Review on Gigatent Geodesic Shelter by Tom Ball

I wanted to give this product a five star review, because of the nature of how GigaTent offered, which is outstandingly generous on their part. Since I can't in good conscience do that, I will review each part separately. This tent is a "meadow muffin" design made from standard nylon materials with carbon fiber poles and aluminum tent pegs. The color scheme is pleasing to the eye. The floor is waterproof as claimed, but doesn't really matter because the rain fly is too small and allows in any amount of directional rain, which is trapped by the waterproof floor. The carbon fiber poles are of a large diameter, which should prevent end splintering, the typical cause of this style of tents early demise. The expansion of the tent floor into the poles with pins is innovative, but doesn't allow for enough tension to keep the floor taut and prevent curling. This tent design only featured four tent pegs, even though it came with six peg holes. Even six peg holes are still not enough to secure this tent to the ground. Eight pegs should be the minimum. Thirty mile an hour winds dislodged this tent and blew it away, which shouldn't happen. While I realize this tent isn't for the back country of Yellowstone or base camp of the Himalayas, it should perform better than it did. If you want an inexpensive tent for a weekend of fair weather camping at the lake, it truly is a five star deal. If you want an all-around tent that can weather average conditions expected in a normal camping environment, perhaps GigaTent has a hardier model in stock.