Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

I was very excited when we bought this tent. It is huge, and yet so easy to set up that one person can easily do it. I also loved all of the windows, the many interior storage pockets, and the fact that there was a skylight window (both in the tent, and also built in to the rainfly). My family used the tent on 3 trips and loved it. On the fourth trip it rained, and water came into the tent through both the zipper and up through the bottom of the tent (yes, we used a footprint). I returned the tent and there was no question about wanting to buy the exact same thing again (without the leakage of course). This time I set the tent up in our yard before a rainstorm.....and the water came up through the floor again. At this point I was done buying/returning tents, and I returned the tent and bought a tent from a different company altogether. This tent has so many positive things about it and provided that I only camped when it wasn't going to rain I would have been completely in love with it, but when 2 out of 2 tents leaked I no longer am confident in recommending either the tent or the company itself.

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

My family and I absolutely love this tent. It's super easy to set up. I can do it by myself in 10-15 minutes (5'7" female) depending on how many times my toddler tries to jump on it. We were originally going to go with the REI Hobitat, but opted for this instead since the Hobitat required two people to set it up. With small children that tend to wander off we don't always have the luxury of two adults able to perform such tasks.

We very comfortably sleep two adults, two small children, and a medium sized dog with a little room left over to spare. Most of that left over room is occupied by our bags. If the tent were any smaller it would be tolerable, but not as comfortable.

We have had no problems with the rainfly. Our first trip out in this tent we were hit by a surprise afternoon shower and we were able to quickly and effectively put the fly on in the storm. We had no troubles attaching the awning poles as long as we did not tighten the fly down first. This leads me to the things we did have problems with.

The welcome mat is useless and quite frankly annoying. It's cute and everyone comments on it, but in the rain it pools water. It actually became a muddy mess and a lot of that was tracked into the tent. No big deal though, we kept our bags near the entrance so we were able to clean our feet without getting mud on our sleeping bags. We will be purchasing the vestibule in the future.

I also recommend the footprint. When we purchased the tent the footprint was out of stock so we used a tarp instead. We had to use some giant origami folds with the tarp to get it to fit just right under the tent.

My only other complaint, and this is really minor, is that all of the pockets are down low. Which is great at night when you need to grab your flashlight, or even for storing kids toys out of the way. We are able to stay fairly organized this way. However, we had some things we wanted to keep out of the little ones reach, such as glasses which the toddler terror had previously broken. Since REI does not carry the Big Agnes gear loft we bought the very inexpensive REI Schwagg pockets.

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

I'm a traditional car camper and finally took my daughter camping with us (3 yrs old). We wanted a tent that was large enough to fit us all with gear. We went up to Lake Mary near Flagstaff at Lakeview Campground and experienced a lot of rain (3 plus hrs) over one week-end. Just after one week-end I have decided to return it. It just isn't REI quality.

Some things about this tent are true - it is huge, very large and comfortable inside. It has great ventalation when the fly is NOT on. Set up was extremly easy with only three poles and the fly was even more easy to attach (uses clips instead of the stakes). Although I should have realized something about the quality of this tents when two grommets broke (and that's only setting up the tent the first time!)

However, there are alot of negatives as well. The venting/mesh is great however it leaves no privacy. When my wife and daughter had to change after going to the lake we had to put up the fly first (other tents like the REI base camp you can go in a corner or lay down and the tent will block most of the view - this tent however has venting going all the way around and has no privacy what so ever). When it did rain, we found the fly to be terrible. The so called vestibules are extremely small - the one in the back of the tent is a joke. After 1 hr of rain we already had some leaking coming in from the rear door. The vestibules are so small that they really serve no purpose. The front door mat my wife thought was cute, however after using the tent everyone found it annoying. It collects dirt like crazy and for some reason is very hard to clean. The color of the tent was nice in that you can find your tent in a crowded campground with ease, however the color seemed to collect more bugs than other tents.

The added option of a vestibule is nice, and might solve some of the rain problems (execpt for the leaking) but for an added one hundred dollars, why not go with the REI Basecamp and settle for a smaller, yet rain proof fly. If the added vestibule was included, I might change my mind about returning the tent, however since it is not, I'd rather go with the REI tent that has an included, large and rain proof vestibule that you can actually use.

All in all, this tent is OK, I've had worse, but I expect REI to cover better products than this. I would not recommend this to a friend. Simply costs to much for what you get. I'm planning on returning this one and purchasing the REI Base Camp 6.

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

My 5 person family use this tent monthly for excursions to Joshua Tree, mountains,etc. Easy to set up, fantastic storage, excellent fly and plenty of room for kids and gear. This is truly for car camping as it is heavy, but not as bad as other family size tents out there. Big Agnes makes a quality product. Bottom line... AWESOME. Get it.

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

Our family of four loved this tent. Plenty of room. The gear pockets inside the tent helped keep stuff off the ground. The dual entry/exit flaps worked well. Very easy and quick setup. Everything stored away compactly and neat in the storage bag.

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

I have used the Big Agnes Big House tent several times for family camping trips. I purchased this tent as a second to our 3-person backpacking tent which our family of 4 had outgrown. I have 2 boys(ages 9 and 11), plus my husband and I (both tall). Tent purchasing priorities were: ease of set-up/take down; tent interior space; tent height (wanted a tent we could stand up in); and, ventilation. On the second camping trip we took, we arrived in Yosemite to thunder, lighting and very quickly thereafter, rain! My kids and their friend set this up in light rain (without needing the instructions), before the skies opened up. We have used this tent for weekends, over-nighters and week-long trips. It is roomy enough that 4 tall people fit comfortably with room for bags inside. Lots of interior storage pockets. Haven't noticed any condensation accumulation. No complaints.

