The REI Flash 3 is a freestanding, double-wall 3-person tent that’s light-weight and compact sufficient for backpacking however spacious sufficient for automotive tenting. Whereas REI charges it for 3 folks, I feel it’s on the small dimension for 3 full-grown adults until your third companion is a canine or a small youngster. The place it actually shines is as a 2-personal palace with an infinite quantity of ceiling mesh for air flow and stargazing, with loads of additional room to unfold out. Along with its beneficiant size, good for tall folks, the close to vertical aspect and finish partitions on the Flash 3 present higher livability for occupants than the sloped partitions of many dome-shaped tents.
Specs at a Look
- Finest Use: Backpacking and Tenting
- Kind: Double Wall
- Construction: Freestanding Tent
- Doorways: 2
- Variety of Poles: 3
- Inner pockets: 4
- Claimed Minimal Path Weight: 3 lbs 7.6 oz
- Precise Minimal Path Weight: 3 lbs 11.8 oz (Inside Tent and Rainfly: 41.5 oz) (Poles (3): 18.3 oz)
- Most pole section size: 18″
- Precise Inside Tent Dimensions: 85 x 68/61 (L x W head/foot) inches
- Peak Top: 42″
- Precise Packed dimensions (in stuff sack offered): 19″ x 7″
- Seam-taped: Sure
- Footprint: Not included.
- Minimal variety of stakes to pitch: 6; Advisable: 8-9
- Cloth: 20D Ripstop nylon
The REI Flash 3 is a light-weight, freestanding double-wall tent with two doorways and two vestibules. It has an enormous expanse of mesh making it good for stargazing whereas offering glorious air flow when used with or with out its rain fly. Totally seam-taped, the partial aspect and end-walls present additional privateness, wind, and dirt safety whereas the big doorways allow easy accessibility and exit.
Nonetheless, the Flash 3’s head and foot finish widths of 68″/61″ inches, make it decidedly slim for 3 full-grown adults. Whilst you may match three x twenty-inch broad sleeping pads aspect by aspect within the internal tent, it truly is a good squeeze. You’d most likely be much more comfy utilizing the Flash 3 as an opulent two-person tent with a canine or small youngster as a 3rd companion.
The Flash 3 comes with three poles which slot into color-coordinated man out factors. With a view to save weight and make the tent extra packable, the REI selected to not join all of the poles along with a number of hubs, which is commonly the case with different tent producers. The draw back of that is that it makes the tent slightly extra difficult to arrange and may result in a misplaced pole until you’re cautious to maintain monitor of all of them when breaking down the tent.
Whereas not troublesome to pitch, it takes a apply session or two to determine how you can arrange the Flash 3 and is greatest achieved in your yard a number of occasions earlier than you try and determine it out with a associate within the discipline, notably should you’re making an attempt to impress them together with your outside abilities. There are instructions included within the tent’s stuff sack, though you’ll be able to determine it out with sufficient persistence. 🙂
Whereas the internal tent is technically freestanding, it’s giant sufficient and beneath sufficient structural stress that it’s a must to stake out the corners whenever you set it up. The rainfly snaps into the corners of the internal tent, so that you simply want one stake in every nook for each. Nonetheless, I’d encourage you so as to add a number of additional guylines alongside the fly perimeter for stability in wind and to maximise the interior quantity.
Not like a dome tent, there’s a distinct directionality to the Flash 3, with a head finish and a foot finish. Whereas the tent has an infinite quantity of inner quantity, it doesn’t have a whole lot of pockets inside, or the place you’d look forward to finding them. For instance, there aren’t any pockets on the within of the doorways and no gear loft pockets within the ceiling. There are 4 mesh pockets on the again wall of the tent on the junction between the strong cloth and the mesh wall, however they’re a bit excessive as much as comfortably attain should you’re mendacity in your sleeping bag.
There’s sufficient inner quantity, nonetheless, to retailer a whole lot of gear contained in the tent, however the Flash 3 is decidedly mild on the subject of the frills discovered on different tents of this quantity just like the Large Agnes Copper Spur HV UL3 or the NEMO DragonFly OSMO 3P. The Flash 3 is cheaper for that cause, so that you’ll must resolve whether or not the added options in these tents are definitely worth the worth distinction.
Whereas the rainfly covers the internal tent mesh, it doesn’t present full protection over the ends of the internal tent however is scooped to allow higher airflow inside. The uncovered partitions of the internal tent are as waterproof because the fly, so there’s no internet loss in performance. NEMO was actually the primary tent producer to include this scoop design broadly throughout their product line and its been adopted by different producers since. It additionally helps cut back the load of the rainfly as a result of there’s much less cloth required.
As talked about, the Flash 3 is a two-door tent with two vestibules which is a must have for consolation when tenting with two or extra folks. The Flash’s vestibules are giant with loads of room to stow a backpack. The doorways have bi-directional zippers so you’ll be able to partially unzip one from the highest down or backside up, even in dangerous climate, to extend air flow by means of the tent with the intention to offset any condensation formation.
Comparable 3-Particular person Tents
Advice
Whereas the REI Flash 3 is offered as a three-person tent, it’s most likely greatest thought-about a excessive quantity 2+ particular person tent with house sufficient for 2 adults and a younger youngster or canine. One among its primary advantages is a comparatively small pack dimension resulting from the truth that its poles should not packaged collectively in a single big multi-hubbed array, however damaged aside in order that they take up much less quantity. Whereas it doesn’t have a whole lot of inner pockets and options discovered on dearer tents, its size, vertical aspect partitions, and huge mesh ceiling provide occupants a extra spacious feeling of inside quantity and star-gazing potential than most comparable dome-shaped three-person tents.
Disclosure: The creator owns this tent.
SectionHiker is reader-supported. We solely become profitable if you buy a product by means of our affiliate hyperlinks. Assist us proceed to check and write unsponsored and impartial gear opinions, newbie FAQs, and free climbing guides.
