Eureka Northern Breeze Screen Room Review

[Dan from Troup]

Just ordered a Eureka Northern Breeze screen room and got a heck of a deal. Normally it sells for 500 bucks but if you’re a new customer with backcountry.com and signup for their newsletter you can get 20% off which I did. I love that it has 4 built in wind/rain panels that can close up for bad weather. Here in Texas we camp all winter which is generally mild but we can also easily drop into the 20-30’s at night and 40-50’s day. Normally I use a Noah’s Tarp 16 and set up over picnic table. Having a winter shelter looks to be the cats meow. I got the optional floor which can be installed and make it into an extra sleeping tent. I’ll also be trying this out for my wilderness paddling camping out of my canoe and may try it out as a tent alternative to my big REI Basecamp dome tent.

This weekend will be the test of the Northern Breeze and I’ll share more later as we test it out. We’re headed north to Broken Bow Lake, Oklahoma for a 4 day camping trip at Beavers Bend State Park with our pop up.

 

[MNTCamper]

We have one and it makes a great additional room. We usually set it up over the picnic table and then can add more chairs if needed. Very good in inclement weather. About the only criticism that I have is that if it is hot and sunny out, it can get quite / very hot inside. The roof absorbs heat and the very fine mesh screens don't allow for the best breeze and there is no way the heat can escape at the peak. Other than that, it is an excellent shelter and quite large at 12' x 12'.

 

[Wrenchgear]

We also have the 12x12 model, and have been using for a number of years. This is our 3rd dining tent over the last 30 years or so, and is by far the best. All have had 4 rain flaps which is a must in my opinion. I see many campsites with everything piled on a table in the middle of their dining tent, soaked after a rain. We sit in ours during the rain and play cards and read books, its great. I will admit that it can get hot in there during a hot sunny day, so you will have to open a few screens to get a cross breeze. One thing I love about it though is how easy it sets up. The last one we had was an absolute disaster to put up. It almost caused a divorce!! This things goes up fast and simple.

 

[Dan from Troup]

We have one and it makes a great additional room. We usually set it up over the picnic table and then can add more chairs if needed. Very good in inclement weather. About the only criticism that I have is that if it is hot and sunny out, it can get quite / very hot inside. The roof absorbs heat and the very fine mesh screens don't allow for the best breeze and there is no way the heat can escape at the peak. Other than that, it is an excellent shelter and quite large at 12' x 12'.

Yes, I read lots of reviews some of which mentioned how it tends to get hot sometimes. Texans (most) don’t camp in the summer as this is our winter shelter from cold winter winds and rain. Previously we’ve been using a Noah’s Tarp 16 over the picnic table which can be our warm weather tarp. As a previous tent camper we had a Eureka Equinox which had the similar pole configuration joined at the top hub so assembly will be like second nature. Well, didn’t arrive today by UPS so cross my fingers that tomorrow it will be here as we head north on Friday on our camping trip.

 

[Dan from Troup]

We also have the 12x12 model, and have been using for a number of years. This is our 3rd dining tent over the last 30 years or so, and is by far the best. All have had 4 rain flaps which is a must in my opinion. I see many campsites with everything piled on a table in the middle of their dining tent, soaked after a rain. We sit in ours during the rain and play cards and read books, its great. I will admit that it can get hot in there during a hot sunny day, so you will have to open a few screens to get a cross breeze. One thing I love about it though is how easy it sets up. The last one we had was an absolute disaster to put up. It almost caused a divorce!! This things goes up fast and simple.

Thanks for sharing as it sounds like you’re very happy with yours too. These dining tents are really expensive as I hope to get many years of good use out of it. The rain/wind panels is what really sold me on it as I’ve sat out many a cold winter night with an open tarp. This is a deluxe upgrade for us.

 

[nineoaks2004]

Very nice looking screen room. Could have a lot of uses. Thanks for sharing

 

[Tom Jordan]

We’re headed north to Broken Bow Lake, Oklahoma for a 4 day camping trip at Beavers Bend State Park with our pop up.
View attachment 56551

I’m jealous. We were supposed to camp Beavers Bend this summer or fall, but life intervened. Maybe we will make it next year. Hope your shelter comes in.

 

[Dan from Troup]

Hurray, the Northern Breeze arrived. Going to setup in yard later.

