What better way to enjoy a ballgame, picnic, or any outdoor activity than with a little bit of shade! This 10’x10′ canopy pops up easily, and will keep sun burn and overheating at bay. A frequent reader of our site put the lightweight Cool Cabana pop up beach canopy to the test during a West Coast vacation. We put the lightweight Cool Cabana pop up beach canopy to the test during an East Coast vacation.
Like the REI model, the L.L.Bean tent uses polyester (ripstop, in this case), which is more resistant to UV damage and absorbs less moisture than nylon by weight. The Woodlands Screen House also has the advantage of eight guylines, whereas the Screen House Shelter includes none. In addition, this model has the same bug-deterring flap of fabric along the base as the REI tent, but while the REI’s flap is about 9 inches wide, the L.L.Bean’s flap is about 10.5 inches wide. Several REI reviewers who bought both the tent and the fly for rain protection note that the fly has only two walls, leaving much of the tent exposed. The add-on fly for our runner-up pick, the L.L.Bean Woodlands Screen House, offers four-walled protection, though it’s also more than twice as expensive.
The Ozark Trail canopy very well might be one of the best selling 10×10 tent brands of all time. The easily recognizable logo has been seen by nearly everyone at youth soccer tournaments or beach vacations in recent years. We wanted to do an in-depth review of this popular instant shelter and ultimately give our recommendation as to if this value brand tent is worth the lower price point vs. the higher quality but more expensive competition. Ultimately, the good design for this product was that it was sized right for what I needed, both in dimensions and weight. Not too small, but not too large (and thus wasteful) – a ozark trail backpack Goldilocks design. After all, I had to be sensitive to weight as we were required to carry our own water for 10 miles as there were no options for filtering during that stretch.
Although we always recommend using anchors such as weighted sand bag or stakes with guy lines attached to the top corners. In our tests one camper took less than 10 minutes to put it up on the first try. Two shorter aluminum poles cross to support the roof while four longer poles join to the roof poles at the top of the tent and slide into pegs at the ground.
Slant leg canopy tents are cheaper than straight leg tents because they use less material. The legs are locked into place with old school metal push button locks, something you won’t see on many modern pop up tents now-a-days. These push locks get very difficult to use over time, especially if the tent is used on the beach and exposed to sand and saltwater, causing rust build up. Many newer tent brands like EZ-Up use revolutionary thumb lock sliders or larger easy to release buttons, which are a much better user experience when setting the canopy up or taking it down.
We tested the Coleman 10 × 10 Instant Screened Canopy and Walmart’s Ozark Trail 10′ × 10′ Instant Screen House during our first round of testing in the winter and spring of 2016. These two shelters are the same size and shape (7-foot peak height, 17 pounds) with an almost identical design. The cap-like roofs on both models provided far less shade than we wanted, especially in the beating desert sun.
By default, this unexpectedly ended up being my go-to daily bag for several months. The Screen House Shelter packs into a reasonably roomy drawstring bag with a strap that makes the canopy tent much easier to transport than tents, like the L.L.Bean, that lack a strap. We eliminated canopies that were not big enough to comfortably shelter a picnic table, concluding that a table is probably the number-one spot where campers would place such a structure. We also eliminated bulky, heavy shelters that are intended to be used as semipermanent backyard fixtures. She has personally tested a dozen tents and an equal number of hair dryers.
The mesh walls do have a ribbon of polyester at the foot, but even carefully staked they can leave gaps at the ground; if bug protection is your main concern, these tents would likely fall short. We also tested and liked the Coleman Mountain View 12 x 12 Screendome Shelter; it was an also-great pick until Coleman discontinued the model. Any $75 canopy tent from a big-box store—we’re talking about the common square canopy with four spindly metal legs—can provide shade during midday.
Fellow campers consistently gravitated toward the REI shelter over the L.L.Bean. “There’s less scissor material, which means less total metal – and that’s why some of these companies can sell a tent for under $100,” Gemmell said. There’s a reason why makers of ozark trail chairs professional-grade canopies only use straight-leg frames. “When the legs are slanted, it’s completely dependent on those connection points,” Gemmell said. Digging our toes in the sand under one of the best full-overhead coverage beach tents on the market.
Though the two tents have the same footprint, the REI’s roof is 6 inches taller; we found that the higher ceiling made the REI shelter feel significantly roomier inside. The REI Co-op Screen House Shelter is an intuitively designed, easy-to-erect picnic tent that offers protection from sun, bugs, and mild rain showers. Though the boxy design is basic, in our tests we found that this camping shelter offered the best combination of functionality, durability, and affordability of all the tents we tried. That’s not the case with a slant leg canopy tent which, as you may have guessed, features legs that are slanted and form an angle of less than 90 degrees with the floor.