Berghaus Air 800 Nightfall review

What is it?

• Name- Berghaus Air 800 Nightfall tent
• Price is around £760
• Style- Inflatable tent
• 8 berth family tent

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Key Features:

• Two Nightfall darkened bedrooms
• Spacious living area with enough headroom for everyone under 6’ 7” ft.
• Five inflatable air poles (air pump included)
• Sewn-in groundsheet for easier pitching and enhanced protection from the ground
• Berth: 8 people
• Hydrostatic Head (waterproof): 6000mm
• EN5912 flame retardant materials
• Flysheet: 75D 185T Polyester Embossed
• Inner: 75D 185T Polyester Embossed
• Groundsheet: 185T Polyester
• Wheeled carry bag included
• Pitched dimensions: 750 x 300 x 220 cm (LxWxH)
• Standing height: 205 cm / 6’ 7” ft
• Weight: 32.5kg
• Repair kit included
• Air pump included
• Lantern hanging points
• Internal Storage pockets

Campers Contents thoughts…

Here we have the Berghaus 800 Nightfall tent and at Campers Content we absolutely love it. Its the latest 8 berth model in the Berghaus range and it comes with some great improvements compared to its predecessors. Lets dive right in and give it a full Campers Content review.

Ease of use

The brand Berghaus is well over half a century old and it is renowned for creating pioneering outdoor gear for campers, hikers and climbers. They offer extremely high quality products that will last for years and their range of air tents revolutionised the camping world. Their innovation has allowed a huge 8 berth family tent to be pitched and taken down in a fraction of the time of poled versions. Air tents don’t just save time, they save marriages 😉 Falling out with your family and friends the moment you arrive at the campsite and begin to start pitching your tent is never a good start to the holiday! This is why we love air tents, they make it so simple. The AIR 800 is made up of five air beams and all you have to do is use the pump that comes with the tent to blow each one up in turn. You then fasten your guy ropes and well, that’s it! The main shell of your tent is up.

As you can see from the specifications above, the ground sheet and rain fly sheet are built in, so you don’t have to worry. Inside the tent, we found setting up the two bedrooms fairly easy as well, because each ‘clip’ is colour coded so you know exactly where it has to go. Taking the AIR 800 down was just as easy and believe it or not, even quicker than putting it up. There’s pressure release valves at the base of each air beam and you simply press them and gravity does the rest of the work for you. Getting it back in the wheeled carry bag which also comes with the tent did prove a bit of a struggle though. The carry bags are fitted with adjustable straps, which helps, however if you are thinking of purchasing this tent we would recommend having a few practice runs at getting it back in the carry bag. It is worth mentioning here that the packed weight of air tents is a lot heavier than poled tents. In fact they’re about double the weight. An average family tent that uses poles is around 16kg whereas the AIR 800 weighs about 32kg all packed up. The packed size is much bigger too, so just bare in mind that it will take up a bit more room in the boot of your car.

Space and Comfort

The Air 800 nightfall is a good sized tent. Starting with the height, as a tell person myself, its really easy to stand up fully in pretty much the whole tent. That’s because Berghaus have changed the shape of their air beams compared to the old model so its less of a horse shoe C shape and now a much closer to vertical wall. The result is nearly a 20% increase in overall room.

The living area is also a comfortable size to relax in and store gear and we think there’s enough room to set up a small table. Also it has doors at either side which are really practical for not only access but they also allow lots of air flow throughout the tent. There’s clear windows at both sides of the tent over the doors and next to them. These give it a much bigger feel as they let so much light in to the middle section. They also have curtains if a little more privacy is needed.

The bed space is actually pretty good and with the centre privacy parting walls of each bedroom removed, we think its possible to fit two double airbeds in either end. This means technically you could sleep 8 adults in this tent but we wouldn’t recommend doing this for long trips away as it would be pretty tight. Anywhere up to 6 people would be comfortable sleeping in this tent.

 

The reason they call this line of tents ‘Nightfall’ is because of the material of the inner wall of the bed spaces. It basically prevents any ambient light from passing through, so the morning sun waking you up on those summer mornings won’t be an issue. The only drawback to having a tent with this layout, especially with the nightfall material is a lot less light can enter the tent during the day. Don’t get me wrong, these bedrooms are the equivalent of having blackout curtains in your bedroom at home, so they make for a perfect nights sleep! Its just during the day unlike at home where you can open your curtains to let light in, you can’t with this tent, so it ends up feeling pretty dark at either end of the tent. Unless of course you only need one of the bedrooms, in which case you can completely remove the bedroom you don’t need. This will free up a bit more storage space and brighten up one end of the tent.

I have to give a mention to the crazy amount of storage pockets this tent has! they’re everywhere and all of a good usable size. You can find them under the windows and down the middle sections of both bed spaces. Another small feature which I really like is the lantern hook in the centre air beam. You can either use a battery one or supply a mains electric light using the small sealable openings at the base of the centre air beam. The cable then can be run up the beam using Velcro tabs. Or of course you can supply any other part of your tent with electricity.

One problem we the AIR 800 Nightfall is that it doesn’t come with any vestibule area. You’ll notice in the picture that there’s just a cover over one of the doors which is just about big enough to shelter under while you take layers off if its raining before you get into the tent. It also helps stop any rain water dripping into the tent off the rain fly sheet. If you’re wanting more space than that though to store things like camping equipment or push bikes etc then there is an option but it does come at a cost. The Berghaus Air Porch uses the same inflatable technology and fits right onto the side of the AIR 800 Nightfall tent. It will set you back around £280 though but if you’re going to be doing a lot of camping we thinks its probably worth it. The porch has a size of – 345 x 260 x 215cm so is a really big area to store anything you like and not leave you wanting for anymore room.

This picture basically shows how the AIR Porch fits on to your tent. If you like use the link below to few it on amazon to get more details.

amazon.co.uk

How does it cope with the weather?

The AIR 800 comes with a hydrostatic head rating (a waterproof rating) of 6000. Anything above 3000 will cope with pretty much any rain Europe can throw at it, so its definitely not going to leak! All the seams throughout are tape sealed and the base sheet is built in so not only will this stop any unwanted creepy crawlies but it will also stop any ground moisture striking up. Berghaus call this a four season tent. Please take that with a pinch of salt, as I would say that’s more of a marketing tactic than the actual truth. The thing is most buyers don’t actually know what a two season, three season or four season tent is so manufacturers place it on their advertising as they know most people will think a four season tent must be better than a three season tent as I can use it all year round’. It doesn’t help that individual manufacturers all have different specifications for what qualifies as what and this definitely leads to a lot of the confusion. Basically a four season tent means that is designed to be used in the fourth season, as in winter. Yes, this tent could easily cope with the winter rain but any air tent would not be my first choice for camping in the bad weather in winter months! They’re simply not designed to cope with high winds and the weight of snow.

On the contrary the AIR 800 will cope extremely well in warm conditions. Its duel skin will stop and condensation forming on a night in the bedrooms and there’s a clever set up of both low and high vents that allow cool air in at the bottom and warm air out of the top, keeping you tent cool and fresh with no damp. All the windows and both doors have mesh, so can be left fully open to allow air in without the worry of unwanted insect guests appearing.

Check it out on Amazon

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