Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent Review (Bought & Tested!)
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Rating and Summary
The Coleman Skydome Tent is a roomier version of the traditional Coleman Sundome Tent. On top of that, the Skydome also has an extra big door, more storage options, and better ventilation.
However, I found that the rain protection at the front of the Skydome Tent could have been better, and I’m also not a big fan of their pre-attached pole system. It definitely isn’t a “quick pitch” that sets up in “5 minutes”. In fact, I found the set-up timing to be the exact same as the Sundome Tent.
Would I still recommend it though? Do read on to find out!
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Check out the Coleman Skydome Tent:
Product Details
In this section, I’ll be showing you these few things:
- Unboxing
- In the Box
- Specifications
Unboxing
I bought this Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent from Amazon, and here’s what it looked like when it first arrived from Amazon:
And here’s what the Skydome Tent looks like straight out of the box:
In the Box
Out of the box, I got a carry bag, a gear loft, the tent body with the attached poles, a blue rainfly, 13 stakes, the rainfly pole, and also a foot mat.
The stakes and the rainfly pole both came in separate carry cases, which is nice:
Specifications
Here are all my personal measurements on the Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent:
- Peak height: 59 inches
- Length: 7 feet 10 inches
- Width: 6 feet 11 inches
- Base Area: 54.2 square feet
- Floor material: Polyethylene
- Bathtub flooring: Yes, ~6.5 inches
- Tent body material: Polyester
- Rainfly material: Polyester
- Poles material: Fiberglass
- Number of poles: 3 (2 are pre-attached)
- Mesh: Regular
- Packed size: 25 by 9 by 9 inches
- Weight: 10.4 lbs
- Number of guylines: 7
- Number of stakes: 13
- Number of doors: 1
- Hinged door: No
- Number of windows: 1
- Number of vents: 3
- Number of pockets: 2 (Note: 1 of them is split into 4)
- Number of lantern loops: 1
- Number of gear lofts: 1
- E-port: No
- Black-out: No
I also did some testing on my own, and came up with this data:
- Set up timing (1 person): 9.5 minutes
- Take down timing (1 person): 10 minutes
- Number of single sleeping pads: 4
- Number of queen-sized mattresses: 1
Testing and Performance
I put my Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent through these 7 different tests:
- Ease of use: Set up, take down
- Spaciousness: Height, base area, mattress sizing
- Comfort and features: Door, windows, storage options
- Ventilation: Hot day ventilation, rainy day ventilation
- Weather protection: Hose test and natural rain test (both heavy rain)
- Quality: Material, mesh, seams, stitching, zippers, poles
- Portability: Weight and packed size
Set Up
For the ease of set up, I’ll give you both the:
- Instructions, as well as the
- Timing.
Set Up Instructions
To set up this Coleman Skydome Tent, first lay the tent body on the ground, then go to the back of the tent.
The back of the Skydome Tent is where you’ll find these black fiberglass poles, which look like this:
These poles are attached to the tent body at one end, like this.
Next, put both these poles together. At the other end of each pole, you’ll find a small black ball, which looks like this:
This small black ball, or ‘fast fitting feet’, is to be inserted into this small black pocket attached to the bathtub flooring of the tent.
When you’re done setting up both poles, they’ll look like this. Bear in mind that they won’t be able to stand on their own yet:
Now, pick up both poles until they crisscross at the top. Then, while using one hand to hold the poles up, bend down and use your other hand to pick up the center pole clips, like what I’m doing in this picture:
The center pole clips are just 2 clips together, which look like this:
After that, clip the 2 center pole clips to the middle of each fiberglass pole. Here’s how I normally clip them; just 1 clip on each pole.
Now, clip the rest of the pole clips to the fiberglass poles. Just clip each pole clip intuitively to the nearest pole. There are 8 pole clips at the front of the tent, with 4 pole clips at each side:
At the back of the tent, there are another 6 pole clips, with 3 pole clips at each side.
Then, use the provided steel stakes to stake down the tent body, with 2 stakes at the back, and another 2 stakes at the front. So, 4 stakes in total. I usually use the loop of this red webbing to drive each stake through.
After that, drape the rainfly over the tent, with the shortest part of the rainfly at the front, over the door, while the other sides have much longer rainflies. Also, make sure that the Coleman logos on the rainfly are positioned at each width of the tent.
To secure the rainfly, there are 4 of these S-hooks on the rainfly to be hooked to this black loop on the red webbing at the 4 corners of the tent.
Also, on the underside of the rainfly, there are these Velcro attachments that you can secure to the fiberglass poles, to better align the rainfly. I usually use both attachments at the front, so 4 altogether at the front, and just 1 attachment at each side at the back.
