It occurred to me that if I insist on inviting people into a blazing Mojave inferno in the height of the summer it would be polite to provide some shade. Shade can be a matter of survival there if you’re outside at midday. Then I started ozark trail canopy having other wild fantasies, like effectively adding a room to the desert shack where I live by erecting the shadehouse in the backyard. During the winter and early spring of 2017, we added four more canopy tents to our testing lineup.
Most screen houses don’t come with a floor, primarily because they’re intended to be popped over a picnic table. If you’re ready to take your next camping trip up another notch, we’ve rounded up our picks for the best screen houses for camping, no matter your group size or weather. Like the REI and L.L.Bean ozark trail canopy canopy shelters, this Clam tent has a generous fabric skirt at its base that is designed to keep determined insects—and pooling rainwater—out. If we were camping somewhere infested with mosquitoes or no-see-ums and could fit the Clam in our vehicle, we’d prefer it over any of our other picks.
All these terms get intermingled when talking about screen houses, but there’s a big difference between a screen house and a tent. And unlike many other screen shelters, this one pops up in under a minute for last-minute use. The outer material is UV sun-protected, and there are large mesh windows for ventilation. And the bottom of the tent comes with an extra-wide skirt to keep bugs out (which, let’s be honest, is the main reason people buy screen houses). The Coleman 15 × 13 Instant Screenhouse is essentially a larger version of the Coleman 10 × 10 Instant Screened Canopy, and it has similar shortcomings. The sloping walls make the interior space feel much smaller than the generous footprint might lead you to expect.
However, the setup time of this huge tent is some 20 minutes or so. It is much easier to set it up with a partner, this holds in particular for the fly because of the height of the tent. On the other hand, this is a pleasant tall tent but this does not make it suitable for windy conditions. Note also that you have what they describe as a cathedral roof, this is great but this cannot support any extra weight. This is why you should avoid snow with this tent. Space-wise, the tent is with the declared 12-person capacity.
The hubs break and the legpoles bend beyond repair. I purchased Model #WT98010R and I’ve had it for 2 years and have put it up probably 6 times. This summer I had it up in the backyard after a birthday party for several days and one of the poles broke during a bad storm while I was at work. The screen tent came with missing and broken parts.
Seasons-wise & climate-wise, there is no doubt this is a summer camping tent and most suitable for warm weather camping. See the picture below to realize why; the ceiling is all mesh and you would not feel great in a cool environment. The sloped wall screen house simply has slanting walls. This design can sometimes mean that the entire footprint of the screen house isn’t very usable. If you can’t set your screen house on perfectly level ground, the skirt will make up the difference in height and keep insects out.