Coleman tents · Guide

How Waterproof Are Coleman Tents? (REAL Evidence!)

I hose-tested all 14 Coleman tents I own and timed how long each one stayed dry under heavy rain. Here are the numbers, the first place every one of them leaks, and how to fix it.

  • 14 tents rain-tested
  • 450mm rainfly rating
  • ~30 min best result
  • ~5 min read

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1WeatherTec 2All 14 timed 3By tent family 4The 450mm rating ✓Waterproofing it

The short answer

Light rain

A few hours

Water-resistant, not waterproof. Light to moderate rain is genuinely fine.

The data ↓
Heavy rain

15-30 minutes

And it depends almost entirely on how far down the rainfly reaches.

By tent ↓
The rating

450mm minimum

Rainfly only. Most tents are rated 1,000-5,000mm.

What that means ↓

Part 1 of 5

What Coleman’s WeatherTec system actually does

Most Coleman tents are water-resistant, not waterproof. WeatherTec is Coleman’s patented package of three features, and after dozens of rain tests I can tell you exactly how far each one gets you.

  • Tub floorsThe best of the three. The floor carries up the sides, so light flooding stays outside. Almost every Coleman tent has one.
  • Corner weldsFine in light rain. They aren’t factory taped, so water seeped in after 2 hours of moderate-to-heavy rain in my Evanston 6.
  • Inverted seamsNot taped seams. They hold light to moderate rain and lose to heavy rain. In every single one of my Coleman tents, the seam joining the tub floor to the tent fabric was the first place to leak.
Water running over the bathtub flooring of the Coleman Instant Tent 4.
Water running over my Instant 4’s tub floor. This part works.
The corner seams are usually quite vulnerable because they’re not protected by the rain, so I found a fair amount of leaking.
The corner weld in my Evanston 6, leaking after 2 hours of moderate rain.
The bathtub flooring seam of the Skydome Tent had started leaking a little.
My Skydome’s tub-floor seam, starting to weep. This is always the first leak.

My adviceMy tents from other brands have factory-taped seams instead, and they held out heavy rain far longer. That single difference is most of the gap.

Part 2 of 5

How long all 14 of mine stayed dry

Water hose, stopwatch, one tent at a time. This is how long each stayed dry under heavy rain.

This is a picture of me conducting a rain test on the WeatherMaster 10-Person Tent by using a stopwatch and a water hose.
How I run it: water hose, stopwatch, one tent at a time.
Coleman tentDry under heavy rain
Coleman Sundome 6~30 minutes
Coleman Sundome 2~30 minutes
Coleman Sundome Dark 6~30 minutes
Coleman Elite Sundome 6~30 minutes
Coleman Evanston 6~30 minutes
Coleman Carlsbad 4~30 minutes
Coleman Skydome 4~15 minutes
Coleman Montana 8~15 minutes
Coleman WeatherMaster 10~15 minutes
Coleman Red Canyon 8~15 minutes
Coleman Instant 10~10 minutes
Coleman Instant 4~10 minutes
Coleman Pop Up 4~10 minutes
Coleman Pop Up 2~10 minutes
How long each of my 14 Coleman tents stayed dry under heavy rain.

Rainfly lengthis the single factor that decided every result. The further down the rainfly reaches, the longer the tent stays dry.

Part 3 of 5

The three families, best to worst

Sundome: best

  • + Up to 35 min of heavy rain, untreated
  • + Rainfly covers half the side walls, zero leaks there at 35 min
  • − Shorter front and back: those leak first, at the floor seam

Instant: poor

  • − Rainfly covers only the very top
  • − Water runs down the body into the floor seam
  • − First leak at just 10 minutes

Pop Up: worst

  • − Rainfly smaller again, soaked through at 15 min
  • − No tub floor at all
  • − The door drips straight in, puddles on the floor
Water running over the side wall of the Coleman Sundome 6-Person Tent.
My Sundome 6’s side wall at 35 minutes of heavy rain, still dry inside.
This is a picture of me using a water hose to hose down the Coleman Instant Tent 4.
Hosing my Instant 4. Look how little of the tent that rainfly covers.
This is a picture of water dripping from the door of my Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent. Notice the puddles of water on the floor as well.
Water dripping in through my Pop Up 2’s door. Note the puddles.

