lantern loop 0pre-attached light instead
• E-port 1
• Lighting Yeslantern + 4-D-battery power pack

The Elite is loaded. A hinged D-door (47 × 29in) opens like a real door, with handles inside and out — rare on a Coleman tent.

The back door is a bigger zip door (52 × 42in). A room divider then splits the tent into 2 rooms, each with its own door.

With the divider up, each room takes 1 queen bed, with gear space left over.

The auto-rolling windows roll their own fabric up — no droopy flaps.

There’s pre-attached lighting too: a lantern and a 4-D-battery power pack. Mine’s plug didn’t fit, so I pulled it out and use my own lanterns.

Storage is light: 2 pockets (9 × 8in), 1 e-port, and no lantern loop — the fixed light takes its spot.

Ventilation

• Vents 2full-length mesh-wall vents
• Mesh-wall vent width ~14in
• Windows Crack open in rain

Two full-length mesh walls turn into vents, each about ~14in wide, protected under the rainfly.

I can crack the windows open in rain. On a hot day I strip the rainfly right off — but you lose privacy, and the mesh walls can’t be zipped shut.

Rain Protection

• Rain hold 30 minheavy hose, back wall, untaped seam
• Seam taping Noneseams inverted where exposed
• Vestibule Nonerainfly shades the door only

It didn’t properly rain while I had the tent out, so I hose-tested two walls heavily.

The back wall leaked at the untaped bathtub seam after 30 min. Seal it and it’s fine.

The side wall stayed bone dry after 30 min — more rainfly cover means less leaking.

One limit: the rainfly shades the door only. There’s no vestibule, so shoes left outside get wet.

Quality

• Floor Polyethylenebathtub, ~9in
• Body / rainfly 68D / 75D polyesterrainfly is taffeta

• Mesh Regularnot no-see-um
• Blackout No

The floor is Polyethylene with a ~9in bathtub. Body is 68D polyester, rainfly 75D taffeta. No seams are taped, but exposed ones are inverted to shed water.

Stitching is double-stitched and clean. Mesh is regular, not no-see-um. Zippers are catch-free and colour-coded. But the rainfly poles are too thin and bent permanently after a few days.

Portability

• Packed size 30 × 13.5 × 10in
• Weight 21.4 lbseverything, including stakes, guylines and foot mat

Packed, the Elite is 30 × 13.5 × 10in and weighs 21.4 lbs with everything in the bag — chunky for a solo carry.

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Coleman Elite Sundome 6?

A hinged D-door

It opens like a real door, with handles inside and out, and makes getting in and out genuinely easy — a feature few Coleman tents have.

Two doors and a room divider

You get an extra door over the regular Sundome, plus a divider that splits the tent into 2 rooms, each with its own door and a queen bed.

Auto-rolling windows

The windows roll their own fabric up neatly — no droopy flaps to fuss with.

Bigger base area and a better bag

At 110.0 sq ft it fits up to 7 pads, and the carry bag is a clear step up from Coleman’s usual thin sacks.

Good ventilation and rain protection

Two full mesh walls plus a rainfly that kept the well-covered wall dry for 30 min of heavy hose.

Thin rainfly poles

The rainfly poles are really thin, take a lot of pressure, and bent permanently after a few days. The regular Sundome’s single thicker pole holds up better.

Pricey

The Elite line runs noticeably more than the regular Sundome, and the gimmicky 4-D-battery lighting doesn’t help justify it.

Bonus – MUST Read!

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