I do camp fairly often, but I must confess, I don’t often use air tents. I don’t think there is anything inherently wrong with them, but I like the space-saving nature of backpacking tents, even if I travel with the car.
This might change soon. After spending a few nights in Decathlon/s affordable Quechua Inflatable Camping Tent, I can clearly see why more people choose the best air tents over traditional poled shelters – they are just so much easier to put and take down.
Better still, this particular model from Decathlon is super affordable while being durable enough to last for longer than a few uses. It’s not perfect, but the Quechua Inflatable Camping Tent Air Seconds 4.1 F&B 4 Person 1 Bedroom is an excellent choice for first-time air campers.
Is this particular air tent the best option for your camping needs, or are you better off getting a smaller and less heavy shelter? Read my full review below to find out.
Price and availability
The Quechua Inflatable Camping Tent Air Seconds 4.1 F&B 4 Person 1 Bedroom is available to buy now directly from Decathlon for a recommended price of £349.99. At the time of writing, it was on offer for £299.99. It only comes in one colour: Cappuccino beige (what a name!). US and AU price and availability TBC.
Specifications
- Type: inflatable
- Weight: 15kg/ 33 Lb
- Seasons: 2 (Spring-Summer)
- Sleeps: 4
- Bedrooms: 1
- Material: Polyester
- Assembled dimensions (H x L x W): 480 x 290 x 190 cm, 189 x 114 x 75 in
- Packed dimensions (H x L x W): 33 x 73 x 33 cm, 12.9 x 28.7 x 12.9 in
Design and materials
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As the name suggests, the Quechua Inflatable Camping Tent Air Seconds 4.1 F&B 4 Person 1 Bedroom is a one-bedroom tent that provides structure using air-filled tubes instead of traditional aluminium poles.
The manufacturer says the air poles have a two-layer arch structure: a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) air chamber and a 600-denier polyester cover to ensure they will stay firm regardless of the weather conditions.
The tent has a rugged design and can handle some wind and rain. Decathlon claims it stays habitable in force 7 wind, measured at 60 km/h when pitched properly with the guy ropes properly anchored.
To keep the rain out, the tent is fitted with a polyurethane-coated polyester flysheet. It has a hydrostatic head rating of 2,000 mm, seams taped using heat-sealed strips, and a 190 g/sqm polyethene groundsheet.
The zipped floor mat can be removed fully or partially if needed to keep the tent and your gear dry. The large entrance door is also zippered. The living room has two good-sized windows: one transparent window with a shutter and one screen window, also with a shutter.
It comes in a convenient carry case with handles, which is great, as the 15-kilo tent isn’t lightweight. It’s more lightweight than 8-person tents, but you won’t be hiking around with it, that’s for sure.
The bedroom is a good size, and Decathlon says it’s wide enough to fit four 70-cm-wide mattresses. It features the Fresh&Black technology, which provides UPF 50+ sun protection and keeps the light out in general, helping you sleep better during summer.
Setup
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One of the main benefits of air tents is that they are much quicker to set up than traditional outdoor shelters, especially larger tents. The Quechua Inflatable Camping Tent Air Seconds 4.1 F&B 4 Person 1 Bedroom is certainly quick to set up.
Once you roll out the tent and locate the three inflation points, just connect your air pump and churn away until you reach the 7 PSI recommended pressure in the tube. Once all three poles are filled, you grab the guy lines and pull the structure in position.
Then, you find the sleeve for the pole that keeps the flap above the entrance door up. Finally, you place the adjustable aluminium bar in its slots in the living room to provide some additional rigidity. It’s a super simple process that shouldn’t take longer than 15 minutes or so.
Performance and comfort
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The tent is quite spacious inside for two people with its 6.5 m² living area, and as a considerably tall person (I’m 6’0”/ 184cm), I was relieved to see I could stand up fully in the tent. The large zippered entrance door is easy to operate, and better still, it has a second zipper to open up the top mesh section to allow for some air movement in the tent.
The living room area is spacious enough to store a couple of camping chairs, a storage unit and maybe a small table. The mat is zippered and can removed if it gets rainy outside and you want to store your soggy gear off it. It can also just be folded up, creating a smaller living room area/vestibule combo.
The Fresh&Black bedroom is probably my favourite feature, and it does wonders to keep heat and light out of the room. Initially, I thought it might get stuffy in the dark bedroom, but thanks to the heat-reflecting outside cover and the low ventilation hatch, the air moved around pretty freely in the bedroom.
One area in the Quechua Inflatable Camping Tent Air Seconds 4.1 F&B 4 Person 1 Bedroom could have performed better is storage. Although there are pockets littered everywhere in the tent, it feels like there aren’t enough, or they aren’t in the right place.
Plus, for obvious reasons, it’s harder to locate them in the bedroom—it would have been better to use highly reflective seams on the edges or a different colour to ensure the pockets are visible in low-light conditions.
As usual, this 4-person tent is really only comfortable for two people. Theoretically, you can put four people side-by-side in the tent, but if you actually want to sleep, I would say anything over three people is too much.
I popped a Quechua Double Camp Bed in the bedroom, and it pretty much took up the whole space. It was great that the bed fitted, but the person on the inside had to climb over me to get in the night.
One more thing to mention, and it isn’t an exclusive issue here, is that it requires considerable effort to squeeze the tent back into the carry bag. I quite literally had to wrestle it to be able to stuff it in the otherwise sturdy-looking bag.
Oh, and you should definitely consider how you will dry your tent at home before getting the Quechua Inflatable Camping Tent Air Seconds 4.1 F&B 4 Person 1 Bedroom. Unless you have a garden, it might be challenging to remove all moisture, which might result in the tent getting mouldy.
Verdict
(Image credit: Matt Kollat/T3)
Looking at the big picture, it’s hard to fault the Quechua Inflatable Camping Tent Air Seconds 4.1 F&B 4 Person 1 Bedroom. It’s spacious, comfortable, durable, and affordably priced—a really good combination of features for any tent.
It’s bulkier than backpacking tents, which means it might take more effort to clean and store it between uses, but if you happen to have a garden, I would certainly recommend it. It’s an excellent option for couples who might want a bigger shelter for camping or festivals but don’t want to splash on a more elaborate tent.
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