Survival Tent Reflections: A Review of the Survival Reflect Tent

The worst thing about the outdoors is that at any moment, a simplistic serenity can turn into an urgent emergency. While most of us who brave the outdoors can make a fire, collect water, and maybe find something to eat, it’s the making of shelter that is often the most crucial. However, with large, bulky tents, hammocks that take up an entire backpack, and the park rangers frowning upon the practice of making natural shelters in their own backyard, what’s a woodsman to do? How about a survival tent?

Ultimate survival technologies (UST) have a product known as the Survival Reflect Tent. For the low price of $9 at my local Walmart, I was given a box about the size of a typical sandwich. Before I go any further I would just like to say, “I am not being paid to endorse this item. I paid for it with my own money under my own volition. My review is genuine and accounts are from my, and mine alone, experiences with this item.” With that being said, let’s continue with the review.

From the box, it shows the tent being set up in a typical pup tent fashion, similar to an A-frame, but with a floor. You can clearly see a ridge line being strung through the top of the tent. It also says “all weather emergence protection” and the individual using the tent is on a lightly snowed ground. On the back, it says that it has enough room to accommodate one person, plus gear, or, two medium sized adults. It refers to itself as a tube tent, however, it mentions other uses such as a water-proof ground cloth, tarp, or a signaling device. It also mentions that the reflective material helps conserve body heat in cold weather conditions. You should also be able to infer that the reflective material would be ideal to signal with due to its unnatural appearance.

The box also gives you a "WARNING: KEEP ALL FLAME AND HEAT SOURCES AWAY FROM THIS TENT FABRIC" This does put a heavy mark against its usefulness. Even though it is not warned, I would also assume that this tent only has a life span of a few weeks of constant use due to the materials used. Though the material is reflective and light, this would promote both burns and tears in the fabric without effort.

Out of the box, you get a plastic package that contains the approximately 5’ x 8’ tube tent folded up, and a coil of cordage, 14’ in length. Not a bad set up, however, during my test, I found that the cordage was not long enough, nor do I think it would be able to compete with either bank line or paracord. Instead, I would pair this with 25’ of paracord, uncut, that would have multiple uses.

Not having two trees 14’ apart, I was forced to use my 25’ of paracord. I started with a simple knot, just something that would form an anchor point in my ridge line. Next I unfolded to the best of my ability the tube tent and found both openings. I fed my paracord through it and tied it off to the other end again using a variation of a trucker’s hitch. Nothing legit, just something anyone would be able to come up with on their own. Quick note, there are yellow pieces of tape that look like they hold part of the tent together. I believe these can be used to pull apart and change the tent’s shape. I do not know if you pull these apart if your tent will go back together. I would be careful when setting up your tent not to pull these apart. When setting mine up, I made sure that what laid upon the ridge line was one piece that would not split apart.

During my test I was a little nervous due to claustrophobia. The tent creates a very tight, confined space. I have never, ever, had that fear before and I think it was sparked due to the reflective material making it appear that the space was smaller than it actually was. However, when I crawled in, all those fears left me. The first thing I noticed while lying on my back was that I could see a hazy version of everything outside of my tent through the transparency of the material. This giving the impression of open sky, helped alleviate the tightness. It didn't take long for me to understood what it meant about keeping my warmth in, as it didn’t seem as cold as it should have while lying on the ground.

 Problems that I encountered was that the tent seemed to cling to me, and didn’t seem to have any structure. Without any grommets, there was no way for me to stake out the corners to make it sturdy easily. If the material had been present, I would have placed two smooth limbs, 8’ long each, in the tent to push the corners of the tent apart which would create a bit more space. However, a problem that could occur would be puncturing of the light material if the limbs were not perfectly smooth.

After my initial test, I did attempt to fly the material. This worked pretty well being that it held on to the ridge line. The problem was that the material just seemed to blow in the breeze with nothing to stake the corners down with. Once

again, some sticks or stones would be a makeshift way to hold the material down with, however, I was attempting to use only what the tent came with. On the bright side, and I do mean bright, the reflective material was blinding and I do believe someone would have noticed me if signaling was my intended purpose. With it flying in the wind, it did immediately draw the eye to it no matter how you faced it.

Finally, I attempted to fold and place the tent back into the plastic pack with its cordage, and place it back into the box. The material had no tears or rips into it, which is a good sign as I was sure it would, but it held on pretty well. However, folding it back into its original shape was more of a challenge than I bargained for. I ended up with an 18-20” cylinder about

2” in diameter, wrapped in the cordage provided. I will admit that this is more likely user error and not necessarily a strike against the product.

My conclusion, after my field testing and further study of shelters during these last few weeks, this product becomes the first product that I cannot recommend. Due to the fact that a fire cannot be near the material and that the cordage provided is in my opinion, not a suitable option. I believe that this shelter would not be an item that would be worth your money. The only advantages it has is its size, its light weight, and reflective natures would make it something to invest in at a reduced price. My main thought, is that I would not trust my life to this product, which I believe is how it is intended to be marketed. UST has many other products on the market such as their survival blanket and the survival blanket 2.0 which I believe you can get a lot more use out of. Even the first blog of this series, that tarp costs less than $9, even with cordage for it.

In closing I believe putting together your own shelter with a tarp is a safer option than this product. There are more options with a tarp, and it is sturdier than this material. In the future, I will be picking up other emergency tents and testing them out to see if it is simply a flaw in their design, or if it is just the quality of this product. Next week we will be going over what cordage is and which you should take. Don't miss out next Tuesday, it's gonna be a BLAST!!!As always feel free to comment, share this blog, and check back next week for a new one. Follow me on Facebook: @BPackBushcraft and on Twitter @BPackBushCraft. Until next time, keep those fires burning and put another log on for me.