So if rain protection is what you care about, the Sundome is the Coleman to buy, and the Instant and Pop Up tents are the ones to avoid (for rain, at least). The Pop Up 4 is still my Quickest Set Up pick; it just isn’t the one to take into a downpour.

Part 4 of 5

The 450mm rating, and what it leaves out

Coleman rainflies are treated to a minimum of 450mm: they’ll take 450mm of water pressure before leaking. That is low. Most tents are rated somewhere between 1,000mm and 5,000mm. It explains why several of mine had rainflies soaked through after a 15-20 minute test, my Pop Ups and my Montana 8 included.

Notice the small droplets of water on the pole of the Coleman Montana 8-Person Tent, which is under the rainfly.
Droplets on my Montana 8’s pole, and that’s under the rainfly.

The bigger gapOnly the rainfly gets a rating. Coleman never says what the body underneath is treated to. On my WeatherMaster 10 the rainfly is 75D polyester taffeta at 450mm. The body is 68D polyester with no figure at all. See what Coleman tents are made of.

Coleman has a testing video showing more than 35 gallons of water sprayed on a tent, which sounds impressive, until you notice it’s over 10 minutes. In my own tests, the leaks only started appearing after the 10-minute mark.

Part 5 of 5

How I waterproof mine

If your tent will see more than about 30 minutes to an hour of heavy rain, treat it. Two jobs:

The two-step fix

  • Seam sealant on the inverted tub-floor seam, the first place every Coleman leaks. Then the corner welds (mine were never sealed and leaked after a couple of hours), and the door seams if you’re thorough.
  • Waterproofing spray on the rainfly and the tent body. The rainfly doesn’t cover the whole tent, so plenty of water runs over bare body fabric. Anything that touches water can leak.
Water running over the bathtub flooring seam of the Coleman Instant 4.
The seam I always seal first: my Instant 4’s tub-floor seam.
This is a picture of me spraying water on the WeatherMaster 10-Person Tent. There’s a rainbow too!
Testing the WeatherMaster 10 again afterwards. There’s a rainbow in this one.

Coleman tents stay waterproof for roughly 1 to 2 years, depending on how hard you use them and how much sun, rain and weather they take. I re-apply sealant and spray about every year. If a tent has been in storage a year or more, it needs redoing regardless.

This is a picture of some of the floor seams of my Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent. Notice that it’s quite old, and the factory tape looks like it’s loosening and peeling off.
Flaking, peeling floor seams on an older tent of mine. That’s your signal.

My adviceNot sure whether yours needs it? Set it up in the yard and hose it, exactly like I do. And if you’d rather skip the maintenance altogether, REI has a good how-to video, or just buy a properly waterproof tent from the start.

The bottom line

A Coleman tent handles a few hours of light rain and 15-30 minutes of heavy rain, and the tub-floor seam always goes first. Seal that seam, spray the body as well as the rainfly, redo it yearly, and buy a Sundome rather than an Instant or Pop Up if rain is your worry. All my tents, 7 tests each →

Quick questions

FAQ

Are Coleman tents waterproof?

Water-resistant, not waterproof. Mine handled a few hours of light rain but only 15-30 minutes of heavy rain before the tub-floor seam started leaking.

What is the waterproof rating of a Coleman tent?

A minimum of 450mm, on the rainfly only. Most tents are rated between 1,000mm and 5,000mm, so it’s low. And Coleman doesn’t publish a figure for the tent body at all.

How often should I re-waterproof a Coleman tent?

About once a year. They stay waterproof for roughly 1 to 2 years, less with heavy use or a lot of sun, and anything that has sat in storage for a year or more needs redoing before you trust it.

Keep going

Where to next

Maintenance

How to Clean & Maintain a Coleman Tent

The 20-tip routine that keeps the coating and the seams alive.

Lifespan

How Long Do Coleman Tents Last?

Four years of wear on my oldest two, in pictures.

Every rain-test figure on this page comes from hosing down the 14 Coleman tents I bought myself.

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