A Weekend Backpacker's Review of the ZPacks Duplex

Preface: I don’t claim to pitch tents perfectly. Some of these pictures may drive perfectionists crazy.

Before I dive into my review of the ZPacks Duplex, I want to offer some context on my backpacking experience before owning this tent. When I first started backpacking back in 2015, I was exclusively interested in hammock camping as I felt it offered the best night’s sleep. Upon finding locations where hammock camping wasn’t feasible, I quickly changed this approach and bought the Tarptent Double Rainbow. This tent was very practical and provided a great transition point into tent camping, however it was heavy and bulky by Ultralight standards. Shortly after buying this tent, I was preparing to go on a number of longer backpacking trips and I had started to embrace the UL movement, so I started researching the best tent for the cost/weight. At the time 2017/2018, the ZPacks Duplex was a very popular tent for people hiking the Appalachian Trail. I had watched a YouTube video by Will Wood (Redbeard) explaining the value of the ZPacks Duplex and the strength to weight ratio of Cuben Fiber (now called DCF). I hadn’t heard of this material before, but after reading other’s testimony it sounded like the right way to go. I did need to get over the sticker shock of considering buying a $600 tent. I justified this expense by comparing the cost of this tent to a few night’s stays at a hotel. By purchasing this tent and continuing to prioritize vacation in the backcountry, I was actually saving money compared to traditional vacation (hey, the logic worked for me!).

After crunching the numbers, it seemed like I couldn’t go wrong with this tent. There were great reviews, it was incredibly light, and it seemed like it was the roomiest tent in this category as well. Being over 6 feet tall, the space appealed to me. Upon receipt of the tent, I was in shock of the size and weight. I couldn’t believe a tent compressed as much as this did and could weigh so little (I am now aware of smaller, tarp setups). Anyway, at this point I couldn’t wait to try it out.

One of my first trips with the ZPacks Duplex back in 2017, when I hiked the Barr Trail to Pike’s Peak.

What I really like about the ZPacks Duplex

The size to weight ratio of this tent is incredible. After you get past the purchase, you really won’t look back. This tent is roomy for 1 person and I have never used the vestibules when backpacking, because it is very easy to keep all of my gear inside the tent, even when on longer 3-5 day trips.

The symmetrical design is great for ease of pitching. Some tents come with 1 door, however the Duplex has two doors and the tent is symmetrical. This means when I set up the tent, I have options to enter from two sides instead of just one. This is a minor thing most of the time, but can really help when setting up in adverse conditions, as you have more than one option to enter the tent.

The DCF bathtub floor is high and durable. I don’t use a ground sheet with this tent, because the bathtub floor seems pretty robust. I would think at this point, I probably have 30+ nights in the tent, and really more important than durability is site selection. If I set this up on lots of rocks and sticks, I wouldn’t expect this floor to remain perfect, so I don’t do that! The height of the floor gives me piece of mind when it rains, and I have only ever encountered rain coming into this tent when it was user error (me), not the tent design.

The sit height of this tent is sufficient for me, being over 6 foot tall, and I feel like I would have plenty of room to sit up and move around in the event I needed to wait out a storm. A side bonus to the sit height is the ability to add hooks to the top of the interior of the tent to dry out wet clothes or hang a headlamp or light. This is a nice, subtle feature that I enjoy.

There are two interior pockets on this tent that are great for compartmentalizing important gear. I typically put my headlamp, phone, and any other essential items in these, so I always know where they’re at. This really helps when you wake up in the dark and need to know where your light source is at.

A very bad, loose pitch that ultimately got cleaned up, but this picture shows scale compared to some backpacking gear as we set up camp on the Salkantay Trek in Peru.

What I dislike about the ZPacks Duplex

Although the size and space was listed as something I liked, it is potentially borderline excessive. This seems like it’s probably an issue on my end, but I think the perfect tent would be a 1.5-plex. The reason I say this is now that I have (in my opinion) converted to a UL setup, the tent packs down rather big. I know this is counter to my background/context, but it’s the truth in where I am at in my backpacking journey today. I wish it packed down a bit smaller, just to allow me to continue to shrink my pack options. This is knit picking and I bought this tent for the room, so this is probably more on me than the tent itself, but it is something I think about and is pushing me towards considering tarp camping in the future.

This tent is a trekking pole tent, that requires 2 trekking poles to set up. It would be great if there was a way to set this up well with just 1 trekking pole as sometimes I use this tent when car camping or I just don’t want to have to carry any poles. If I only had to find 1 stick in the woods, it would be a lot easier to take this tent on at trip where I am not carrying poles. I guess this is another me-thing, but it’s something I’ve thought about that would add to the already great feature list of this tent.

This image shows the size/shape compared to a smaller tent (Gossamer Gear The One). it also highlights the height of the bathtub floor, which I consider a great feature.

Conclusion

I have not looked back since buying this tent. I really do think the hype and popularity that I saw back in 2017/2018 is valid. There are some minor things that could be tweaked, but that really comes down to my personal preferences today, which maybe don’t align with this specific tent anymore. Regardless, you will not be disappointed if you pick this tent up. I would argue it is still the best cost to value ratio tent for anyone that is looking for a palace. There may be better options, if you are willing to sacrifice size, but if you want to guarantee space and do so while minimizing the impact of weight, this is absolutely the best tent on the market today!