 

[Dan from Troup]

View attachment 56617 Since I previously had a Eureka Equinox for many years the pole setup was the same and therefore super easy to put up. This is a big shelter at 12x12 but I easily put it up myself. The materials and workmanship is top notch as this is like an heirloom tent that can be passed on to the kids and family many years down the road. Can’t wait to put it to the test tomorrow as we head out in the morning with the camper for Broken Bow, Oklahoma. View attachment 56616 View attachment 56616 View attachment 56616 View attachment 56617

 

[Dan from Troup]

Just got back from Beavers Bend State Park in Broken Bow, Oklahoma and our first freezing temp camp out with our new Eureka Northern Breeze kitchen tent. Let me tell you folks, this kitchen tent is the cats meow of screen rooms and probably should be at 500 bucks. We set up a cooking table with our Coleman stove and Blackstone cooking griddle. We set up our chairs inside and ran a Buddy propane heater and was toasty warm, especially when cooking too. Having a dining/kitchen tent can extend ones camping season throughout the winter and make for very comfortable camping even in sub-freezing temps. We ran one small electric heater and do not have reflectix in the windows and still kept temps at 65 at night in the camper. My Debbie is extremely happy with our Northern Breeze and may have converted her to a winter camper now.

The Eureka is a super heavy duty tent, made to high standards and should last many many years. It can be erected by one person but two makes it easy peasy. We love how the wind/rain panels close it up for total weather protection. Since it didn’t rain on this camp out, I can’t comment on it but according to other user reviews, this tent is weather tight in rain and keeps everything inside dry.

 

[Wrenchgear]

Glad it all worked out for you. I'll put one final blurb on here I guess. Eureka has made a few changes (improvements?) to the Northern Breeze during its production time. I have an older one and its still every bit as good as my b-i-l's newer one. Thats what quality will get you. I will guess that his is 8-10 years old, mine might be 15 or more. Mine is medium to dark green in colour. Eureka doesn't offer that colour anymore, and haven't for quite some time. A second roof clip was added somewhere along the line to try and keep the roof up slightly higher and tighter. Mine only has one clip on the roof holding it to each roof support, and occasionally during the rain, when things loosen up and sag a little, a small puddle of water can collect at the area right above to the roof clip. This doesn't often happen on mine, but occasionally it will. No biggie though, just push the puddle off from inside. Also, you probably have a small triangular shaped, integrated screen as a vent in the peak of your roof. Ours doesn't have that and things can get quite toasty in there. The cross at the top of your tent that the legs plug into is probably attached permanently to the tent. I believe that you have to wrap yours up in a bag so it doesn't wear a hole in your tent during bagging the tent up and storing. My cross up there is not connected to the tent, so, it won't tear a hole in the tent, but I could lose it and have to try and buy another one. I'm very particular to keep an eye on that cross during disassembly to watch where it gets put. Mine is somewhat more difficult for one person to put up because my poles are all one piece, where yours are 2 pieces. You can make the initial roof out of the top poles, clip the tent onto it, then walk around and put the leg poles on, raising the roof as you go. My poles plug into the top cross and instantly go to full height all the way to the ground. Still very easy for 2 people though. All that said, nobody should be warry of buying an older one of these tents, they are excellent. As I said in a previous post, this is by far the best kitchen tent we've ever had.

 

[Wrenchgear]

I don't really have many pictures of ours, but here's a couple. You can see how there is only one roof clip and where the water can puddle just above it. If we go through days of rain, I will throw a green tarp over the whole roof to stop the puddling.

 

[Dan from Troup]

The new model is now all shockcorded together into 4 pole sections and there is no vent at top. Extending the legs one at a time is a bit unwieldy as the legs are curved at the roof to wall poles as the whole assembly wants to flop around during assembly. Quite frankly, I’m worried about bending the poles as they are thin wall aluminum but large at 1”. I may try an assembly where I don’t open all the legs one at a time but only do it to the last section and get all of those opened and then go back and then open the rest and connect to pins at corners.

 

[Wrenchgear]

Interesting... Mine are all shock corded together as well, and also only 4 long poles that go from the cross all the way down to the ground as one piece. I can see in your one picture that your poles are like mine, shock corded into 4 super long poles. My B-I-L's roof support poles are separate from his leg uprights that go to the ground. They are all shock corded as well, but he has 8 sections ...4 for the roof, and 4 legs that go to the ground. They plug into each other at the curve at the top of the wall. His has a vent at the top, mine doesn't. I thought that was something for the new ones.

I agree that there is quite a bit of pressure put on those poles as you start getting the roof snapped onto the roof supports, and hooked into the top corners. Nothing has ever bent on us, but it sure looks like it could. Yeah, leaving the bottom 1 or 2 sections folded out as you go around, and then fold them in at the very end sounds like a good idea. I might try that too.

 

[Dan from Troup]

Yeah, leaving the bottom 1 or 2 sections folded out as you go around, and then fold them in at the very end sounds like a good idea. I might try that too.

Tried that but made it harder to get the first pole section completely extended when an adjacent section is so much shorter. However did find that doing the opposite side after the first one goes up is much easier to balance while erecting. Aired mine out before my next camping trip next weekend, a wilderness paddle trip in my canoe.