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Old 12-20-2010, 08:09 PM
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WayneChristie WayneChristie is offline
 
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Default Fish Inn 6 man ice tents

OK Ive used my new tent for 5 weekends now, and in general Im happy with it, especially for the price. I do have a few concerns, and have emailed the company who supplies them to Costco about those concerns. I will post my email, to save me typing the same thing twice. If anyone else has a review of the product after using it please post here.
"Dear Sirs:
I purchased one of your 6 man Fish Inn Ice shelters from Costco in November. .Model 10346078
When I set the tent up for the first time, 2 of the plastic windows were cracked. After using this tent for a couple weekends on the ice, most of the windows have cracked or are completely destroyed.
A direct quote from your homepage "With a solid background in the development and production of innovative consumer and custom products, Equinox Industries’ success flows from its dedication to quality and manufacturing consistency."
I am very disappointed with this, since after looking through your website before I purchased the tent I was impressed by the look of your products and thought I would be getting the same quality with the tent. I would like to know if you can replace my windows with some that are made for cold weather, and much sturdier, as obviously this is an ice fishing shelter, as such the components should be expected to stand up to our harsh winter climates.
I also tried the attached strap which is supposed to hold the tent in the closed position before putting it back into the storage bag, and the first time I pulled on it the very lightweight plastic buckle broke in two.
As well the stitching of the included storage bag began pulling apart even as I opened the bag for the first time.
The stitching for one of the gear pockets is also coming apart.
I am a member of an outdoors forum with over 20,000 members, and some of these members who are into ice fishing have also purchased this model shelter . I will be posting a copy of this email along with my review of the tent in general, and in general I am happy with the tent, aside from my stated concerns. I would like to be able to give them good news as to your thoughts and actions regarding the above concerns.
Thank you very much,
Wayne Christie "
I will post any reply I receive about my email .
I do have a 2 man shelter I bought last winter from HT and have never had a single problem with the plastic windows, even though the tent material is only 300 denier compared to the 600 denier material the Fish Inn is made from.
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Old 12-20-2010, 08:16 PM
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Fishfinder Fishfinder is offline
 
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I am very interested to see if u get a reply Wayne. Fingers crossed. Got a hunch they will just send u a new one.
The bigger we go, the easier to fall apart I reckon.
Cheers.
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Old 12-20-2010, 08:20 PM
LacLaBicheNS LacLaBicheNS is offline
 
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I have the smaller costco "orange" tent. The 6x6.. I used mine in -17 yesterday, no windows cracked or broke and my heater wasn't putting out much heat either. I was impressed. But than again -17 isn't that cold.

Other than that, nothing bad to report. Although I am interested in what they say because I'm sure I will run into some of your problems.
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Old 12-20-2010, 08:18 PM
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iliketrout iliketrout is offline
 
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Wayne,

Keep me posted on their reply. I have had the same problem with the plastic windows. Haven't had the problem with the strap yet, although I'll be buying a few extra cam buckle straps for it as a single strap just isn't cutting it.

Also I am annoyed with the short skirt and the lack of velcro on the window coverings (not the actual windows themselves).

All in all I'm satisfied but not blown away.

Starting to think that a few of us on here should get together and design our own tent. Apparently the people that design these things don't actually ice fish....
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Old 12-20-2010, 08:26 PM
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WayneChristie WayneChristie is offline
 
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As someone else posted, this is probably the only time I too have complained about a skirt being too short!!! The windows on my 2 man are at least twice as thick as the big tent, and seem to be more like vinyl than old saran wrap like the 6 man. I already lost the strap, got frozen to the ice and tore off when I moved the tent, so I brought it home and threw it out. I think we could do a much better job designing one, after all how many pictures do you see of Chinese workers ice fishing in one of these???? Maybe the same company as the Sears tents I tried last winter, that went back before I went mental(er) tryng to figure out how to set it up at home. The anchors they sent with that one were those little cheap metal ones they sell with summer tents, abut 7 or 8 inches long and just perfect for setting your tent up on a manicured lawn! I couldnt figure out how they expected anyone to use those in ice, kind of blew me away that Sears would sell something that shoddy.
another advantage to my 2 man tent is the inside anchor holes are actually metal grommets in heavy duty fabric flaps, as opposed to the fabric loops the Fish Inn uses, which of course freeze to the ice the second they get wet. I am expecting to lose one or two of those to the ice pretty soon too. You get what you pay for I guess.
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Old 12-20-2010, 11:21 PM
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Willowtrail Willowtrail is offline
 
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Great email Wayne. I have the Blue Equinox Kingfisher 3 tent from Costco. I've been out in my tent now 5 times in various weather. So far so good on the windows not cracking (knock on wood). The only issue I had with the tent was 1 of my 4 window covers velcro pulled off but a quick needle and thread can touch this up. If it happens to more it will be returned to Costco and exchanged.

The only other tip I can pass on is to zip your doors closed leaving the zippers at the top. With the heater on and the condensation on the walls I had the zipper stick with ice.
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Old 12-20-2010, 11:58 PM
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WayneChristie WayneChristie is offline
 
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the zippers are good, so far, as long as you dont splash on them. they seem sturdy enough
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  #8  
Old 12-21-2010, 02:18 AM
Jimboy Jimboy is offline
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Love my 3 man Eskimo3 tent , no issues at all , and the company is great with there service , they gave me a new pull rope assembly for my auger for free and also sent me the metal part that goes below the plastic cover , on top of that they sent me a nice letter and a new touque , all within a week.
Eskimo all the way
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  #9  
Old 12-20-2010, 08:22 PM
calgarygringo calgarygringo is online now
 
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Default Orange tent

Nice email Wayne. I will throw in my 2 cents. I bought the smaller one myself and we used it yesterday for the first time. We had myself,Will and wife and at one point my lab and his dog in the tent at the same time. We opened and closed it many times and was impressed with the 2 zippered doors. I have heard people complain about lousy zipper doors and that is important if it is cold and blowing. My windows did OK as well and we were wiping the sweat lots to check on the dogs as they played on the lake most of the day on their own. It was tough to get back rolled together to get back in the bag so just put the strap around and did it at home. For the first trip it worked good. I can't wait for a bit of Southern Alta breeze and have to anchor it down and see how it does. We kept toasty with the Big Buddy heater going inside as well. Too bad the fish didn't co-operate but I guess it made up for the day we had the week before.
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Old 12-21-2010, 09:21 AM
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gramps73 gramps73 is offline
 
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Wayne, I hope you get somewhere with your email.
But I would think that if your looking for a ice fishing tent your should have gone to an ice fishing store...
I must say when you first posted pictures it looked great and I hope to company backs there product.
good luck
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Old 12-21-2010, 09:56 AM
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Mine just arrived on my doorstep yesterday. Ordered it online Dec 14, received Dec 20. It's the smaller one but I will keep you posted.
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Old 12-21-2010, 12:22 PM
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windows are broken in mine.... zipper on one door sticks in the middle..... it kinda pulls in on one side around the middle... only got it back in the bag once after the first use... its junk
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Old 12-21-2010, 05:52 PM
LacLaBicheNS LacLaBicheNS is offline
 
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Weird... I used mine twice now.. Today was -20 and I have had NO problems at all..
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