Decathlon Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh & Black Tent Review + Tests!

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The Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent is an incredibly feature-packed pop-up tent. It’s storm proof, protects against the sun, has plenty of ventilation, is high quality, and is pretty inexpensive.

One of its few cons though, is that the blackout fabric will degrade after years of use. Mine did, and I provided lots of great photos below, so do continue reading this review for more info!

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Check out the Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh & Black Tent:

Here’s what we’ll discuss here:

• In the Box
• Specifications

In the Box

I bought this Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh & Black Tent in-store from Decathlon, and got the tent body with a pre-attached rainfly and pre-attached poles, which was inside the carry bag, plus 9 stakes and 5 guylines (not pre-attached).

Specifications

Here’s all the data (including my personal measurements) that I gathered on this Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent (2-Person version):

• Peak height: 38 inches
• Lowest height: 29 inches
• Length: 81 inches/6.75 feet
• Width: 51 inches/4.25 feet
• Base Area: 28.7 square feet
• Floor material: Polyethylene
• Bathtub Flooring: Yes, 5 inches
• Tent body material: Polyester
• Rainfly material: Polyester
• Poles material: Fiberglass (Pre-attached)
• Mesh: Regular
• Packed size: 27 by 27 by 6 inches
• Weight: 7.2lbs (without stakes)
• Number of provided guylines: 5
• Number of guy-out points: 7
• Number of stakes: 9
• Number of doors: 1
• Number of vents: 3
• Number of pockets: 4 (2 pockets split into 2)
• Number of gear lofts: None
• Number of lantern loops: 1
• E-port: No
• Black-out: Yes

I also did some testing on my own, and came up with this data:

• Pop up timing (without staking): 1 minute
• Set up timing (with staking): 3 minutes
• Take down timing (without staking): 2.5 minutes
• Take down timing (with staking): 3 minutes
• Number of single sleeping pads: 2
• Number of full-sized mattresses: 1 (sort of)
• Number of queen-sized mattresses: None

I put the Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Pop Up Tent through these tests:

1. Ease of set up;
2. Ease of pack up;
3. Spaciousness;
4. Comfort and features;
5. Ventilation;
6. Condensation;
7. Rain test;
8. Wind protection;
9. Quality; and
10. Portability.

Ease of Set Up

To set up this Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent, first unzip the carry bag and take the tent out. There will be a yellow strap holding the tent together.

Gently slide the tent out from that yellow strap, and the tent will pop open to make a bigger circle.

Next, undo these red buckles, there are 2 of them:

After that, turn the tent 180 degrees, and also undo these 2 yellow buckles.

After, unfold the tent, and it’ll quite intuitively pop up by itself. This takes just 30 seconds.

Now, zip both the white and black doors shut, before staking down the tent. This makes sure that door and window opens easily after being staked down.

There are 4 of these stake loops on the tent, 2 at the front and 2 at the back, for staking the tent out.

Next, guy out the tent. There are 7 of these loops around the tent where you can attach guylines, which do not come pre-attached.

You can attach 3 guylines at the back of the tent, and another 4 guylines at the front of the tent. (But just remember that Decathlon provides you with only 5 guylines.)

Finally, guy out the 2 vents as well.

There’s 1 vent on each length of this Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent. To guy it out, there’s 1 loop that’s already tied for you, to drive a stake through.

Then, attach the 2 S-hooks of each vent to these 2 guylines here.

Staking and guying out the entire tent, including the vents, will take about 2 and a half minutes.

Altogether, the entire process, if you leave the guylines attached, should take at most 3 minutes once you’re used to it.

Ease of Pack Up

To take down this 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent, first remove all the stakes, including those of the 2 vents.

I usually hook the 2 S-hooks of each vent to the fiberglass poles of the tent body here:

Also, I tie up the vent guylines as well at this black latch here:

Then, I usually unzip both the white and black doors, and fold the fabric up for an easier pack up.

