Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Black Diamond Lighthouse Tent > Stephanie Martin > Field Report

Field Report: Black Diamond Lighthouse and Vestibule

Contents

- Product Performance and Durability

    - Raising and Lowering of the Lighthouse - Comments on Pitching and Tearing Down of the Tent

    - Is it Raining in Here? Comments on Weatherproofness and Ventilation

    - Wide Open Spaces - Comments on Overall Design and Comfort

    - Good as New - Observations on Durability

- Continued Test Strategy

- Summary

Product Performance and Durability
Freestanding, and with plenty of room for myself and my husband, the Black Diamond Lighthouse is a clear winner in my mind in the lightweight tent arena.  Compared to other lightweight tents, it offers fantastic floor space, and plenty of headroom in a free standing structure.  The Black Diamond Lighthouse provides the advantages of a free standing shelter, more headroom and real estate for both myself and my husband in a lighter package when compared to other two person tents we've used in the past.

Raising and Lowering of the Lighthouse - Pitching and Tearing Down
Setting up the Lighthouse is, in theory, a relatively simple affair and is fully detailed in my Initial Report.  With the tent door fully open, the awning pole is inserted and secured in the top of the tent via a series of grommets.  It certainly sounds easy enough, however with the slight bend in this pole and the close fitting grommets that it is threaded through, I found that each time I set up the tent, I had this pole hang or snag somewhere in the process, requiring some coaxing to settle into the required configuration.  Once the awning pole is situated and secured, the two long body poles are inserted into the tent with the ends seated in snaps located in the corners of the Lighthouse floor.  Upon reading, and thinking about it, this too seems like a simple and straightforward affair.  Unfortunately, I seem to be slightly challenged in setting up this tent with minimal frustration, as I often found myself struggling to get the poles inserted and seated without seriously worrying about puncturing or tearing the tent.  I honestly thought this would get easier with practice, but it certainly doesn't appear to be going that way for me.   In addition, I did find that because pitching the tent requires that the tent door be completely open, it left plenty of time for miscellaneous insects to infiltrate my shelter.  You'd think we'd be done once the tent body poles were inserted, but we're not - the finishing procedure is to coax the poles to lie more along the seams of the Lighthouse and affix them by securing twelve (yes, twelve) hook and loop fastener strips.  While I'm negotiating the endless peeling apart and reaffixing of hook and loop fasteners, I usually ask my husband to stake or tie down the tent to prevent it from blowing away when I vacate the shelter.

Tearing down the Lighthouse seemed to go more smoothly that putting it up.  Collapsing the tent is as simple as completing all actions of setup in reverse.  Other than the re-negotiation of all the hook and loop closures, it's a quick affair and the tent is collapsed much more quickly and with less frustration than the process of pitching it.  I found the stuff sacks to be sized well.  They are large enough to simply stuff the various items inside, and are not overly loose or tight.  I really like the design of the pole and stake bag, with its small section for the stakes segregated from the main body of the pole bag.  This small pouch kept the stakes segregated towards the opening of the stuff sack and easy to find.

At this time, I am not prepared to discuss the setup and attachment of the optional vestibule, as it was left behind while I was on my European adventures due to space limitations.  I plan to address and evaluate the vestibule during my long term testing of the Lighthouse.
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Is it Raining in Here? Weatherproofness and Ventilation of the Lighthouse
While I didn't encounter any inclement weather while using the Lighthouse during my field testing, it certainly sometimes seemed as if I had left it open in a rainstorm.  One of the major limitations of a single wall shelter is its ability (or lack thereof) to prevent condensation on the inner walls.  The Lighthouse is no different.  In Switzerland, while camping in open meadows, I often found myself waking to a damp sleeping bag and water droplet covered walls - this was not mitigated by leaving the tent in its most ventilated state with the rear window and front door left fully open.  It took us several passes with a pack towel to absorb most of the water on the tent walls in the mornings.  Even with mopping up the interior of the tent prior to packing, I often found the tent quite damp the following evening when it was unpacked - probably due to all the excess dew on the outside of the tent that we weren't able to shake off before stuffing it into its stuff sack.  Luckily, the tent seemed to dry off fast enough once pitched with the door left open to encourage air flow.

Once back in my arid home stomping grounds of the desert southwest, where dew is nonexistent, I found I had no further issues with condensation.  The tent walls remained dry and free of condensation, even when zipped up almost completely for the full night. 