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

PROS: Relatively easy set up, 90 sq. ft. of interior space, height of the tent allows everyone to stand up inside, nice duffel to store and carry the tent, large optional vestibule for cooking and storing gear(64 st. ft.!), 12 all-around mesh pockets inside the tent to stow away everything, mesh around the entire perimeter and top of the tent - fly can also be folded up half way for 360 degree views with weather protection of the fly for top 2/3 of the tent, skylight for star gazing even with the fly on.

CONS: Pole for back awning is difficult to insert into the grommets - we had to aggressively bend ours to fit! No full fly for front and back doors so we are concerned about water leakage in a heavy storm. Only provided 4 guylines even though we need at least 2 more to properly stake down the fly. (We can obviously buy more guylines but it's still annoying that Big Agnes would skimp on guylines!)

WISH LIST (Hope you are listening, Big Agnes): "Zip-offable" vestibules for the front and the back doors. This will provide the added weather protection but also allow for more ventilation when no vestibule is needed. (We bought the optional vestibule which attaches to the front door but the back door is still exposed.)

BOTTOM LINE: The Big House 6 is a great tent for our family of four for mostly warm weather car camping. We can fit a pack 'n play and 3 sleeping bags in the tent without any problems. The abundance of mesh on the tent body is great for warm weather camping and beach going. (The tent is airy and open enough to use as a beach cabana.) On the other hand, with the abundance of mesh, the tent may be too chilly for true 3 season camping. Thus, it is an excellent tent for car camping during warm weather where comfort and ease of set-up are your key criteria in selecting a family tent.

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

We bought this tent for car camping for a family of 4 (2 adults and 2 active boys). The set-up and take-down were really easy, even for 2 six-year old boys. It was also easy to keep clean and it held-up very well throughout a very windy night. Probably the only draw-back is that it can be very cold inside (it's very cavernous) on a super cold night.

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

My daughter and I had gone to the REI store in Bloomington, MN to get some camping gear. I had originally wanted the REI Base Camp 6, but no stores had it in that area and it was on back order from the website. The saleman recommended this tent instead.

I got home from the trip to REI and set the tent up in the back yard. The instructions sewn to the bag it came in were very clear - even without pictures. Took me about 25 minutes or so to set it up on my own the first time just taking my time. Biggest consideration is how long the 3 cross poles are and making sure you have room to work with those. Also, you can't be too much of an introvert with this tent as the color is BRIGHT.

Everything came back apart just fine and fit back in the bag. Finally got to use it on a camping trip last weekend. When we got to the site the others staying around us had been there the night before and said they were COLD that night. So we had extra blankets, ect. just in case. Got the tent out and had it setup, with the fly, and staked down in about 10 minutes with some help from 1 other person. VERY EASY to do. Lots of "Ohh and ahhs" from the others checking it out.

While on our tubing trip the tent doors were closed up with the rain fly on and when we got back (90 degree day out and tent sitting in the sun) it still was not too hot or muggy in there. Opened the flaps on the front and rear doors to get air movement and was just fine.

Closed the front and rear doors for privacy that night and I don't think I ever pulled my Big Agnes Encampment sleeping back all the way up to cover me. And that was sleeping in shorts and no shirt. Stayed plenty warm that night. It also rained pretty good that night and this thing did not move in the wind (only 10mph or so at most) and not a drop of water or condensation inside the tent the next morning.

Again, went back down as easy as it went up. Set it back up when we got home and spread out the footprint and fly to get it all aired out and dry. Stood on it's own with just the 2 major cross poles to let it air out.

I bought this as I like lots of room when doing things and wanted room to stand up to change, etc. All of the zippers work well with no tugging needed to get them going. The mesh pockets around the sides are nice for holding stuff in the middle of the night you might need. Mine has 4 guylines on each side of the rainfly, but only enough stakes to use 2 per side. Nice thing is you can roll up the sides of the fly even with those lines staked down to get some air movement during the day (or night).

At this time I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a nice quality and big base camp/car camp type tent. I can't speak to the ability to stay warm in cooler temps (it was 70 degrees or so an humid the other night when I used it), but others were cold in their tents and I was not (I am a hot sleeper, though).

Anyway, great product and the Big Agnes staff is very friendly and helpful if you need to contact them. As was REI with my purchase there.

Service and delivery comments:

The REI Salesman at the Bloomington, MN location was very helpful and I am pleased with my Big Agnes Big House 6, even though I had originally wanted the REI Base Camp 6 - which was out of stock in the store and on back order on the website. While the Base Camp 6 was my first choice, I am happy with the Big House 6.

Comments about Big Agnes Big House 6 Tent:

Got this tent for family car camping. This is a really great tent and I higly recommend it. The 6 person is plenty big enough for two adults and two kids and gear. We also bought the vestibule and I highly recommend that as you can store your gear out of sight and out of the rain. This tent is very easy to set up and has tons of ventilation. Someone mentioned the awning poles being hard to put in the grommets. The trick is not to have the corners of the fly buckled down before inserting the awning poles. It rained every day on us in Rocky Mtn NP and we had no leaks or condensation. The storage sack is excellent and has plenty of room to add the footprint, extra stakes and the vestibule. When set up, this tent is huge and the yellow is very bright. You will definitely be able to pick out your tent in the campground. This tent also has lots of storage netting in the walls. The only downside I can think of is that the bugs seem very attracted to the bright yellow so keep it zipped up. Its also so big and well ventilated that you won't get the inside of this tent warm on a really cold day, but hey, it's a tent, not a cabin.