The Camping Forum

[CrazyCamper]

I'm going to jump in here in the defence of my Tunnel tent, as they have been mentioned above

When I looked at the design of my Coleman Coastline, I did notice that venting had been thought of quite well in that the tent is covered in them
On the outside, the obvious ones are at each upper corner front and back, where the vents have a very clever strap that is velcro attached to hold them open when windy etc. These are all meshed inside to stop bugs:


Outer Vents Shown

On the inside, the attachable sleeping pods have matching mesh panels at the top, and they do indeed keep the air flowing nicely, giving a lovely fresh feel when waking up in the morning


Inside View of Outer Vents


Example of Inner Pod Matching Mesh Panel

Finally, Coleman have their own Cool Air Port which features on their latest models, designed like a cat-flap with zip closed inner screen and zip closed mesh panel too. Can be used on it's own, or with their own design battery powered Cool Vent Fan:


Cool Air Port viewed from inside

I have to say that I've noticed how well all the venting systems work in this tent. My previous smaller Vango Tunnel Tent did have small vents but never felt quite as fresh and clean aired as this one does....
As you probably already know, I cook inside (not wanting to start on why I choose to do all over again), and even cooking smells still disperse quickly - but I do have the door open anyway which obviously helps a lot....

Oh and one more thing.... Coleman have a nice obvious warning label sewn into the inside of the tent...... it's sewn onto the outside of the sleeping pods, and warns not to cook inside that pod


Warning Label Arrowed

I just had to leap to the defence of Tunnel Tents - not all of them have poor venting

[nutgone]

The more I see of Coleman tents, the more I like them.

Sadly though, I will probably never own one, as I have moved over to real canvas tents with rigid metal poles. It was very windy last weekend when I was camping, & I was glad of those steel poles on my Cabanon.
I still have a soft spot for the Colemans though, & I've been using one of their stoves since I returned to camping well over a year ago now.

Not to throw the cat amongst the pigeons or anything, but there are other noxious & dangerous gasses involved with camping (& I'm not talking about flatulent partners) I'm talking about liquefied petroleum gasses, LPG, or butane, propane or a mixture of both.
These are heavier than air & so will sink to the floor of a bathtub-style sewn-in-groundsheet (SIG). So where do tent manufacturers put their ventilation in for gasses like these? These gasses can kill by asphyxiation (much like carbon monoxide) but can also cause fire (I hate to say explosion, as I'm not sure if it is technically classed as an explosion or just a rapid combustion). So where's the gas drain holes in SIGs? They have to have them in gas lockers in boats, caravans & campervans.

But, like I stated above, I know the risks & choose to work around them on occasion. I have been known to use a gas heater inside the bedroom pod of my frame tent, but I wouldn't change the gas cylinder in there.
(for the record, I think most tents, even with SIG, probably have enough airflow to prevent a major accident with flammable gasses. Even with the SIG there's probably enough little holes in it & enough disturbance in the atmosphere to "waft" the gas about & dilute it a bit. It actually takes quite a lot of LPG to cause a fire risk, & it has to be mixed with the right quantities of air as well).

[pitkin2020]

You see it is much cheaper and easier for the tent maker to sow a warning sign in the tent to read after the camper as bought it

Sorry but your coming across as if its down to the manufacturer to personally warn these people of all the dangers that may occur inside a tent. Do you blame the manufacturer of your car when you crash it or are caught speeding because they didn't personally warn you that you could crash it or speed in it, NO I don't think so. Had you of read the owners manual though it does cover such things. Why should a tent be any different.

They come with plenty of warnings that are visible to the users but people choose to ignore them. It seriously worries that me that some people really think they need someone to hold their hand in what ever they do. Why not ban BBQ's all together, then the problem would be gone!!

People need to take responsibilty for their own actions rather than trying to shift the blame onto manufacturers who can not control what you decide to do with the product at a later date.

[Wayne]

I'm going to jump in here in the defence of my Tunnel tent, as they have been mentioned above

Good post Pete.

I was a little confused by Rex's post that Tunnel and domes don't have good ventilation, all my tunnels are covered in vents and they work well. As you mentioned Pete, and like yours the Coleman I just brouht takes it to the next level with mechanical ventilation.

 

Now you don't get that in your heavy old fashioned cotton tents

[nutgone]

Now you don't get that in your heavy old fashioned cotton tents

Don't need it (mainly cos I don't have a SIG), & because cotton breathes better. I think it's a bit of a myth that it keeps the sun off better though. Only good quality cotton canvas tents with liners tend to be cooler in summer. Having said that, I've never actually had a poly tent big enough to spend much time in, so have never really compared them.

I like the way Coleman put that fan so low down, if it's reversible it could come in very handy if you ever had to empty any leaked LPG out. It looks like a good idea anyway. Always better to introduce fresh air into a tent, rather than just waft the hot, stale air about a bit.

[livsnana]

If someone is silly enough to have a BBQ inside a tent then they probably would read or heed a label inside the tent. Glad nobody died but my jaw drops at the stupidity.