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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 this one from Amazon. Here’s everything that came in the box:

• Tent body, with the poles pre-attached
• White rainfly
• Room divider
• Repair patches
• Stakes × 18, in their own carry case
• Gray carry bag

Set Up & Take Down

• Set-up (1 person) 12 minincluding staking and guying out
• Set-up (2 people) 6 minabout half the time
• Pack away (1 person) 9 min
• Pack away (2 people) 4.5 min

Unfold it flat and the center hub is the only thing standing. Pull up on the 2 hubs either side of it, prop any poles the hubs miss, then extend the 6 telescoping wall poles until each green button clicks and pops out.

• Hubs 3at the top of the tent
• Wall poles 6telescoping, with a click-lock button
• Stakes 1810 for the base, 6 for the guylines, 2 for the vents
• Guylines 6pre-attached

Then the rainfly goes over the top, with 6 hooks onto the notches marked "Rainfly" in the middle of each steel pole, and one strap at the front to tension it.

Pro Tip If you’re not tall (I’m 5’3″), do attach the rainfly before you extend the wall poles. It’s far easier to reach.

Spaciousness

• Peak height 75.5inI stand upright easily and can touch the roof
• Lowest height 64inin the 4 corners, still taller than I am

The side walls are near enough vertical, so I can walk around the whole tent rather than just the middle of it. For my height it’s genuinely spacious.

• Length 13ft 6in
• Width 8ft 9in
• Base area 118.1 sq fta few inches under the marketed 14 by 9 feet
• Sleeps 9 single pads, or 2 queens

A third queen won’t go in, even with the first two pushed together, and the tent is too narrow to run 2 queens side by side. Along the length they fit perfectly.

Comfort & Features

• Doors 2both on the right side of the tent
• T-door 96 × 51in55in from the ground to the top, so I still duck
• Side door 52 × 36in53in from the ground to the top

The T-door has 3 zippers, so you unzip it, roll each side back and clip it open. The side door has 2 zippers and 2 latches to tie the fabric back.

• Windows 7 windowsincluding the 2 door mesh panels
• Left side 43 × 21in3 of these
• Largest window 68 × 36in
• Door mesh panels 38 × 36in2 of them, plus one at 33 × 36in

• Pockets 221 × 10in and 14 × 8in
• Lantern loop 1at the top center, and it doubles as the divider hook
• E-port 1Velcro closure, in the middle of the tent
• Room divider 1removable, splits the tent into 2 rooms

The divider hooks onto the roof loop with 4 more latches down the sides, and it zips down the middle so you can get between rooms. Each room takes 4 pads, or 1 queen with room to spare.

There are 2 things I didn’t like about it. One room gets 3 windows and no door, while the other gets 1 window and both doors. And it’s so see-through that you can make out the whole of the other room.

Ventilation

• Ceiling mesh Full roof panelthe rainfly comes off from outside
• Ground vents 274 × 18in each, openable from inside

Hot-day ventilation is the best thing about this tent. Seven windows, several of them huge, and a whole roof of mesh once the fly is off.

Rainy days are the opposite. The fly is small, so it only really protects the ceiling mesh, and in heavy rain every window and door was soaked top to bottom and had to be shut.

• Vent controls Black latch, from inside
• Water through the vents Noneeven left open in heavy rain

Rain Protection

• 1 hour light rain No leaks
• 1 hour heavy rain Leaks in 3 placesflooring seam × 2, window latch

In light rain there were no leaks inside the tent after 1 entire hour. Heavy rain is a different story.

After an hour, water had come through the seam between the flooring and the green tent fabric, in 2 places: a little in one spot, and quite a bit through the corner.

The third leak was the window latch, which connects through to the outside, so water ran down it and dripped in. It’s already taped on the inside, so sealing it means doing the outside too.

There’s also a pre-attached foot mat at the door that soaks right through, because there’s no vestibule or shading outside the tent.

Quality

• Flooring Polyethyleneno bathtub floor; the green fabric runs to the ground
• Tent body and fly 68D polyester600mm on every fabric

• Poles Steelmore durable than the fiberglass you usually get at this price
• Mesh Regularnot no-see-um, but decent quality

After an hour of heavy rain the top gray fabric was still dry, while the green and yellow fabric lower down had gone slightly damp, simply because it takes far more of the rainfall.

Most of the important seams are taped, like the middle one between the gray and the green. The green-to-flooring seam isn’t. It’s inverted instead, which is exactly where the leaking came from.

Otherwise the seams are double-stitched and consistent, with only a couple of loose threads. The window zippers are catch-free, and the T-door never snagged, though the side door zip does sometimes catch on its rain cover.

Portability

• Packed size 46 × 13 × 12in
• Weight 30.0 lbs

This is the trade-off with an instant tent. It’s bigger packed than my Outdoor Products Instant 10, and more than twice the size of my regular 8-person and 10-person tents. It’s one of my bulkiest tents to store.

The flip side is that the pack up is genuinely easy. The air squeezes out without a fight, the carry bag is big, and everything goes back in with no wrestling.

Pros, Cons, Recommendation

Now, what are the pros and cons, and would I recommend the Core Instant Cabin 9?

Easy set up

12 min on my own, 6 min with my brother. The poles, pole clips and guylines are all pre-attached, so there are no pole sleeves to fuss over on a tent this size.

Easy pack away

4.5 min with two of us. The carry bag is generous, and it even has extra cushioning at one end to protect the tent.

Good quality

Steel poles rather than fiberglass, double stitching, and catch-free window zippers.

Huge doors

The 96 × 51in T-door makes getting in and out with an armful of gear genuinely easy.

Cabin shape

Near-vertical walls and a 75.5in peak, so there’s plenty of livable space and I can walk about.

Great hot day ventilation

7 windows, 2 big ground vents, and a full roof of mesh once the fly is off.

No tub floor

The green fabric runs all the way to the ground, so I had to keep the tent away from the part of my yard that floods.

Requires seam sealant for heavy rain

Core inverted the flooring seam instead of sealing it, which let water in at 2 points during an hour of heavy rain. It’s an easy fix, which is why I don’t count it as a big con.

Huge packed size

46 × 13 × 12in, bigger than my 10-person instant tent.

See-through divider

I don’t really see the point of using it, and the base area is an odd shape that won’t take more than 2 queens. If you need 3 queens for 6 people, buy the 10-person Core tent instead.

Not enough storage

Just 2 pockets and 1 lantern loop, in a tent that sleeps 9.

Bonus – MUST Read!

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