New Quechua "Fresh & Black" Tents

[bigfurbdogg]

On 7/2/2019 at 4:53 PM, stuartbert two hats said:

I did indeed, however there is a happy ending. After posting, I spent some time fiddling with the air vents on the tent, like unzipping the inner door and the bottom of the outer door and within 20 mins I was back to comfortable temperatures.

The unforgiving physics of it is without a heat exchange of some sort, you can't stay cool when the air temperature is over twenty odd degrees at night, but even on Saturday morning after making that post, I managed to sleep past 10.

Having the vents open meant the tent wasn't as dark in the morning and I did have to wake briefly to adjust things to keep heat out rather than let the cool in (and I'm not sure if I was doing it right), but I went right back to sleep even with the sun beaming down pretty hard.

Basically, the problem I'd originally posted about would have been much less severe if I'd used the tent's ventilation features properly. But you can't hide from physics - I'd never need to worry about it before.

Had the Coleman equivalent and not sure I worked out all the vents properly as it was pretty hot for me! It seemed to cool down in the morning’s if i opened the inner and outer doors a bit, as you mentioned. Is that what everyone else did with there’s?

[D-Low]

1 hour ago, bigfurbdogg said:

Had the Coleman equivalent and not sure I worked out all the vents properly as it was pretty hot for me! It seemed to cool down in the morning’s if i opened the inner and outer doors a bit, as you mentioned. Is that what everyone else did with there’s?

Had the Coleman too and found it useless at keeping me cooler. Was great to have a blackout bedroom but as soon as the sun hit the tent at 6.30/7am I had to get out as it was far too sweaty. Subsequently returned it for a refund anyway as there was two tiny holes on the outer. Hopefully there will be some advances in tents again next year when I'm looking to re-purchase.

[gooner1990]

Has anyone got a link to where I can get one of these for a reasonable price? 

Got another two festivals over the next 6 weeks and could do with a few hours extra sleep! 

[dondo]

12 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

Has anyone got a link to where I can get one of these for a reasonable price? 

Got another two festivals over the next 6 weeks and could do with a few hours extra sleep! 

Decathlon themselves are pretty reasonable

This ones only £70

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/arpenaz-3-xl-freshblack-id_8492486.html 

[Mark E. Spliff]

I was an early adopter of reflective tents and have been using a very unusual-looking thing since 2005.  My old one finally needed retiring this year so I replaced it with a Fresh&Black and was very impressed.  The blackout effect was much better than my old thing and the thermal comfort was amazing.

However, I went for the QuickHiker 3 version, which is rarely mentioned in this thread.  Two main reasons for my choice: (1) although it's roomy, it packs down small enough to put inside your rucksack for easy transport and (2) it has two doors on opposite sides so you can get a proper through-draught going.  Along with the top and bottom vents, it was able to cope with the oven-like conditions on Saturday, and I was able to comfortably lie down in it to hide from the sun in the afternoon.

[blutarsky]

I saw these tents everywhere, and had a little chuckle to myself every time about how much commission people on eFests could have earned. 

[gooner1990]

59 minutes ago, dondo said:

Decathlon themselves are pretty reasonable

This ones only £70

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/arpenaz-3-xl-freshblack-id_8492486.html 

I’m 6ft2 and reading some of this thread some of them aren’t too long - will this one fit me? 

[blutarsky]

1 hour ago, D-Low said:

Had the Coleman too and found it useless at keeping me cooler. Was great to have a blackout bedroom but as soon as the sun hit the tent at 6.30/7am I had to get out as it was far too sweaty. Subsequently returned it for a refund anyway as there was two tiny holes on the outer. Hopefully there will be some advances in tents again next year when I'm looking to re-purchase.

Careful consideration of where to pitch needed. I wanted to pitch ours by a big fence which would have been to our east and would have given us shade until 10am every day. Got to admit that wasn't because of foresight about the sun, just because it looked quieter. Unfortunately we didn't go for that spot, would have been a life saver. 

[D-Low]

22 minutes ago, blutarsky said:

Careful consideration of where to pitch needed. I wanted to pitch ours by a big fence which would have been to our east and would have given us shade until 10am every day. Got to admit that wasn't because of foresight about the sun, just because it looked quieter. Unfortunately we didn't go for that spot, would have been a life saver. 

Exactly this. I realised on the first morning the sun was beating right on the bedroom side, and come afternoon there seemed to be no shade in the porch area. Would have been better to have room to turn the tent around. Was envious of all the people camped in the shade of a hedge.

[johnnypark]

26 minutes ago, gooner1990 said:

I’m 6ft2 and reading some of this thread some of them aren’t too long - will this one fit me? 

I'm 6ft4 and I had the 2-3 man version, was just about touching the top and bottom stretched out fully

[stuartbert two hats]

3 hours ago, bigfurbdogg said:

Had the Coleman equivalent and not sure I worked out all the vents properly as it was pretty hot for me! It seemed to cool down in the morning’s if i opened the inner and outer doors a bit, as you mentioned. Is that what everyone else did with there’s?

Not quite, I do that at night, but make sure the outer door is shut come morning, so that no heat gets in.