After that, go inside the tent, reach for this red buckle at the back of the tent, and pull it out.

When you pick the Fresh and Black tent up after, it would kind of intuitively fold back into a big circle, and what you need to do now is to kind of move the tent body around, position both ends of the red buckles together, and fasten them.

Then, flip the 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent 180 degrees, and secure the 2 yellow buckles.

There will be a red strap near the yellow buckles, so grab it with one hand, and push the tent body down to the ground with your other hand.

It’ll form a figure 8 shape, which looks like this:

After that, you would need to fold the Figure-8 shape in half to get it back into this smaller circle.

I usually hold the tent together using my legs, and place the yellow strap across the tent so it wouldn’t pop up anymore.

Finally, put the tent back into the carry bag, it should go back in no problem.

It takes just 1 minute to remove all the stakes and fasten the S-hooks of each vent. After that, it takes another 2 minutes to fold and pack up the tent itself. Altogether, it’ll take about 3 minutes, if you leave the guylines attached like I do.

Spaciousness

For spaciousness, I looked at the height, dimensions, and mattress sizing of the tent.

Peak Height

The peak height of the 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent is around the front of the tent, and the lowest height is at the back.

The peak height at the front is about 38 inches. Without a mattress inside the tent, I can sit upright without my head touching the top of the tent.

Lowest Height

The lowest height at the back of the tent is about 29 inches. Even without a mattress, when I sit upright, my head touches the top of the Quechua tent.

This is why Decathlon recommends using a sleeping pad with a maximum thickness of 2.4 inches.

Here’s what the 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent looks like with a Klymit Double V pad with 2.5 inches of loft.

It did not reduce too much livable space, so I was still able to sit up everywhere inside the 2 Seconds Tent.

Dimensions

The length of this 2 Seconds Fresh and Black tent measures about 81 inches, while the width measures about 51 inches.

Mattress Sizing

This Klymit Double V (74 x 47 inches) is just slightly bigger than 2 regular pads put together, so it fit perfectly inside the tent.

When I tried to inflate a Full-sized Coleman Mattress (73 x 53 inches) in my other Quechua Regular (not the Fresh and Black) tent, it was actually bulging out the side of the tent, because the width is too narrow.

So, Full- and Queen-sized mattresses won’t be able to fit inside here.

Comfort and Features

For comfort and features, I looked at doors, windows, storage options, amongst other features.

Door

This 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent has a single door at the front of the tent, measuring about 38 inches in length, and 39 inches in width.

Window

If you find it a bit stuffy inside the tent, and you don’t want to use the door, you can just zip up the black inner fabric instead, and this will give you a small window for more ventilation.

This window measures about 33 inches in length and about 11 inches in width.

If you’re inside the tent, and you want to zip the door up though, you first have to unzip the window.

Both the outer white door and the inner black window have 2 zips each, and both can be zipped open and closed from both the inside and the outside.

Storage

There are 2 pockets in the entire tent, each measuring about 21 inches in length and 8 inches in width. Each pocket is actually split into 2 for more organization.

There’s also 1 lantern loop at the back of the tent, where you can hang a small lantern, like a Black Diamond Moji.

Blackout Feature

This 2 Seconds Tent also comes with patented Fresh and Black fabric, which blocks out a significant amount of sunlight during the day.

Here’s what it looks like from the inside when the door is closed.

The fabric also has UV protection of SPF 50+, and keeps you cooler in the tent during the day than regular tents without this blackout feature.

Ventilation

For ventilation, I looked at the number of vents, hot day ventilation, as well as rainy day ventilation.

Rear Vent

For ventilation, the smallest vent in this Fresh and Black Tent is this rear vent, which is really quite tiny.

There’s also 1 small zip at the bottom of the back of the tent that can give you a little bit of fresh air from the outside.

You can also unbuckle the blue buckle within the small zip, and then pull on a blue string near to lantern loop to get the rainfly lifted off the ground for some ventilation at the back.