Now, put the rainfly pole together, and insert it into the rainfly pole sleeve at the tip of the rainfly over the door. You can see the rainfly pole sleeve in this picture here:
To secure this pole, insert each end of the pole into this ring in one of the pole clips. There are 2 rings for both ends of the pole.
After that, guy out the entire tent with the 7 pre-attached guylines. There are 3 guylines on each width of the tent, and one more guyline at the back of the tent.
The last 2 stakes are for the foot mat, which I don’t normally use.
Set Up Timing
Altogether, it took me about 9.5 minutes to set up the entire Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent on my own.
Take Down + Pack Up
Take Down Timing
Taking down the Coleman Skydome Tent is just the opposite of the set-up, and it took me about 10 minutes for the entire take down and pack up.
Pack Up Instructions
To pack up the Coleman Skydome Tent, I usually fold the tent body in half, from the front of the tent to the back.
Then, I fold it in half again, so that the poles, originally at 2 ends of the tent, meet at one end, and here’s what they look like.
Then, I fold it in half one more time, without touching the poles, so that they’re still together, like this.
Then, I roll the tent body up starting with the poles, so that they’re nicely packed in. I tie the tent up, and put it back into the carry bag.
As for the rainfly, I usually fold it in half about 4 or 5 times, as best as I can, and tuck all the guylines in.
Then, I pack up the rainfly pole, all the stakes, the gear loft, and the foot mat. After that, I grip the bag between my legs to squeeze it together while zipping it up.
It’s a bit of a tight fit, but I can usually fit everything back in without having to expand the bag by ripping this strip off.
More Instructions
For more details on the set up, take down and pack up, you can check out my YouTube video right here:
As you can tell from the above, the set up and pack away timings aren’t the fastest. If you want a faster set up and pack away, Coleman has other quicker set up tents:
- Coleman Pop Up Tent V.S. Skydome Tent (I Tested Both Tents!)
- Coleman Instant Tent V.S. Skydome Tent (I’ve Got Them Both!)
Or, for the more nitty gritty details on how the Fast Pitch Skydome stacks up against a Coleman Instant Tent, check out this post right here: Fast Pitch Tent V.S. Instant Tent (With REAL Pictures!)
Height
The peak height in this Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent is just 59 inches, and I’m about 5’3″, so I can’t stand upright even at the peak height, and I had to slouch and bend my knees quite a bit.
The rest of the tent just slopes downwards too, because this is a dome-shaped tent (i.e. you don’t get to enjoy the peak height throughout the tent).
Base Area
For the base area, I looked not only at the base dimensions, but also the mattress sizing.
Base Dimensions
The length inside this Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent measures about 7 feet and 10 inches, while the width measures about 6 feet and 11 inches, so slightly smaller than the marketed dimensions of 8 by 7 feet.
Single Pad Sizing
But despite the slightly smaller actual dimensions, I could still easily fit 4 regular sleeping pads, or 2 double pads, inside the tent, and here’s what having 2 double pads looks like. I’ve also added the dimensions of each double pad for good measure.
You do have to sleep shoulder to shoulder, and there’ll be hardly any space leftover for much camping gear.
I think it’s quite a tight fit though, especially at this corner, because the pocket is barely 1 or 2 inches away from my face.
Also, my head touches the wall of the tent when I sit up.
Queen Bed Sizing
I think having 2 people on 1 queen-sized bed would be a much more comfortable fit, and here’s what the Skydome 4-Person Tent looks like with this queen bed. There’s also plenty of room for storing gear, which is always very nice to have.
If you’d like a Coleman screen room tent for more storage space instead, check out how this Skydome stacks up against it: Coleman Skydome Tent V.S. Carlsbad Tent (I Have Both Tents!)
Window
Number of Windows
This Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent has just 1 window, on the front wall of the tent. Here’s what it looks like:
The rest of the walls are just made of mesh, covered by the rainfly. I’ll go through about these mesh walls in more detail further down this article.
Window Details
The window measures about 47 inches, so almost 4 feet in length, and about 21 inches in width. It comes with 2 black Coleman zippers, which look like this:
It also comes with a bug net to stop larger bugs like mosquitoes from getting in, and a window latch to hold the fabric when the window’s open.
You don’t have to use the window latch though, you can just tuck the window fabric against the bug net. This also makes it easier to zip the window open and shut without any fumbling.
Door
Number of Doors
The single window is also part of the single door in this Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent.
Door Details
When opened, the door of the Skydome 4-Person Tent measures a whopping 4 feet in length, and 39 inches in width, so it’s really quite big, and here’s what it looks like in comparison to my size.
