User Review: REI Quarter Dome T3

REI Quarter Dome T3
Above: The current Quarter Dome T3, which may differ slightly from the version reviewed.

Reviewed March 21, 2008 by Teckwolf

Rating:
Design: three-season freestanding dome
Sleeps: 3
Ease of Setup: Totally Easy
Weight: 5 Pounds Packed
Price Paid: $251

I took advantage of the REI 20% off discount available right now to members and managed to save a bit on this great tent. I've only had it out once so far, on the first day of spring, but I loved it. It was a fairly cold night, so I used the fly with its delightful vents and vestibules on both sides.

Despite the fact that the tent itself is almost entirely mesh, the low lying fly appeared to keep in a fair amount of the body heat I was generating (which I thought was a good thing at the time). I've gotten used to tarp camping in the last couple of years because my last tent was a piece of crap, so I wasn't entirely familiar with the guyline setup and the vent idea. I didn't guy out the fly enough so that it was completely off the mesh and only opened one vent, and the result was some condensation on the fly. I fully attribute that to my own mistakes though.

The vestibules were fairly spacious, the pockets on the inside corners of the tent were very handy, and having two doors was great when my friend had to get out in the wee hours of morning. I got the three person design because it's the same weight as most two person tents, and I wouldn't really recommend this tent for three unless you were close friends, but it was spacious enough for two people and a banjo.

It took my friend and I no more than 5 or 7 minutes to assemble the tent and fly, which was good as it was getting dark fast. All in all this is a fantastic tent for the price. I would highly recommend it.