Side Vents

There are 2 pretty large vents at the sides of the tent, 1 at each length. You can have these vents completely opened like this, for maximum ventilation.

You can also close these vents completely, by hooking the 2 s-hooks of each vent to the fiberglass poles here.

Or you can have these vents partially open, by hooking the 2 s-hooks of each vent to the 2 guylines here.

This is how I usually leave my 2 vents, so that I can get some ventilation.

The portion of mesh on the other side of these vents, which is inside the tent, can also be opened and closed as well. To open and close the mesh, there’s a blue zip. There’s also a latch at the top for you to tie the fabric up.

I really like the design of these guylines, because they’ve already tied this loop for you here to stake it down.

The 2 attaching guylines also come with blue-colored adjusters that can be adjusted to make the vent as taut as possible. (See picture above.)

What I like even more is that I can unhook the S-hooks of the vents from the inside if I need to.

I can also hook the S-hooks of the vent back on the guylines from the inside of the tent as well. The design is phenomenal and very user-friendly.

Rainy Day Ventilation

On rainy days though, you do need to close the outer white door completely, or water will get into your tent for sure. You also do have to make sure that the rainfly is fully protecting the inner tent body.

Thankfully though, I was able to leave the 2 large vents partially opened, and no water will leak in. I found that no water would leak in through the small rear vent as well.

Also, this Fresh and Black 2 Seconds Tent also has 2 gaps in the rainfly, which open up to the inner body of the tent for a little more breathability. I found no leaking through these gaps as well.

Condensation Test

To test for condensation, I slept in this Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black tent on my own overnight. I closed the white outer door and black inner window, but left the 2 ground vents completely open.

I found it quite cool during the night, and did not notice any condensation when I woke up the next morning.

Rain Protection

Rainfly

The polyester rainfly has 2,000 millimeters of water resistance, and provides full coverage protection from the rain. I checked the rainfly seams, and they all seem to be taped.

The roof is curved, so water doesn’t collect at the top and instead drips down. I did notice that if you don’t pull the tent out tight by guying out the tent, a little bit of water would pool at the top, like here.

If you guy it out though, the tent will be taut, and no water would pool on the top.

Flooring

The polyethylene flooring has 5,000 millimeters of water resistance, and the bathtub feature extends up to about 5 inches high.

I found this especially useful in case there’s minor flooding. When it rains for many hours at a time, my yard would be partially flooded, and my Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent would end up sitting in like an inch of water.

And no water would leak into the tent through the flooring because of the bathtub feature, which is seriously awesome.

However, the flooring has these seams, which have been factory taped, but degraded over the years that I’ve had this tent.

So, when there’s flooding, I noticed that water started leaking in through these seams in the flooring near the front of the tent.

There are also more of these seams at the back of the tent, which weren’t as leaky. (Next picture below.)

Main Body

I checked all the seams on the main tent body and found that none of them were taped, because they’re all fully protected by the rainfly anyway.

Only the seams on the bathtub flooring were taped.

Throughout all of my rain tests, from the 1-hour light rain test to the 3-day heavy rain test, I never once found the tent body to be wet. All the walls and the roof stayed completely dry because the protection from the rainfly is just that good.

Rain Test

I put this 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent through an hour of light rain, and there was no leaking at all.

When I put it through an hour of moderate rain though, I found some leaking through the floor seam, which had degraded, but it’s my fault for not re-sealing it. This is the most vulnerable part of the tent.

The rest of the tent body was always dry though, because of the full coverage rainfly, which protected my tent through light, moderate and even heavy rains.

Wind Protection

This 2 Seconds Fresh and Black tent has enough loops for 7 guylines. When I guyed out the entire tent, it was super stable even when I tried to shake it quite vigorously. I didn’t actually test for wind protection, but I’m pretty sure this tent can take quite a beating.

