Family tents: Best Buys Best buy

Our Best Buy family tents have been tested for water resistance, ventilation and ease of use.

Best Buy family tents make the grade with impressive water resistance, ventilation and features.

A good family tent will prevent most, if not all water from entering the tent. But which tent is best for you? What is the difference between a dome tent and a tunnel tent and which design suits your needs?  How important is ventilation in a tent? What tent features are important for families?  What type of sleeping compartments will best suit your family?   Should you spend £80 or over £400? Outwell, Vango or Coleman?

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At Which? we've tested 14 family tents from some of the most well-known tent manufacturers, including Outwell, Coleman and Vango. We’ve also tested family tents from famous high street retailers to see how their tents compare with dedicated outdoor retailers. Only some of the family tents we review are Best Buys. You can access all our microwave reviews, and thousands of others, when you join Which?

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What makes a Best Buy tent?

When we tents we see how they perform in a number of key areas, including water resistance, ease-of-use and ventilation.

We assess the ease of use of each tent, evaluating how easy it is to erect the tent, and how quick and easy it is to pack the tent away. We also make sure that the living and sleeping compartments are suitable for the claimed capacity of the tent. Our family tents are subjected to simulated rainfall to asses their water resistance, and our experts assess how well ventilated each tent is. When a tent does exceptionally well in our tests, we make it a Best Buy.

 

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Video transcript

Visiting a tent show or an outdoor retailer such as this one with a large tent display it's a great way of getting a real sense of the size and space that a tent might offer you. What it won't tell you however is how quick or easy the tent is to erect. And more importantly for many it won't tell you how little or how much water the tent might let in and that's where [XX] Testing comes in.

Every tent we test is sent to the experts at the Which test lab. Here we test the key areas of a tent's performance, from [xx] to water resistance And our results show there's a real difference between the best and worst performance. We assess the ease of use of each tent in eight key areas. We evaluate how easy it is to erect the tent, timing how how long it takes to put up.

We also look at how quick and easy it is to pack the tent away. We also make sure the living and sleeping compartments are suitable for the claimed capacity of the tent. We subject our tents to simulated rainfall, rotating [xx] anchored the water flow to ensure all areas of the tent are assessed particularly the windows and doorways.

The best tents will prevent most if not all water from entering the worst will have physical water ingress inside the tent. The attachment points where the [xx] ropes join [xx] body of the [xx] tent attested for that strength. Strong attachments combine with good anchorage from [xx] would be more resistant to greater such as strong gust of wind, we also test the lateral strength of the internal and external zips to so they don't break under the minimum specified force.

Our experts access how well ventilated each tent is. A good tent will have numerous vent panels allowing air to circulate freely around the tent. Larger tents should have a clear space between the inner and outer tents. It really pays to do your before buying your tent. Combining the results of our Which test lab with a visit to an outdoor retailer or tent exhibition.

To help find the best tent for you, check out at Best Buy reviews online, along with full results of all the tents we've tested

Why Which? reviews are the best

We are independent and impartial, and product reviews and recommendations are what we've done for more than 50 years. There are no ads on our site - we don't work for the manufacturers, we work for you. We test the products, and pass the results on. It's that simple.

Tents, and the rest...

Choosing a tent is only one of many buying decisions you'll make over the course of a year, and we can offer reviews and recommendations on hundreds of products and services, from juicers to laptops, from digital cameras to tyres. Best of all, you can get access to all those reviews and recommendations when you join Which?

  • Reviews of 14 Tents: dome and tunnel tents.
  • 3 Best Buy Tents for fun family camping.
  • Choose the best Tent from 12 companies.

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