Before heading off on a year-long cycle trip around the world, I purchased and tested a number of tents – the Black Diamond Hilight, Black Diamond Skylight and BD Bibler Ahwahnee, Nemo Tenshi, MSR Elbow Room and MSR Hubba Hubba. Some of these we tested in the backyard, others we tested at places like Wilsons Promontory and Phillip Island (both places in Australia).

We decided to take the Black Diamond Bibler Ahwahnee, which we found to be well designed, and we thought (and still think) possibly the only true four season tent (useable in Summer) on the market. 

Unfortunately for us the quality of workmanship has simply not matched up to its fantastic design.

About two weeks ago, whilst cycling across Ireland, our Black Diamond Bibler Ahwahnee tent began to let in water through the fabric. Now, even under light rain, water enters directly through all external surfaces of the Todd Tex fabric. All seams were sealed correctly and no water is penetrating these areas.

After a little research, I found that the problem with this tent has occurred for other people. Here is an example.
 
Prior to the leaking, we also had a major recurring problem with the state of the eyelets either side of the tent that the awning pole is meant to sit in. The first time I set the tent up in the lounge room the pole was extremely difficult to get in, but I figured that it might have been intentionally made that way so that when the fabric stretched with use, the pole would fit perfectly. Well this never happened and it is still a constant struggle to put the pole in.

Now I have to use electrical tape on a recurring basis to hold in the eyelets to prevent them from completely falling out of the tabs (this has happened a few times). I tried a few different ways of making a permanent fix, like using glue, squashing the eyelets down tighter against the fabric and taking the tent to a number of different repair shops to see if they could permanently fix it, all to no avail. 

We had not taken the tent to Black Diamond to see if it can be fixed before now because I haven’t been able to. We’ve been cycling around the world for the last eight months, so we usually need it. It is also difficult to provide an address, particularly one for long enough to have the tent sent overseas.

When we arrived in the US (which luckily came just after it started leaking badly– which we can’t live with) we posted it with the receipt of purchase (it is still in warranty) to the Salt Lake headquarters. 


The day it arrived we had an email confirming that the broken eyelets were reason enough to replace the tent (although the leaking wasn't mentioned) and a brand new tent was sent express post that day.
 

When the tent arrived we excitedly took it out of the bag and began to set it up. Pushing in the awning pole the same problem was immediately evident, I couldn't get it in, even with extreme force. Finally getting the pole in with a little help from Jenny, I began seam sealing it again.

It appears that due to the difficulty of putting the new awning pole into the eyelets it may not take all that long for the problem we experience with the last tent to happen again with this new one.

We will update this review over the coming months to let you know our progress.

PRO'S-

• Excellent, market leading design, only true four season (usable in Summer and winter snow) tent available in the world.
• Condensation almost non-existent
• Single wall great for quick drying and simplicity
• 2 and a half pole design great for stability in winds
• Waterproof
• Freestanding- guy ropes not necessary 

CONS-

• Cost- not cheap (if you are buying in Australia you'd be crazy not to buy it from an online US store like REI that give a money back guarantee)
• Durability- Eyelets gave way quickly, fabric doesn't seem washable
• Size- Can be cramped for two people with gear (unless you get the ridiculous and bulky vestibule.)
• Black Diamonds reluctance to accept that defaults in the fabric are possible.

REVIEW UPDATE Aug 30 2012

The new tent has gone rally well so far (although we haven't used it as much as the last one). LIke I mentioned in the reviews I wrote this is a great tent, I guess we just had one that wasn't built as well (Chinese quality control...?).

Anyway, despite our issues with the first one this second tent is great, we love it! In fact, I recently (after getting back from our cycling trip) bought some new carbon poles for the tent from fibraplex. We used them at Mt Kosciuszko and found that whilst they lighten the tent by almost half a kilo, they feel far too tight and were difficult to get into place, so I'm not overly confident about getting any longevity from them. 

To summarise our experience with the new tent we still have to help each other to get the awning pole in but we've had no trouble whatsoever with the eyelets or anything else so we're back to loving this tent. One thing we absolutely love is it's ability to somehow not retain any condensation, very amazing for a single skin mountaineering tent.