When purchasing a tent most people assume that it will be waterproof in the rain. The fact of the matter is that this is not always the case. Do tents leak when it rains? Yes they most certainly can. The lower the quality of tent the more likelihood that it will leak. Tents can leak through the seams or water can soak through the fabric. It is important to check your tent to see if the seams have been factory taped or sealed and that the tent has an HH rating of at least 1000mm. If your tent doesn’t meet these standards than it will leak in the rain. In some cases even a high quality tent can have a design flaw or be a lemon and leak.
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Leaking Through The Seams
One of the primary places that tents leak is the seams. Tents need to be factory seamed or sealed in some way. If the tent seams are not sealed than rain water will come through the stitching. This leakage can happen right away or it may take some time out in the rain before a weakness in the seams becomes apparent. In some instances a small leak can be sealed with tent sealer.
Another one of the places that a tent can leak is through the floor. If the floor seam is not properly taped or sealed than water can easily leak through the seam. It is important to consider where you are pitching your tent. You want to avoid pitching a tent close to a hill or ground that is angled downwards towards your tent. During heavy rain water can easily run and pool underneath your tent increasing the chances of leaks.
Placing a poly ground sheet underneath your tent can help protect your tent floor from punctures and wear. It is important to make sure that your ground sheet does not stick out from underneath your tent. The groundsheet will catch rain runoff from your tent and can channel it underneath.
Other weak points where tents can leak are the floor corners. These can leak because they meet at a seam and tend to have less protection from the fly in many models. In some tent designs water can pool on the roof and eventually find its way into the tent.
Consider The Tents Hydrostatic Rating
The hydrostatic rating or HH is a way that a tent fabric’s water impermeability is measured. This is done by applying water pressure to the tent fabric until the water begins to bleed through. The pressure that this happens at is what gives a tent its HH rating. An HH of 2000mm for example means that the water fabric held a column of water up to a height of 2000mm.
A tent that has an HH rating of 1000mm is able to withstand light showers and is the minimum legal requirement to be able to call a tent waterproof. A rating of 2000-3000mm will endure much heavier rain and wind. The higher the rating the better the waterproofing. A good HH rating will help prevent the tent from “wetting out” stretching and eventually allowing water through the material.
Tent Condensation
What may seem like a leaking tent may in fact be condensation. Nylon and poly tents that have been waterproofed have great water wicking capabilities due to their water impermeability. This strength becomes a weakness when on the inside of the tent. These tent materials do not breath and condensation in the form of water droplets can form on tent walls and run down or drip onto the tent floor. Not only is condensation buildup a problem, feeling hot, clammy and stuffy is not a nice sleeping experience. This problem has been mediated by good venting features such as the use of a tent fly which is waterproof in conjunction with an inner tent that is not. Other vents may be having screened windows and a generously screened inner tent.
Condensation can reach its height in a poorly ventilated single walled nylon or poly tent. These tents are used for hot tenting and in winter and alpine applications. They need to have lots of venting in order to compensate for the condensation buildup problems.
A good way to determine the difference is that condensation can build up anywhere on the tent walls, while in most cases in a tent that leaks you can usually pinpoint where on the seam the leak is happening.
What To Do If Your Tent Leaks
Discovering in a rainstorm that your tent leaks is not a great feeling. You usually wake up in the middle of the night with either a wet sleeping bag or a wet tent floor. What can you do if this happens? One thing to check is where you pitched your tent. While your floor is not supposed to leak, if you are pitched near a hill or ground that is down sloping, water can run and pool under your tent. It would be good at that point to move your tent to an area where the ground around the tent is level or at least the ground is angled down away from your tent.
If you have a tarp you can set up your tarp over your tent. Unless it is hard blowing rain a tarp will definitely keep your tent dry. It is important to angle your tarp away from any hills that will pool the water under your tent.
In some cases you can apply tent sealant to a seam that is leaking. You can also purchase various waterproofing sprays that can be applied to your tent and this may solve your leaking problem. You should attempt repairing your tent if the leaking is minimal and also if your tent’s value makes up for the effort.
If you purchased a cheap tent and it heavily leaks, than it may be better just to either return the tent if possible or to give up on it and junk it. It is important before you purchase your tent to make sure that it is advertised as waterproof. Believe it or not some tents are not made to be waterproof but are made to be used in fine weather only. This is of course not what most people are interested in so make sure that you know what to expect of the tent that you buy before making the purchase.
Most people who purchase a tent expect it to protect them from the elements, particularly rain. If you do your homework and choose your tent carefully, you may be able to avoid the unpleasant experience of waking up at night in a leaking tent.
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