When looking for a hiking tent you always want to make sure to do your research, Lightweight hiking tents are usually very expensive so choosing one that isn’t right for you can be costly, especially when on a tight budget. Today I will be reviewing the Duolight Tent from Macpac, I will look at the pros and cons to the tent to help you find out if this is the tent for you.
So what are the pros of choosing the Duolight?
So what are some of the pros for the Duolight, The Duolight includes many features that make it stand out from the rest, it's smart spiderweb like poles allow it to be set up with ease. this is complimented by the easy connectors at the end of the poles that allow the tents base and the poles to be connected with little to no effort, all this allows the tent to be set up by one person with little difficulty and can become even easier when with a second person. The tent sleeps two people very comfortably and the area between the main tent body and fly allows for a great place to store dirty shoes on one side and packs on the other, this means that all your gear with be able to stay dry even if it rains overnight.
When inside the tent you will find many handy features that help make it feel like home and show that it has been thoroughly thought through, on the walls of the tent you will find pockets to help store anything you may want to keep handy overnight, I find this to be very useful to keep extra layers in overnight so that if at any point during the night you feel cold, you do not need to go far to get an extra layer of warmth. Another smart little addition to this tent is the small loop of rope that hangs from the centre of the tent, this little rope is perfect for hanging a hand torch from for a ceiling during the night to provide your tent with light and help find your way about.
This tent has lots of very useful features but also is a very practical hiking tent, weighing just 2.2 kilograms, it is very light weight because of some of the solutions Macpac has made to reduce the weight of some of the items that are usually the heaviest like the pegs, Macpac’s redesigned triangle pegs made from light metal make it easy for them to be put in the ground while remaining strong and ultra-light. Once you are ready to head home or set off on another day hiking it can all be fitted into its bag very easily when packing it up, meaning more time hiking and less time packing, the tightening straps on the side of the bag allow you to make it easy to fit into your pack and compress the space it takes up.
What are the cons of choosing the Duolight?
But it’s not all great for the Duolight, it does have a few problems that can make using the tent not as easy and problem free as it could be, one thing that was noticed during testing for this review was how it handled rain and morning dew, wet and damp conditions like fog and dew in the morning that made the fly wet had the effect of occasionally also dampening the tents base meaning that the tent became heavier due to the wet base. The weight problems don't end there though as like most other hiking tents the fly doesn't get dry quick enough after overnight rain to consider it ‘dry’ the next morning which means that it will be heavier than the 2.2 kilograms in some situations.
Once you take these minor faults into account the tent is still a very good hiking tent and is one of the most modern ones out there, Macpac’s ability to reduce its weight has made this one of the lightest two person tents on the market and very capable for hiking in all terrain. I would almost certainly suggest this tent to anyone who was looking for a very good, all terrain and waterproof lightweight hiking tent for their next hike but would remind them to look at all the options before you buy as buying a hiking tent like this can be a big investment.
What happens when I damage my tent?
Well when it comes to getting your tent repaired after it gets damaged you can do two things. Depending on the size of the hole in your tent, you can use the patches included in the bag to patch the hole temporally but Macpac does make it clear that this shouldn't be left as a permanent solution. The more permanent solution is to visit one of Macpac’s repair partners which can be found all over the world. The repair costs can vary depending on the size of the hole or damage to other items such as bent poles but it's important to note that you can’t just bring it in to the nearest store but you must send it in directly or visit them in person (this may not be possible if you live in another state from the repair partners). Finally I think it is important to note that even if repairing your tent comes at a cost, you should definitely still do it to make sure that your tent lasts for as long as it possibly can.
For this review I used the Duolight, Two person Hiking tent from Macpac, like most lightweight hiking tents it is quite expensive, coming in at $799 AUD, most of the other competitors products come in around the same price. This very light hiking tent definitely is not cheap but is well worth the price if you plan on doing extensive hiking in the future as this is a tent that will last for many years to come.
Written by Josh Welch
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