Quality

For quality, I found the 2 Seconds Fresh and Black tent to be pretty high quality.

Flooring and Rainfly

The polyethylene bathtub flooring feels quite thick and rugged, and so does the rainfly, which is made of polyester.

All the seams on the rainfly have been taped, and so have the seams on the bathtub flooring. But this is an old tent though so I should have re-sealed them.

Tent Body

The inner tent body is also made of polyester, and is quite a bit thinner, but I had no issues with it.

Stitching

The stitching all throughout the tent is double stitched and consistent.

Zippers

The zippers don’t feel super smooth, but they are quite catch-free, so unzipping the outer door and inner window was pretty much a breeze.

Poles

The poles are made of fiberglass, and over the past few years of light usage, they’re still going strong. None of them have broken on me so far.

Carry Bag

The carry bag is made of polyester and comes with pockets for your stakes and guylines. It’s the perfect size for the packed up 2 Seconds tent, and I never had any issues trying to fit the tent back in.

Blackout Fabric

But here are 2 things that I wasn’t quite a big fan of.

First, after some time of usage, the blackout fabric will start fading and showing a few tiny holes. After a few years, I noticed that the fabric started flaking, like this.

It’s gotten to a point where every time I touch the fabric, it’ll flake off on my hands.

Also, entire strips of fabric have started to come loose, especially near the front of the tent, at the door area.

The entire tent is still functional, of course, but the flaking gets kind of gross after a while. I live in a very humid climate, so I suspect the tent wore out because of that.

Zippers

Second, the zippers of the carry bag finally gave way after a few years of usage.

Now, it can’t close, and I do have to be careful not to let the tent fall out.

Portability

For portability, I looked at weight, packed size, and ease of carry.

Packed Size

This 2 Seconds Fresh and Black Tent has a packed size of 27 by 27 by 6 inches. For a size comparison, here’s what it looks like beside a Coleman 2-Person Sundome Tent, as well as a 32-ounce Nalgene bottle.

Weight

It weighs about 7.2 pounds for just the tent and carry bag alone, without the stakes.

Ease of Carry

It comes with both a handle at the top of the carry bag, as well as a shoulder strap for easy carry.

Pros

For pros, I found this Fresh and Black 2 Seconds Tent great against rain. The rainfly is full coverage, and no water leaked through the rainfly into the tent body. My tent is quite a few years old, so the seam tape on the flooring had degraded a little and let water in, but it was perfectly fine when I first got it.

Another huge benefit of this Fresh and Black 2-Seconds Tent is that there’s plenty of ventilation even on rainy days. These 2 vents are huge.

There’s also the great blackout feature, it doesn’t exactly block out 99% of sunlight like it’s advertised, but it’s still definitely a lot darker and cooler in this tent than my other pop-up tents.

I also found the materials high quality, and it’s pretty inexpensive for a good quality 2-person pop-up tent.  

Cons

As for cons, because you do have to stake out the 2 vents for ventilation, it takes a little longer to set up and pack up than the regular 2 Seconds Tent. The full set up takes 3 minutes, and the full pack up takes another 3 minutes.

Also, the base area isn’t very big. You can fit only 2 pads with a little leftover space. To be able to fit a full or queen mattress, you have to get the 3-person version instead.

Also, just remind that the blackout feature doesn’t last forever. Mine looked like this after a few years of use:

Overall, I found this Quechua Fresh and Black 2 Seconds Tent super feature-rich and high quality for a very inexpensive price. If you need a pop-up tent to take you through lots of storms, while shielding you from ridiculously scorching summer days at the same time, this is one of the best pop-up tents for that job.

How does this Decathlon Quechua 2-Seconds Fresh and Black Pop Up Tent compare to other pop-up tents though? Well, I’ve already done the comparison for you, in this blog post right here, where I bought, tested, and compared 7 of the best pop-up tents in the market.

Or, check out the 2 Seconds Fresh & Black Tent: