Vango Icarus 500 Tent Reviews and Details Page 8

Tent Reviews: Vango Icarus 500

Tent and Awning Reviews Index > Vango > Icarus 500 Reviews

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Discontinued
5 (more 5 berth tents)
10.20 KG
Ł150.00
1
Fully Sewn-in
In one

Average User Rating:

8.4/10 from 245 reviews

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245 Reviews of the Icarus 500 Showing 71 to 80 Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

By: Lawsie Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2012 Rating: 9 from 10

First of all, let me make clear that this is a review of the 2012 model which had only been out for a few weeks when we purchased it so it's likely earlier reviews on here were the 2011 or earlier models.

We bought the Vango Icarus from a Yeomans camping show in the Peak District only one week before we were due to spend a week away in it. Amazon didn't have any stock and at the time were more expensive. Seeing it at the show was very beneficial to get an impression of the size of it and to work out what should go where.

As it turned out the week away in it was a baptism of fire for it, and as stern a test as we're ever likely to give it. We rocked up at Laneside Campsite at Hope in the Peak District with snow still on the ground, in the middle of a monsoon. We'd not previously taken it out of the bag so put it up for the first time in anger while we quickly got soaking wet. We'd also bought the Vango Icarus groundsheet so pegged that out first which gave us an idea of the footprint of the tent. It really is quite sizeable and thought must be given to ensure room is left around the footprint to allow guide ropes to be properly pegged out.

Talk of 10-15 minute erection times were very optimistic and we were closer on 40 minutes, but that was because we didn't really know what we were doing and were only making cursory glances at the instructions. I'd suggest next time around we'll have it sorted in about 20 minutes, but it's definitely a 2 person job. There are three collapsable poles that create the structure, each of which snap in two places on either side of the tent to the outer membrane of the tent itself. This aids rigidity and form of the tent. There are twelve guide ropes to peg down, which I did need to re-tension a couple of times during the week as they had slipped a little through the plastic adjuster thing. The pegs provided are a pretty basic metal type which I may upgrade, however despite a week in very soggy ground and strong winds I have to say that they didn't move or bend in any way.

I would add that our tent came with both the front and side door unzipped, which allowed rain to get inside the tent while we were pitching it before we noticed and zipped them up. Worth noting as a few of those 40 minutes were spent mopping up the puddles that had formed.

Once we'd erected the external tent we then put up the internal sleeping area divides. Once put in they can stay in if required, which will again shorten erection times, however we took ours down at the end of the stay to inspect for any problems. I'd note that the yellow clips that attach the inner sleeping area to the main tent are extremely difficult to remove. Painful split thumbs, swearing and use of tent pegs as levers got the job done eventually, but because of this we will probably keep the inner tent in place from now on.

Inside the tent there is a huge amount of space. Our other tent was an Outwell pop-up tent which had very little storage area. The Icarus had acres of space. As other have said, I'd take claims of it being a 5 man tent with a pinch of salt. Yes, 5 could sleep in it, but 5 living in it would be very snug. For a two person tent it is the ideal companion for extended breaks. We used the 2 man sleeping compartment as our 'en suite' featuring our Kampa Khazi which was a fabulous purchase. There was lots of room left for our clothes bags in there too. The main compartment has plenty of room for cooking and seating areas. The main sleeping area had more than enough room for our Coleman airbed, with plenty of storage pockets all around. The full height storage pockets in the centre of the tent were brilliant too.

We were mightily impressed with the resilience the tent put up to the weather. The week was extremely wet and very windy, with some strong bouts of hail, but the tent put up with everything. Even better was that there was so much room in the tent we could come back from a wet stomp around the Peak, get into the tent and shut up shop for the night. There was as much room as we needed to cook in safety and hanging space to dry off wet clothes. It really was a tent you could live in for extended periods of time.

There were a few negative points which I will mention. The doors, as on previous years models, are poor. I'm not entirely sure why Vango don't put a full zip around the outer doors, as it really is silly. It's okay when the inner mesh is zipped up, as it can't flap inside the tent, but if it isn't then it easily blows inside the tent and rain water soon drips inside. There are also no outer fastenings for the side door as you roll it up. The fastenings are on the inside which is great in fair weather, but when the tent is wet it just lets the water drip inside. Again, a bit silly. It could do with perhaps at least one more ventilation point. There's one above the front door, a large one across the rear, and one below the side window, but on two mornings we found condensation dripping from the roof of the tent as the sun came up. On both previous nights we'd boiled quite a lot of water during the course of cooking, so it was an extreme test, but we felt additional ventilation could be possible. I did also suffer a snapped guide rope on the third day, which I felt unusual as that particular one didn't appear to be under much tension. I've replaced it and got a few other spares just in case the others are weak also.

However, the above negatives are far outweighed by the positives. I think Vango must have listened to previous comments regarding the storage bag as despite not folding it back up in the same way it came out of the bag there was still ample room left in there. Putting it away was fairly straight forward, however it took us some time purely because we had to dry the outer surfaces of the tent down before storing it away. It really was a soggy week. It proved the water tightness of the tent though as the ground beneath it had dropped and was totally saturated, so we actually spent a week camping in a small lake.

Overall, I'm very impressed and the tent has been everything that we wanted it to be. I can only see me upgrading in future to another Vango. We'd have considered an Airbeam version (Kinetic) if they'd have been out at the time of purchase, especially after how the Yeomans guys were enthusing about how quick it went up, but then they are a lot more money. The Icarus is well worth its relatively modest cost.

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By: Vix770 Reason: I own(ed) one Made in: 2010 Rating: 2 from 10

I loved this tent initially- brilliant design, quick to pitch and fairly spacious for weekend camping trips- it ticked all the boxes initially. We used it maybe twice, before we went to IOW Festival in 2011 and in true festival style it rained, and it rained! The tent leaked horrendously, literally poured through the living area. As the front entrance does not have a zip at the bottom water also poured in there every time the wind blew. Due to the soft wet ground the pegs kept coming out and the entire front pole repeatedly blew in. This design of tent is not great for a soggy and windy field as it is totally guy rope and peg dependant! We have since re-proofed it twice and it still leaks. Very sad as I loved so much about it.