Tent question

[weesmudge]

Looking at buying a 1 man tent for getting into some of the more remote areas so carrying it in with me
I’ve narrowed it down to two options firstly the wild country zepyhros 1 EP
And the other choice being a vango F10 helium UL 1
Any one use these and what’s your thoughts on them.
Both are roughly the same price
Tia

[rockhopper]

Don't know about either of these specifically but I've been very happy with a Vango Banshee which doesn't look dissimilar to the helium albeit a bit heavier.
However, my banshee is a two person tent at about 2kg. I think it would be very tight for two but I use it for one which allows me to get all my kit inside with a bit more space. To me the extra few hundred grammes is worth it for the extra space.

[Ben Nachie]

I don't own either tent but do own Terra Nova Laser Comps (1&2), which are the expensive versions of the Zephyros, so I can only talk generally, not about the details. I think the Laser Comp are great little tents, the one man being perfectly big enough and weatherproof enough for me. For me, weight was important so it was a big factor in my decision. Looking at the two tents you are deciding between, I'd say the Vango maybe has a slight edge, being a bit lighter and looking a bit roomier (though I've not actually seen one in the flesh).

Both tents look good and I'm sure either will perform well for you. One thing to look at is the quality of the pegs. Be prepared to change them for something better.

[nick70]

My tuppence worth here.

I previously had a Vango Force 10 Xenon UL tent. I was so excited about it and expecting good things from it. When I first took it out I noticed there was a bad tear on the flysheet. This was about 2 weeks prior to my WHW walk and whilst Go Outdoors offered to have it repaired they couldn't do it in the time scale for me take on my trip. I used Tenacious Tape (on outer and inner of fly) as a temporary repair. During my trip I found my tent to fail on an unprecedented level. Frost was forming both inside and outside the tent. Any time that i would enter/exit tent and had to lean on groundsheet it was getting soaked through. The flysheet (and groundsheet) could not cope with even the slightest amount of precipitation. I seen numerous other (lower end) Vango tents and none of them had any of the problems or issues I had. My initial plan was to do GGW at end of it but due to tent failing so badly I had to abort this.

I had to return the tent to Go Outdoors and I finally got a full refund, although this whole experience also left me increasingly frustrated. In all this time I never received anything from Vango, no apology, no offer of any compensation, zilch, nada, nothing. This whole experience has now left me not ever wanting to purchase any Vango item ever again. A member of Go Outdoors staff did get back to me and tell me they don't believe the tent had been proofed. How a tent can get through a whole QC process with this many glaring deficiencies is beyond me. In short, it wasn't fit for purpose. A Wendy House would have served me better.

Now I realise that this was my own unique bad experience. I am not saying that every owner of a F10 tent will have had similar bad experiences. I am sure there will be many positive experiences. However the way that Vango dealt with me thereafter was nothing short of disgraceful and the whole negative customer service experience has led me to take the stance I now do with their products. My feeling is this, there are many, many companies out there trying to get us to part with our hard earned cash (the whole industry now is booming) and I would rather spend my cash on a company who values and cares for and looks to improve upon a customers experience, not one who will just stick their head in the sand.

A couple of other points I would add here. My friend has a Wild Country Zephyros2 and took this on our WHW trip. In my opinion this looks an excellent tent and certainly stood up to all conditions that were thrown at us. I believe he got this at the time for about £115 (from Sports Direct I believe). He got the 2 person just to give himself that bit more room and it did seem incredibly spacious and the weight difference between between the 1 and the 2 was negligible. You say you are seeing the 2 tents you are looking at coming in at the same price. When I search the norm for the F10 Helium is about £180 although I can see your Wild Country Zephyros 1 tent for £110 from OutdoorGear.co.uk (sorry, not able to insert hyperlink somehow)

Best of luck with your choice.

[rgf101]

Look at weight and cost differences and ask if the extra space of a two man tent would be worth it. With the Laser Comp 2 I carry an extra 200g or so over the one man version, well worth it for the extra space to sort my kit out in.

[Sack the Juggler]

I've got the Zephyros 2, but use it as a 1 man tent. Although I am 6'2" and 17 stone.

Its well built, lots of nice touches, good ventilation options (although it can still get a lot of condensation when the ground is damp - same for most tents I guess).

Its easy to pitch goes up as one and down as one.

Nice dark green too, helps it blend in when on this hill (which is more important if you are wild camping outside of Scotland)

I bought mine on sale at Millets for just under £100, so I think its bargain.

[Mylo73]

The new Soloist from Alpkit may be worth a look:

https://www.alpkit.com/products/soloist

£119 or £125 with the footprint.

[regedmunds]

I have a Zepypos 1 person, bombproof! I use it in the winter.

[Marty_JG]

I got the silver Naturehike Cloud-Up 2 (1.5kg) and it has withstood side gales. The one-man version is lighter but I wanted room for my kit (and now a dog too).

[gammy leg walker]

I can only give my views on the Vango Banshee 200,it's a 2 man tent,but it works best for me as a 1 man tent and all my gear inside.
Been using it for 3 years now and never had any issues,the acid test came last weekend on Skye when it rained for 3 days solid with high winds thrown in for good measure and it kept me warm and dry throughout

[Alteknacker]

Just adding my twopence ha'penny worth, mainly in confirmation of what's already been said.

I bought a Vango Force 10 Helium 2 for multi-day treks, having had a Vango Banshee 300 for many years. The latter is just too heavy to lug about (2.65 kg).

I bought it after a lot of research, and it seemed to offer the best compromise between weight and price (1.33kg, £160-ish). If you take your time, you can usually find a good deal.

I've used it a fair bit, and really only have 2 criticisms of it:
1. it flaps in the wind, however tightly you set it, even on flat ground.
2. it's very difficult (= impossible for me) to get it set tightly on uneven ground, and it's clear that this is really due to the single end-post design: the tent fabric just doesn't like this geometry.

I set it up last weekend against the new Alpkit Tetri my son had bought, and, to my surprise, the amount of space available - floor area and height - seemed very comparable. The difference is that his tent weighs 3 kg! Having said that, it does look as if it would stand up to high winds better, and I've never tried either the Banshee or the Helium in really high winds (which, to be fair, they're not designed for).

I would second the view that it's worth getting a 2-man tent for solo expeditions. The extra room - a lot! - comes at a weight penalty of less than 150gm (in the case of the Helium), which is barely a mug of water.

I get a fair bit of condensation in both the tents, notwithstanding vents built into the flysheet; but I suspect this is unavoidable with the materials used for tents these days, which all seem to be more or less the same. I typically get some underneath the mattress also inside the tent, but I don't think it's a groundsheet issue - I've camped in some pretty damp places.

As regards waterproofness, I've had no issues with either - even in heavy rain.

One thing I like about both tents is that they can be pitched with the inner and flysheet fixed together, which is what I inevitably do; and this is pretty handy when it's raining.

Whatever you go for, I hope it works for you, and you don't have an experience like nick70.

Finally, this blog gives a reasonable review of the Helium.

https://www.hikersblog.co.uk/force-ten-helium-100-tent-gear-review/