User Review: Eddie Bauer EB-30004.2

I just purchased this tent brand new off eBay. I set it up in the front yard in advance of some rain showers so I could test the tent before taking the family out. I assumed a certain amount of quality assurance testing had occurred with the Eddie Bauer name. Boy, was I wrong.

On the plus side, the rain fly has pretty decent coverage for a family tent. (But don't expect to stay dry. More on that in just a second.) I like the two doors and excellent ventilation for the tent. However, I still give this tent one star due to:

1. Poor engineering
2. Apparent lack of field testing
3. Absence of common sense
4. Inattention to detail
5. Ultimately, a tent design that GUARANTEES the tent will leak.

So here is what happens: during a rain, even the slightest wind will blow the rain on the portion of the door that is NOT protected by the rain fly. My rain test didn't even expose the tent to heavy rain—it was probably closer to somewhere between a drizzle and a sprinkle. Anyway, here is the design flaw explained in more detail:

1. The rain fell on the screen mesh, which provided virtually zero stoppage. (It's not supposed to, it's screen!) and stopped at the nylon tent material of the door.
   QUESTION: Why would they put screen on the outside and then the nylon?  Reversing this order putting the nylon on the outside with the screen on the interior would have helped significantly.)
2. At this point, it ran down the exterior of the door until it hit the cloth zippers that hold the exterior screen door and the nylon tent door. (Yes, there are two separate zippers.)   
   QUESTION: Did the engineers really believe a cloth zipper without rain fly protection would stay dry?
3. Water that drains down, accumulates between the exterior screen door and the interior nylon door—right where the cloth zipper lies.
   QUESTION: Who in the world designs a tent designed to TRAP water?!?! (Wait, I know the answer to this: Wenzel!)
4. At this point, there is nowhere for the water to go.  It just waits until it saturates the cloth zipper material (which doesn't take long) and starts to drip into the interior of the tent.
5. Even if the zipper material were entirely waterproofed, I suspect water would still find its way around the teeth of the zipper.

So my conclusion, with the current design of this tent, it is IMPOSSIBLE for the tent to remain dry in even the slightest of rain. Although I purchased the tent new off eBay, I don't suspect I am going to get any solution from Eddie Bauer or Wenzel, although I will certainly try. 

In the meantime, I want to issue a caution to anyone else who may consider the 10x10 Family Dome Tent from Eddie Bauer/Wenzel. Even though I haven't even slept one night in this tent, I don't have the heart to sell it to anyone on eBay or Craigslist.