Unfortunately, I haven't had an opportunity to evaluate the tent under inclement weather or strong winds yet, so while I do note that the tent certainly seems to pitch very tautly, with hardly any material to allow for tent-flappage, I can't verify whether it is a quiet, leak-free shelter to hide out in during a storm.  Perhaps I'll have a better testing opportunity now that the summer monsoon season is upon us.
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Wide Open Spaces - Overall Design and Comfort
As far as tents go, I have to say I really like the Lighthouse once it is pitched.  Its steep sidewalls allow for both my husband and myself to sit up side by side while inside the tent with headroom to spare.  Even without the optional vestibule, we were able to haul in all of our gear and keep it inside the tent with us without impinging on our sleeping space.  It did require some careful arranging around the perimeter, but we were able to bring in our packs, extra clothes, boots, cook gear and food (no worries about bears where we were traveling).  The small pockets on either end of the tent proved to be a convenient location to consolidate my money, lip balm and other small things that seem prone to wandering off.  I found the gear loft loops to be a good place to hang my glasses at night to prevent crushing them.

The large side door of the Lighthouse allowed for panoramic views of the local scenery, while allowing easy entry and exit to the tent.  My one complaint on the door is that the mesh is located on the inside of the tent, rather than on the outside - making it more of a nuisance to adjust ventilation.  If the mesh was located on the outside of the tent, adjusting ventilation would simply require zipping up a portion of the Epic fabric door - however, as the tent currently is, I have to open the mesh door (letting in various flying (and sometimes biting) insects) to get to the zippers for the Epic fabric door.

My other design complaint lies with the hook and loop fasteners for the poles - while I appreciate the small tabs sewn onto these fasteners that facilitate opening them, I find them excessive, noisy and just a plain nuisance.  I would think it might be easier to design something else to hold the poles in the desired location inside the tent.

The mellow yellow color of the tent when viewed from the outside is cheery - from the inside, it reminds me of my silicon fab lithography days, where the lights in the area are covered with yellow filters.  The yellow light was soft on the eyes, and wasn't unlike that of a low watt incandescent bulb.  I wasn't ever in the tent long enough during the day to find out if it got horribly warm inside, as my days usually required an early start to accomplish the day's hike or adventure. 
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Good as New - Observations on Durability
To date, I've not noticed any issues with the durability of the tent or its materials.  I've pitched it straight on the ground, with no groundsheet.  Surprisingly, the tent body has stayed clean and free of dirt and sand, which seems to glom onto my other shelters as soon as they are out of their stuff sacks.  All of the zippers are still zipping smoothly, and the hook and loop closures seem to be holding firmly.  I've had some of my seam sealing delaminate from the tent, however I'm not sure if there are any resulting leaks since weather was fair during the duration of my testing thus far.
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Continued Testing Strategy
The Lighthouse and vestibule will accompany me on my backpacking adventures for the remaining duration of the test period.  I expect the weather to be hot and arid and since we've entered southwest monsoon period, I will be expecting plenty of late afternoon thundershowers along with strong winds.  I will continue to evaluate the Lighthouse's durability, with a special focus on possible pinholing of the floor and tent walls.  Most tent sites in my local hiking haunts consist of slickrock or packed sand or dirt, and I don't typically carry a groundcloth of any kind.  I'll continue to observe the tent walls where the poles rub against the tightly stretched canopy fabric, checking for pinholing.  I'll also continue to evaluate the Lighthouse for its weatherproofness and ventilation, this time including the vestibule in my investigations.  I also plan to evaluate whether I find the vestibule to be a worthwhile investment for this tent.  Over the remaining test period, I expect that numerous nights in the field will allow me to fully evaluate the Lighthouse in the above aspects.  I'm really looking forward to it!
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Summary
When compared to other tents in its weight class, I will admit that the Lighthouse comes out as a definite winner.  My conundrum is that I've made the jump to tarptents already, and find them a lighter weight option that I'm not certain I'd be willing to set aside in favor of the Lighthouse.  I do like the Lighthouse, and find that it provides ample living space for two adults and their gear in a free standing package.  With that said, here are my likes and dislikes:

Woo Hoos (likes):
- Plenty of floor space to accommodate both myself, my husband and our gear
- Steeply sloping sides and tons of headroom means both of us can sit up inside the tent to fuss with gear or change clothing
- Huge side door allows for easy entry and exit, along with spectacular views

General Comment:
- I was surprised that a tent in this price range requires that the consumer complete seam sealing duties
- As with any single wall shelter, understanding that condensation will happen in areas that experience overnight temps below the dewpoint

Boo Hoos (areas for improvement):
- I wish Black Diamond had put the Epic fabric door inside the tent instead of on the outside
- I'm really not in favor of all the little hook and loop fasteners required for securing the tent poles inside the tent - I find them noisy, and just a bit awkward to handle, even with the nice pull tab on them.
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My thanks to BackpackGearTest.org and Black Diamond for this testing opportunity.

Reviews > Shelters > Tents > Black Diamond Lighthouse Tent > Stephanie Martin > Field Report