[bigfurbdogg]

2 hours ago, stuartbert two hats said:

Not quite, I do that at night, but make sure the outer door is shut come morning, so that no heat gets in.

Nice one, I will try that next time.

[hfuhruhurr]

We were the pod people...

[stuartbert two hats]

8 hours ago, bigfurbdogg said:

Nice one, I will try that next time.

In normal circumstances (like not hotter than that cold year, 2017), just zip and clip everything up. I found that the more I unzipped, the brighter it was in the tent.

[pahqman]

12 hours ago, dondo said:

Decathlon themselves are pretty reasonable

This ones only £70

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/arpenaz-3-xl-freshblack-id_8492486.html 

I had this one this year and can confirm that it is much cooler than a normal tent. I slept until 1pm Friday after some Thurs night shenanigans and it could barley be described as warm in the beating sun.

 

Not too hard to set up but the included instructions suck.

[Fanbloodytastic]

Decided I’m definitely going to upgrade my  standard 2-second 3 man pop up for a Black and Fresh XL pop should the ticket gods be kind in October. Absolutely ovenlike this year and only managed a few hours sleep a night.

[Bennykill]

used my fresh and Black 4XL for the first time at the festival (other than setting it up in the garden to make sure it was OK) and it was an absolute godsend.  took 10 minutes to put up, the darkness helped us sleep in late (with the help of earplugs) and the vents at the side let in enough air to keep the whole bedroom cool.  could have done with being a little taller as had to hunch to stand up, but apart from that it was amazing.  highly recommend it.

[Henrik]

29 minutes ago, Bennykill said:

used my fresh and Black 4XL for the first time at the festival 

This is the one I have. I bought it in the black friday sale last year - I've not even opened it up yet.

How easy is it to pack away? I was hoping to do a trial run before Boomtown but not sure I will get a chance now. Am I going to struggle on the Monday morning trying to get this beast back in its bag? 

[Bennykill]

 

9 minutes ago, Henrik said:

This is the one I have. I bought it in the black friday sale last year - I've not even opened it up yet.

How easy is it to pack away? I was hoping to do a trial run before Boomtown but not sure I will get a chance now. Am I going to struggle on the Monday morning trying to get this beast back in its bag? 

I  bought mine in the Black Friday sale too,  was a bargain.

you wont have any problems with it,  goes up and down very easily, instructions are attached to the inside of the bag.

itgoes back into the bag no problem. even a quick pack will get it into the bag with room to spare.  it gives you instructions on the best way to fold up inside the bag.  I followed those and managed to fit the pump and an box of pegs into the bag as well (there is nothing wrong with the pegs they give you,  I just have some good hard ground ones I use)

[gooner1990]

17 hours ago, dondo said:

Decathlon themselves are pretty reasonable

This ones only £70

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/arpenaz-3-xl-freshblack-id_8492486.html 

Went and bought this at Decathlon in Oxford today.

 

look forward to using it at Truck festival in three weeks. ?

[Johnnyseven]

18 hours ago, dondo said:

Decathlon themselves are pretty reasonable

This ones only £70

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/arpenaz-3-xl-freshblack-id_8492486.html 

I have this one and it worked a treat everyday bar Saturday. It was lovely and dark and cool inside and allowed me to sleep until 11am/12pm most days. Saturday was the exception though, it got hot and sweaty inside, but it was 28 degrees outside and it wasn't as hot as it would have been in a normal tent!

[dondo]

1 hour ago, Bennykill said:

used my fresh and Black 4XL for the first time at the festival (other than setting it up in the garden to make sure it was OK) and it was an absolute godsend.  took 10 minutes to put up, the darkness helped us sleep in late (with the help of earplugs) and the vents at the side let in enough air to keep the whole bedroom cool.  could have done with being a little taller as had to hunch to stand up, but apart from that it was amazing.  highly recommend it.

That's the one I used and loved it. Yes couldn't stand up in it but considering I'd used the pop up version in 2016 when it was muddy it was plenty spacious in comparison. 

I did try to use the vents to get some air flowing through but on one side I had a tent right next to mine so didn't really have the space to get a proper flow

[Spindles]

How did people find the inflatable versions this year?  Did they stay up and how did they feel in the wind earlier in the festival?

 

My knackered old tent survived to live another day, but I'd consider a replacement rather than risking having it finally die on me next time round.

[dondo]

1 minute ago, Spindles said:

How did people find the inflatable versions this year?  Did they stay up and how did they feel in the wind earlier in the festival?

 

My knackered old tent survived to live another day, but I'd consider a replacement rather than risking having it finally die on me next time round.

I had the inflatable one and it stood the test fine and it wasnt even fully pegged out with the guys etc.  Noisy as any tent is in the wind but didn't feel like it was going to break/burst

[Crazyfool01]

6 minutes ago, Spindles said:

How did people find the inflatable versions this year?  Did they stay up and how did they feel in the wind earlier in the festival?

 

My knackered old tent survived to live another day, but I'd consider a replacement rather than risking having it finally die on me next time round.

very good no issues with it .... strong and stable