I have recently bought a small second hand tent for weekends. The bedrooms are quite dirty on the material, does anyone have any tips on how to get these clean. Is putting them in a washing machine a definate no no ?
Yep not a good idea to put the tent in the washing machine or have it dry cleaned.Have you thought of buying a packet of childrens baby wipes. They work great. I would recommend buying a tin of waterproof spray and just giving the tent a once going over after youve given it a wipe.
I personally wouldn't risk putting it in the washing machine, as I'm not sure how that would affect the sig. I washed ours in the bath with soap flakes, let them drain in the bath for a while, then hung them over the line to dry. They looked & smelled like new when they were dry.
jk98 is right. always use soap flakes for the bedrooms. and specialist cleaner for the tent as using any other powder /liquid strips the waterproof off. unless you have mold spots and you can use milton diluted .
An inner tent doesn't have to be waterproofed, just put it in the washing machine on a quick cycle and double rinse, but don't fast spin, then line-dry. It's important that no soap residue is left on the inners (hence the double rinse), or it might compromise your waterproofing if it comes into contact with the flysheet.
The Nikwax products are good, not cleaned a tent, but have done waterproof coats, ski-wear and my horses outdoor rugs with them and they have come out clean, and more importantly waterproof - in fact the horse rugs were more waterproof after than when they were new!