And also, here’s what it looks like when I walk in and out of the tent through the door.
Similar to the window, this door also comes with 2 black Coleman zippers to zip it open and shut. And unlike most other Coleman tents, which come with door latches by the side to tie the door fabric up, this Skydome door comes with this triangular pocket at the side, so that you can stuff the fabric in there when the door is opened.
It’s really user-friendly and easy to stuff the fabric in, and it takes a much shorter time too.
Storage
Pockets
For storage, there are 2 pockets, one is right behind the triangular door pocket, right here.
It measures 17 inches in length and 16 inches in width, and it’s a funny triangular shape too, so you won’t be able to fit that many things in.
There’s also another pretty big pocket on another wall of the Skydome Tent, which measures about 24 inches in length and 7 inches in width. It has been split into 4 with black stitches in between (you can see this in the picture below). So, I guess technically that’s 4 pockets.
Lantern Loop
There’s also 1 loop at the top of the center of the Skydome tent, where you can hang a lantern for lighting at night.
Gear Loft
The Skydome Tent also comes with 4 more loops near the lantern loop. This is for the gear loft, which will be included with your purchase.
The gear loft measures about 23 by 19 inches, and comes with these S-hooks to be hooked to the top of the Skydome Tent.
It’ll kind of block your lantern loop though, so you can’t hang a super big lantern if you want the gear loft up.
Other Features
Oh, and there’s no e-port in the tent.
Hose Test
My first rain test was using this water hose, and I tried to spread the rainfall evenly across the entire Skydome tent.
After 15 minutes of this heavy rain, I stopped to check in on the tent. I found that the bottom of the door was pretty wet, so do be careful when opening the door.
Inside the tent, at the front of the tent, I found that the un-taped bathtub flooring seam had started leaking, like so:
What’s the damage after 15 minutes of heavy rain? A few droplets of water inside the tent.
Unfortunately, it gets a little worse. Because the rainfly doesn’t extend out enough over the door, when I shook the tent, the water from the roof of the Skydome tent just dripped right into the tent, like so:
I realized that because the rainfly at the front of the Skydome tent is pretty short, it doesn’t offer quite as much rain protection, and a lot of water was flowing over the bottom part of the tent fabric, and the flooring seam, so there was some leaking.
At the other 3 sides of the tent, the length of the rainfly is a lot longer, and covers at least a good three-quarters of the tent body.
There was no leaking at all at these other 3 sides of the tent.
The length of the rainfly offers really good rain protection, and notice that the rainfall doesn’t touch the tent body as much, which was why there was no leaking, not even from the seam.
As for the mesh of the vents, the fabric of the tent body and the rainfly, at the other 3 walls of the tent, they were all dry.
Heavy Rain Test
I also managed to put this Coleman Skydome Tent through about 45 minutes of heavy rain, which looked like this.
After the rain stopped about 45 minutes later, I found quite a big puddle of water at the front of the tent:
Where did the leaking come from? You guessed it! It came through the un-taped bathtub flooring seam, again.
On top of that, I also found that the light blue fabric at the front of the tent was slightly damp from having been put through so much rainfall.
For the other 3 sides of the Skydome tent though, which had much longer rainflies, I found that the water didn’t get into my tent through the mesh, and there was also no leaking through the bathtub flooring seam or any of the fabric.
However, I did notice that this corner seam in the flooring was leaking a bit. Why? Because it wasn’t taped. So, despite the longer rainfly, it couldn’t hold up quite well.
These pictures really don’t do the rain test justice, so I highly recommend checking out my YouTube video on this rain test, right here:
Rainy Day Ventilation
During the heavy rain, at the front of the Skydome tent, I found the rainfly pole pretty useful in kind of like diverting the rainfall away from the window:
So, even though the rainfly length is pretty short, like so: …
… Notice that the water gets directed towards the 2 sides of the tent instead.
So, even after 45 minutes of heavy rain, my window mesh was mostly still dry.
The fabric below the window mesh was pretty damp though.
However, just bear in mind that this rain test happened in my yard with not a lot of wind. So, if the wind is heavier, you do have to shut the window.
Even if you have to shut the window, there will still be some airflow from these 3 large vents inside the tent, each spanning almost the entire length of the tent, which is nice.
Each of them also measures about 12 inches in width from the outside.
During the heavy rain, I could stake it out and leave it open, and no water got into my tent through this vent at all.
Hot Day Ventilation
On a hot day, you can take the rainfly off from the outside, and you’ll find that these “vents” are basically just large mesh walls. (Hence, why I call them “mesh wall vents”.)
