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Quote: Originally posted by Bob61 on 04/6/2010

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How do you know when a tent is dry? Most mornings in the summer you wake up to a tent covered with dew. On going home morning you wait as long as you can for the tent to dry off and in most cases it appears to be dry before you pack it away. For me, that is good enough, but how do you know there isn't some water lurking within a seam or a crease waiting to devour your tent?

Do people always erect their tents in the garden on arriving home in order to make sure it is completely dry? Even if they erect the tent at home (assuming they have room) they can't be sure that it has dried out properly and daren't leave it overnight to gather another dose of dew, so where do you draw the line? 

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I dry mine indoors, over the bannisters of the stairs down to my utility room. Every single trip, without fail, even if they were pretty dry when I struck the tent. Not lost a tent yet. It's a complete PITB of course to be dragging tents up and down the stairs but at least I've got somewhere to do it.

That's not entirely practical for most people though and you're right, there's always dew on the underside.  This is where non-SIG tents score yet again of course as you can be pretty sure when a flysheet is dry, especially if you unpeg and flip the skirts up for an hour. It's pretty easy to dry a seperate groundsheet. Only thing I can suggest here with a possibly not quite dry SIG tent is to at least take it out the bag and leave it in a heap, turning it over and fluffing it up for 48 hours or so, just to make sure.

Yes, boring. A faff. Hard work. Etc. And most of the time you can get away with it tbh. But there's only one way to be sure not to get mould and that's to dry it properly, whatever method you use.

I must admit, Lynne, that if I don't go camping for a few weeks I do tend to check the tent now and then. All I do really is open the bag up and have a sniff to see if it still smells fresh. Fortunately mine still has the new tent smell. I also store the bag upside down so that if there is any condensation inside any accumulation of water droplets have a chance of running out instead of pooling in the bottom of the bag.

I used to have a cheap tunnel tent (a Eurohike) a few years back which always smelled musty but I could never understand why. I certainly couldn't see any mould or mildew and after it had been erected and aired for awhile the smell disappeared.

Having seen the state of the above tent though, it certainly is a worry although not much point in getting obsessed with it. A tent can always be replaced if the worst happens. Apart from mould it could get wrecked in a storm, so you have to look upon a tent as a disposable item even though they cost a fair few bob.

Unfortunately, Val, I live in a small flat and there is no way I can have a tent hanging around bundled up or not so I just have to take the chance. I have been pretty lucky in my travels and have only gone home with a soaking wet tent on one occasion.

Like Floggitt, I can't usually stay on for an extra day but I have been known to go home the night before if I think the morning is going to be wet.

I do have a small garden with a rotory but the tent is then more likely to be pooed on from the wood pigeons in the overhanging trees so it's a catch 22 situation really