REI Flash Air 1 Tent

[backpackerchick]

Any thoughts?

“Bikepackers, light packers and peak baggers, meet our lightest 1-person yet: the REI Co-op Flash Air 1 tent. You can pitch it with its own poles—or your trekking pole—and weighs only 1 lb. 4 oz.”

https://www.rei.com/product/168564/rei-co-op-flash-air-1-tent

[jscott]

Mimimum trail weight–1 lb. 4 oz

Packaged weight–1 lb 10.2 oz.

Hmmmm. 1.4 is very attractive! is that without stakes and lines? It looks small for nearly 2 lbs., if that’s what it ends up being.
Wait, I bet the difference is if you use your own poles and leave the regular poles at home. I do use my own poles!

It’s double wall, which I like. It looks like you can adjust how far down the fly comes towards the ground with your pole length, which I like. Bug and mouse resistant as it gets. It’s relatively cheap! I don’t need lots of room. But I wouldn’t want to have to spend much time in this.

[Brad Rogers]

I’ve not seen it before, but it looks promising.  It’s reminiscent of the SMD Skyscape.

[jscott]

actually I checked and the minimum weight does not include their pole.

[jscott]

and it’s not double walled. Sorry!

[Brad P]

It’s a competitive price for a lightweight tent.  It’s good for us to have options.

[jscott]

On fifth thought–and mine haven’t been particularly good so far–I wonder about the storm worthiness of this; in particular, the latch gizmo that attaches to the single pole. I wonder how this will hold up in strong winds. The tent is low slung, which might do well in winds. Surprisingly the 42 inch headroom is equivalent to the Quarter Dome.But it looks like tails off fast.

I might prefer a design that lets you use two hiking poles and guy outs. Maybe that would be better in winds?

[Sam Farrington]

“But it looks like tails off fast.”

For sure.  A single wall 2 pole may work in a larger, well vented mid, but not in a tent like this if you want to stay dry and comfortable. And the info on the site page misled folks on two key points already. And the specs say it is a two pole tent, and so it appears; but no rear view is provided to show the other pole at work.   Best guess it is a must carry, and a trekking pole can sub for the other pole; but the description is confusing.   Note that no info is provided about the denier, osy, or HH of the canopy or floor materials, as many companies do these days.

REI has a longstanding habit of making low end solo tents that are really light but designed to fail.  One of the two of us brought a similar one several tent incarnations ago.  We found a flat opening in the forest large enough for pitching and located on the side of a mountain.  A heavy rain and windstorm arrived during the night.  Her tent was swamped because the fly did not overlap enough to protect the inner tent from rain during high winds.  A day was lost drying out gear, so we were almost running the next few days so she could keep an appt.   I bought her a Hubba, and redid the fly and poles with much lighter materials, and there was no further swamping during our trips and AFAIK, her many end-to-end solo hikes.  The modded Hubba weighed just over two pounds, and that was with 30D nylon, not like the 20D, 15D. or even 7D available today.

[jscott]

I think the two poles that they mention are the ‘hubbed roof pole and foot pole’. I think it uses only one vertical pole, but I’m wrong half the time so far with this tent.

I imagine they could ditch the roof and foot pole and just use two hiking poles and guy outs and have something structurally more stable. But I don’t design tents.

[Greg Mihalik]

Having my trekking pole handles in the dirt/mud is a negative.

[Monte Masterson]

Looks like a smaller, single door copy of a Skyscape Trekker. I agree with Sam regarding the lack of material details (hydrostatic head, denier, coatings, etc). I also found the description confusing. For example “Weighs 1 lb 4 oz if you leave the pole at home and use a trekking pole – with the included pole it weighs 1 lb 6 oz.” What? Is REI saying to use a trekking pole as a crossbar as well as vertical supports? That would mean you need 3 poles.

For just a few more ounces and the exact same price I’d go with the SMD Skyscape instead.

