£11.99 lightweight tent at lidl

ThatGuyOnABike

i'm been serious, this tent promised to have 1500 hydrostatic head (waterproofness), was the same size packed and perhaps only slightly bigger then my current coleman rigel x2. and for £12. i was so tempted to buy it. it had inner tent and was supposidly 2 person but i think it was only one person in reality.
O.k so this has little to do with cycling, i thought you might be interested, it is a pity i can't find an image of it. it was so light and compact for a cheap tent that claimed to be so water proof.

Crapaud

I've used cheap tents in the past. There's nothing wrong with them as long as you don't expect them to last for any significant length of time. They're fine for short tours in reasonable weather. I think that they're really aimed at the outdoor, weekend music festival goers though, as one-shot accommodation.

1500mm of hydrostatic head is at the bottom end of the waterproofness scale - at least I've never seen anything lower

ThatGuyOnABike

1500mm of hydrostatic head is at the bottom end of the waterproofness scale - at least I've never seen anything lower

really, i thought it was quite decent, for an average british shower/drizzle at least i reckon it would hold up. I've seen a 1000 and i think someone told me that like what you would get from a watering can. never seen lower than a thousand though, i reckon below that it can't be sold as an outdoor tent. my tent is 2000 or is it 2500. expedition tents are like 5000 or something. it is not much use if we don't know what it actually means. for all i know a spit is classed as 1000000mm!

tarpaullynn

Hydrostatic Head of 1500mm isn't very good to be honest, wouldn't like to be out in it in any foul weather.

I've always been of the train of thought that you get what you pay for, cheap is just that ............ cheap. Having said that I remember reading a review for a £19.99 Argos tent in a walking magazine, the reviewer said he would quite happily use the tent again and even if it was thrown away at the end of a walk it had paid for itself.

As far as better quality tents go you can get some pretty good ones that are fairly lightweight and have a small packsize for not much more than £100, some good ones can be bought for less than that e.g Vango Spectre 200 for less than 70 quid, a 3 man one can be had for £85 if you want more room.

http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/acatalog/Vango_Spectre_200_Lightweight_Tent.html

vernonlevy

tarpaullynn wrote:

Hydrostatic Head of 1500mm isn't very good to be honest, wouldn't like to be out in it in any foul weather.

I've always been of the train of thought that you get what you pay for, cheap is just that ............ cheap. Having said that I remember reading a review for a £19.99 Argos tent in a walking magazine, the reviewer said he would quite happily use the tent again and even if it was thrown away at the end of a walk it had paid for itself.

As far as better quality tents go you can get some pretty good ones that are fairly lightweight and have a small packsize for not much more than £100, some good ones can be bought for less than that e.g Vango Spectre 200 for less than 70 quid, a 3 man one can be had for £85 if you want more room.

http://www.outdoormegastore.co.uk/acatalog/Vango_Spectre_200_Lightweight_Tent.htm
l

I'm not familiar with the Lidl tent but there was a great one man tent sold by Argos called a Pro Actio Tiger Paws tent. I bought mine for 15 quid and it was highly rated in the the outdoor comics.

As for waterproofness the MOD class a 800mm hydrostatic head as water proof and one one tent web site says that 1500mm is suitable fo general three season use. Extreme weather conditions might overwhelm it though. It pronbably wont be the fabric but the seams that will leak.....

cthompso

I bought a 15 euro Lidl's tent last year and it was dreadful - certainly not two man (I ended up letting the girlfriend sleep in it, while I slept outside), and certainly not waterproof (a heavy dew had the damn thing collapsing at 3.00am with unfortunate relationship consequences!).

It was certainly good and light but IMO barely fit to line the bin it was eventually put in.

alexwilson

Have a look in tesco - there are 4 man tents in there at the mo for 8 pounds!!

Alex_Gill

1500MM hydrostatic head sounds quite low for 3 season use.
it'd probably put up with average conditions but anything more with the wind behind it and you'd have a sopping wet tent in the morning.
the poles will probably be heavy at that price too

it sounds good for a cheap tour where you now you're going to have better weather than the English summer though, if you're really strapped for cash.

this is what i use. never had any problems and would recommend it.
(you can pick them up for around the £100 mark if you look hard enough)

http://www.livefortheoutdoors.com/Gear- ... lite-2009/

Buckled_Rims

1500 hydrostatic head is only suitable for summer use in light rain.

4 season tents are usually 5000mm or above. a decent tent usually starts at 3000mm for the tent and 5000 for the ground sheet. But most of the good tents have cloth that's protected against UV. A cheap tent might fade within a few weeks if used a lot.

priory

i paid 20gbp each for 2 three man tents at Lidl about 5 years ago and they are still going strong used at least once every year for cycle camping, snowdonia hiking in march, pop festivals. I am a bit surprised they are still ok.

MichaelW

I bought a Gelert Solo for about £24 (more now) + £8 on alu pegs to replace the steel one and drop a lot of weight.
It has served me well over 2 euro tours including a few nights of hard rain. If you buy it as a summer, lowland camping tent its a good deal.