Shopping for tents you’ll quickly find yourself immersed in a world of unfamiliar terms, trying to decipher what it means that a DFC pyramid has a welded bathtub floor. Here’s our guide to the terms you need to understand.
Single/Double Walled: A double walled tent is the most common, consisting of an inner tent (wall 1) and a rainfly (wall 2) between you and the elements. A single walled tent is, um, a single wall. The advantage of a single-walled tent is that it’s lighter. The advantage of a double walled tent is that condensation (usually) escapes to the outer wall and doesn’t drip on you while you’re sleeping. We recommend both types.
Freestanding: Does the tent stand up by itself or do you have to stake it out? If it stands up on its own through pole tension, it’s a freestanding tent. If it doesn’t, it’s not. There are also some hybrid designs, often referred to as semi-freestanding, where you just have to stake out one end.
When I started this guide, I was firmly in the freestanding camp. Freestanding tents seemed easier to deal with, and in some ways they are. Most camping tents these days are freestanding. After testing dozens of non-freestanding tents through, I realized freestanding wasn’t as big of an advantage as I thought. All non-freestanding means is that you’ll have to stake out your tent when you’re pitching it. If you’re expecting wind or rain you’ll want to do that anyway, even if your tent is “freestanding.” The biggest downside to non-freestanding or semi-freestanding tents is that you can’t easily move them once they’re set up.
Vestibule: In a double-walled tent, the rainfly is usually staked out away from the door of the inner tent. That leaves a space that is not in the tent but is still protected from the rain and elements. The vestibule is a good place for stashing wet gear and cooking when it’s raining, and it helps make an otherwise small tent feel much larger. Generally speaking, the bigger the vestibule, the better.
DCF/Cuben Fiber: Dyneema Composite Fiber (DCF) is also known as Cuben fiber. Both are industry terms for tents made of Dyneema, which is a very strong, very light fabric. It’s also very expensive and can be annoyingly crinkly, but when it come to going as light as possible, DCF is difficult to top. For a full breakdown of all the materials used in tents, see Tent Materials below.
Peak Height: How tall the tent is at its highest point. Depending on the shape of the tent, this may or may not be helpful, but it can indicate how much headroom to you have in the tent. In single pole tents though, the peak height is typically high but slopes off quickly, meaning you don’t have as much headroom as this number might back you think.
Doors: Two-person and larger tents need two doors. Climbing over your hiking partner in the middle of the night isn’t fun for anyone. Pretty much every two-person and larger tent I’ve tested lately has had two doors, but some also have a second full size vestibule, which is nice.