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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 Sundome 2. Inside I got the tent body, the rainfly, 3 fiberglass poles in a carry case, 9 stakes in another case, and the carry bag. (There’s a foot mat too, but I lost mine, so it’s not in the photo.)

Set Up & Take Down

• Set-up time (1 person) 5.5 min
• Take-down + pack-up (1 person) 5 min
• Poles 3 fiberglass

• Stakes / guylines 9 / 2

Set-up is genuinely quick. Two body poles cross into an X and drop into the green sleeves, you clip the body on and stake the corners, then drape the rainfly on its third pole and guy it out with 2 lines. Solo, it took me just 5.5 min; take-down and pack-up was 5 min.

Want something even faster to pitch? I compared the Sundome against Coleman’s quick-set tents here:

• Coleman Sundome vs Instant Tent
• Coleman Pop Up vs Sundome Tent

Spaciousness

• Peak height 48.5indome shape — peak is dead centre only
• Base area 32.1 sq ft6ft 9in × 4ft 9in — under the marketed 7 × 5ft
• Sleeps 22 sleeping pads, or 1 queen mattress

This is the one place the Sundome 2 scores low, and it’s simple: it’s a small 2-person tent. The peak is just 48.5in — I can sit up with headroom and even kneel without touching the top, but there’s no standing, and the peak is only dead centre, so the roof slopes away fast.

The measured floor is 6ft 9in by 4ft 9in (32.1 sq ft), a few inches under the marketed 7 × 5ft. It still swallows a full queen mattress — there’s just no gear room left once it’s in.

The trade-off shows with a tall bed: on my 9-inch mattress my head brushes the wall when I sit up, and for two people it feels tight. Chasing headroom instead? I break down every size in Sundome 6 vs 4 vs 2, or step up to my Coleman Sundome 6 review.

Comfort & Features

• Doors 138 × 32in, no hinge
• Windows 2back 29 × 12in, front 26 × 13in

• Pockets 29 × 7in each

• Lantern loop 1
• E-port 1

There’s a single door (38 × 32in, no hinge) that doubles as the front window, so I duck through it. The 2 windows run one per length (29 × 12in back, 26 × 13in front), each with a bug net and a latch to hold it open.

Storage is basic but there: 2 interior pockets (9 × 7in each), a lantern loop at the peak, and one e-port with a zippered closure.

Ventilation

• Vents 32 mesh-wall vents + 1 ground vent
• Mesh-wall vent width ~9in
• Ground vent 35 × 8in

On a hot day I pull the rainfly right off and the tent opens up through the window, the door and 2 full mesh walls — loads of airflow (just know the mesh walls can’t be zipped shut, so you lose privacy).

With the rainfly on for rain, those mesh walls become protected vents (about ~9in wide), plus there’s a small ground vent (35 × 8in) for a little extra airflow.

Rain Protection

• Rain hold 30–35 mintested on my Sundome 6 — the exact same rainfly and design
• Bathtub floor ~7.5in
• Vestibule Nonerainfly shades the door only

I ran my heavy-hose rain test on my Coleman Sundome 6 rather than this one — the two tents share the exact same rainfly and design, so the result applies here. It held for 30–35 minutes of hard hosing before the untaped bathtub-floor seam let a few drops through; the fabric and rainfly themselves stayed dry. The polyethylene bathtub floor runs ~7.5in up the walls to keep ground water out.

One limit either way: the rainfly only reaches the door, so there’s no vestibule — anything left outside gets wet.

Quality

• Floor Polyethylenebathtub ~7.5in

• Body & rainfly Polyester

• Mesh Regularnot no-see-um
• Poles 3 fiberglass
• Blackout No

The floor is polyethylene, body and rainfly are polyester, and the poles are fiberglass with short, snag-free sleeves. Most seams are double-stitched and consistent, though I did find one patchy seam with rougher stitching.

The mesh is regular (not no-see-um) and the zippers are catch-free. The one quirk: the rain cover over the door can snag the door zipper if you’re not careful.

Tip From the inside, push the rain cover out while you zip; from the outside, hold it away. Once you get the knack, the door zippers stop snagging.

Portability

• Packed size 24 × 9 × 6in
• Weight 6.4 lbseverything, incl. stakes and guylines

This is where the Sundome 2 earns its perfect score. Packed, it measures 24 × 9 × 6in and weighs 6.4 lbs with everything in the bag.

Split between two people that’s about 3.2 lbs each, which is manageable — so on a strict budget it’s worth a shot for backpacking.

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Coleman Sundome 2?

Easy set up and pack up

Just 5.5 min to pitch and 5 min to pack away, solo — and I didn’t even need to expand the carry bag to fit it all back in.

Very inexpensive

I paid under $50 for mine a couple of years back, and it’s still around that price. For the money, the quality is hard to beat.

• Why are Coleman tents so cheap? (REAL experience!)
• How long do Coleman tents really last? (REAL pictures!)

Fits a queen bed

Rare for a 2-person tent this small — a queen just fits, which makes it far more versatile than the footprint suggests.

Peak height not very high

At 48.5in you can’t stand upright, and with a thick mattress your head brushes the sloping wall when you sit up.

Base area can be tight for tall people

For taller campers, or two people on a tall bed, the sloping walls and snug floor start to feel cramped.

Awkward to inflate a queen inside

With a head/foot valve I got squashed between the mattress and the wall while pumping — a side-valve mattress is much easier in here.

Bonus – MUST Read!

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