[Erica R]

I think Tarptent used to use 15D nylon on single wall shelters like this tent. There was a problem with misting in heavy rain, and they moved to 30D.  But, they say it is urethane coated nylon… might be a different beast than urethane coated silnylon?  I have had very bad experiences with urethane coated nylon in rain.

26.5 oz with stakes and stuff sack. Not very long at 88″. I like the 12″ pole at the foot, but I’m not sure my trekking pole collapses that small. Why not use my second pole on the other side?

[Brad P]

The 2 person version uses 2 trekking poles and might be more stable.

I hope my local REI has them set up later in the week.  If you try to order one for in store pickup, it says it’s available on Thursday.

[two pints]

I would worry about two things with this tent.

First I would worry about the single pole attachment to the cup thingy that supports the pole that goes overhead.  The attachment point may be sturdy, but I worry about the the tension on the overhead pole and how solid that would be in bad weather.  I could see the tent caving in from wind if that isn’t all that sturdy.  If you are using trekking poles instead of the supplied pole, does that potentially make this connection less sturdy.  Different brands of trekking poles will fit into the cup differently.  And lastly, I dislike having my trekking pole handle in the dirt since I have had to replace straps after mice have chewed through them.

Second, I would worry about the lack of perimeter mesh that would allow for ventilation and a barrier from condensation pooling on the floor.  Those corner vents seem pretty chincy when compared with an SMD Lunar Solo.  And all the condensation would roll down the walls and pool on the floor without said mesh.

Still waiting for a single person single wall tent that persuades me to move from my older Lunar Solo.  Yeah, there are lighter options.  But the SMD Lunar Solo fits my 6’2″ height, my size 15 feet, and my 3″ air mattress, all with plenty of room to spare for gear.  It holds up great in bad weather and doesn’t feel like a coffin on the inside.  It’s pretty cheap ($230) compared with cuben options ($500+).  And it’s held up well for me over the years.  I can’t speak to the newer silpoly canopy fabric, but my 1.3 silnylon is still performing very well.

[JCH]

Section Hiker seems to like it.  The plastic elbow connecting the vertical and brow poles worries the heck out of me.

[joe tittiger]

REI (like most all online retailers unfortunately) provides very sketchy information about the products that they sell.  Experts in the products do not seem to write the pages….
IMHO providing much better information would cut down drastically on customer support and returns.  I have issues relating to poorly written web pages on about a weekly basis with the products that I purchase. The latest a propane wall heater that they did not point out does not have a thermostat but rather 3 heat settings…. That was IMPORTANT information that should not have been buried in the small print.

[Link .]

. REI Flash Air 1 Tent | Setup and Initial Impressions | Ultralight From REI .

. REI Flash Air 1 Tent | Testing The Tent In a New England Storm .

Both from Chris Goes Outdoors

[JCH]

In the rain?  Yikes.

[Franco Darioli]

“I think Tarptent used to use 15D nylon on single wall shelters like this tent. There was a problem with misting in heavy rain, and they moved to 30D.”

It was always 30 D silnylon but different versions of it and from different manufacturers have been used over the years.

[Sam Farrington]

“I think Tarptent used to use 15D nylon on single wall shelters like this tent. There was a problem with misting in heavy rain, and they moved to 30D.”

Not all nylons, and not all sil coated nylons are created equal.  I know Tarptent has taken steps to impove theirs, and even sent some advanced ones to Richard Nisley to test, with the results reported on this forum.  There have been great improvements from the companies who care about more than the bottom line.

[Daniel M]

I was seriously intrigued by this tent due to its low weigh and looking like a SMD skyscape scout I used to own and really liked. It seems like the whole condensation thing really is a problem according to chrisgoesoutdoors. His results were pretty horrible! But it’s definitely a decent looking fair weather tent

[jscott]

It’s cheap enough to have in your tent quiver if you’re going out for a few nights in good weather and you only want to sleep in it. Super light and affordable.

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