It’s great for plenty of ventilation on a hot day, as well as for stargazing. But just bear in mind that there will be basically no privacy when the rainfly is off, because you can see right into the tent from almost every angle.
Quality
Flooring Material
The flooring of this Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent is made of polyethylene, and the bathtub feature extends up to about 6.5 inches.
Even after 45 minutes of heavy pouring rain, no water seeped through the flooring itself.
Tent Body Material
The rest of the tent is made of polyester, and I noticed that the light blue fabric at the front of the tent was slightly damp from having been put through 45 minutes of heavy rain.
Seam Taping
While the seams on the rainfly were taped, most of the seams inside the tent were not taped, and were only inverted, like this light blue tent fabric to bathtub flooring seam:
Another example is the entire door seam – it’s inverted too, and also not taped.
A minority of seams were taped, like this light blue to dark blue fabric seam near the bottom of the tent:
Stitching
I did find these seams to be pretty good quality and double-stitched, though I did find just one loose thread, which can be easily cut away.
Mesh
The mesh is just regular mesh, not no-see-um mesh, and it’s decent quality.
Zippers
These Coleman zippers are pretty good quality. Both my window and door zippers were catch-free with no real snagging issues.
However, I noticed that the rain cover outside the tent sometimes gets in the way of the door zippers, making it appear more “snaggy” than it actually is.
So, when zipping the door up from the inside, I have to push the rain cover out when zipping.
And from the outside, I do hold the rain cover away from the zippers.
Poles
All the poles of this Skydome Tent are made of fiberglass, including the rainfly pole.
Portability
Packed Size
This Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent has a packed size of 25 by 9 by 9 inches, and here’s what it looks like beside a Coleman 2-Person Sundome Tent and a 32-ounce Nalgene bottle for a size comparison.
Weight
The Coleman Skydome 4-Person Tent weighs about 10.4 lbs for everything, including all stakes and guylines.
Pros and Cons
Pros
For pros, I really like the extra big door, which is a whopping 4 feet in length, and makes getting gear in and out of the tent super convenient.
I also liked that this Skydome Tent has more storage options than your average Coleman tent, with not 1, but 2 pretty big pockets, and also a provided gear loft.
Another pro is that hot day ventilation with the rainfly off is great, with lots of mesh walls, and rainy-day ventilation is also good because with the rainfly in place, the mesh walls become vents for some airflow.
I guess another pro is the 20% more headroom. I didn’t know how to test or measure this, but it definitely does have slightly more space than a regular Sundome. I wouldn’t say that the difference is super noticeable though.
Cons
As for cons, I think the biggest one is that rain protection can definitely be better, and Coleman should at least have taped the bathtub flooring seam, because it’s usually always the first place to leak. Also, the rainfly pole should have provided a little more shading over the door, so that water doesn’t drip right into the tent when you open the door after the rain has stopped.
Also, while there’s enough livable space to lounge around inside the tent, this 4-Person Skydome doesn’t give you enough space to stand up.
I also found the pre-attached poles kind of silly. It’s only pre-attached to the back of the tent, so you still have to put the entire pole together, and then secure the other end, which is the more difficult part! So, Coleman basically pre-attached the easiest part of the set up.
And this pre-attachment makes cleaning and packing up slightly more difficult, because you can’t remove the poles from tent body.
Also, this Skydome is supposed to be a quick pitch in under 5 minutes, but that’s not really accurate. The Skydome 4-Person Tent itself took me almost 10 minutes for the entire set up.
Also, the Skydome Tent that I got was defective. You know these pole pockets at the front of the tent? Yeah, Coleman sewed mine on the wrong way.
They sewed the top up, when they were actually supposed to sew the bottom part. (Notice how the little black ball goes all the way through the pole pocket?)
So, I had to take out the stitches on my own, and use a couple of binder clips to seal the bottom part of the pocket as a temporary solution.
I also didn’t really like how much tension there was on each of these pole clips, look how tightly it’s pulling on the mesh tent body.
Recommendation
Overall, after using the Coleman Sundome Tent, I’m not really impressed with this Coleman Skydome Tent. Especially with the not-so-accurate claims of a 5 minute set up.
Both the Sundome and the Skydome Tents set up in about the same time, and the Sundome’s rain protection is actually a little bit better, and can take 30 minutes of heavy rain instead of 15 minutes of heavy rain like the Skydome.
Bonus: Must Read!
For a more in-depth comparison on how this Skydome Tent compares to other Coleman tents, like the Sundome Tent, you can check out this blog post right here: I Tested the 14 Best Coleman Tents!
Or, check out the Coleman Skydome Tent:
