Side by side

Where they actually differ

Which applies to you?

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Waterproofing Systems

Two fancy names for very similar feature lists. Coleman's WeatherTec System means inverted seams all round with taping on some seams like the rainfly, a water-resistant coating, welded floor corners and zipper cuffs. CORE's H2O Block Technology is the same list, with a water-resistant PU coating and a 600mm hydrostatic head rating.

Rain Test

An hour of heavy rain on each tent. My CORE Cabin 10 leaked at the seam joining the orange body to the flooring, with the orange fabric near the ground vent damp. My CORE Instant 9 did exactly the same after an hour of natural rain. My WeatherMaster 10 leaked at the inverted seam joining the dark brown body to the bathtub floor, with the brown fabric slightly damp.

Same story three times. Neither brand tapes the most vulnerable seam at the bottom, and the “welded” floor corners aren't taped either, so both leaked there too. Both coatings say water-resistant, and neither hydrostatic head is high. If you expect hours of heavy rain, buy seam sealant and waterproofing spray for either brand and use them generously.

Tub Floors

The clearest difference on the page, and Coleman's biggest waterproofing advantage. My Colemans all have at least a few inches of tub floor extending up the sides, so if the tent is standing in an inch or two of water it stays out. Neither CORE tent has one. The fabric goes straight to the ground, so I kept them clear of the light flooding in my yard.

Hot Day Ventilation

Level. Each brand has a tent with big windows and one with smaller ones: the Coleman Instant Cabin 10 and CORE Instant 9 on the generous side, the WeatherMaster 10 and CORE Cabin 10 on the modest side.

Rainy Day Ventilation

CORE takes this one. Most of my Coleman tents use mesh wall vents rather than ground vents. Those are good with no wind, but you can't zip them shut from inside when wind starts driving rain in. My best Coleman here is the WeatherMaster, with two angled windows I can close from inside; the worst is the Instant Cabin 10, which has no openable windows and no vents at all.

Both CORE tents have ground vents, which keep rain out far better. The Instant 9's two are big and open and shut from inside the tent, which is genuinely useful.

Cabin Tents & Spaciousness

CORE has the wider cabin range (4-person up to 12-person, conventional or instant pitch) and the taller tents. Cabin tents give you the peak height across most of the floor rather than at one point, and conventional cabins run taller than instant ones.

My CORE Cabin 10 peaks at 90 inches, seven and a half feet, and its lowest point in the corners is 65 inches, taller than me at 5'3", so I can stand anywhere in it. Its peak is so high I can't reach the top unaided. My tallest Coleman, the WeatherMaster, is 80.5 inches, a full 10 inches shorter.

Instant Tent Mechanism

CORE's instant mechanism is the better one, for two reasons. First, my Coleman Instant tent's black elbow joints sometimes jam and won't prop properly, so I fold it back down and try again. Never had that on the CORE.

Second, and more important: the CORE Instant has three hubs to Coleman's one. That keeps the walls held out, where the Coleman's droop inward and eat your livable space. If you're choosing between the two brands for an instant tent, go CORE.

Dark Room Tents

The Coleman Instant Tent has the best dark room feature I've seen. With every window and door shut, the only light getting in is a sliver between the roof and the rainfly and a little from the bathtub floor. And that photo was taken in the middle of the day. At night it's almost pitch black despite street lights outside. It also keeps the tent noticeably cooler during the day.

And it isn't limited to the Instant: there's an Instant Dark Room, a Sundome Dark Room, a Dark Room Dome with a screen room, a Skydome Dark Room and even a Pop Up Dark Room. If a blackout tent is your priority, Coleman wins easily.

Hinged Door

Coleman's patented hinged door behaves like a real door: I'm in or out in three to five seconds, and it cuts down how much I use zippers at all. CORE has nothing like it.

Build Quality & Zippers

Level on everything that matters here. Both use polyethylene flooring and roughly 68D polyester, both mix inverted and taped seams, both throw up the occasional loose thread, and both have unbranded zippers that only snag when the rain cover gets caught in the path.

A trick for that, on either brand: zipping from inside, push the door out as you go; zipping from outside, lift the rain cover as you go. The mesh on both keeps mosquitoes out but not no-see-ums. Both give a 1-year warranty. The only real difference is where they're made: Coleman in China, both my CORE tents in Bangladesh.

Price

Level again. I paid under $50 for a 2-person Coleman Sundome; a 3- or 4-person CORE is a little more. A CORE 9-person is barely over $100, and so were my 8-person Coleman Montana and Red Canyon. Both brands are genuinely affordable.

Every figure on this page comes from my own measurements of the tents I bought and tested.