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Quote: Originally posted by soulcamper on 09/5/2010

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how serious is mould in a tent? is it the kiss of death or can you live with it?

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Depends. In synthetic tents a little light mould on an inner can be treated fairly sucessfully. Extensive mould on and through the layers of the flysheet? Probably not worth the effort. Cotton canvas? If the mould is extensive the fabric will start to rot and that's an expensive repair. However cotton canvas tents are so expensive to replace they're more worth the effort to salvage, if the mould is mostly cosmetic.

If you've got anyone with asthma or allergies, consider binning the tent anyway.

Bottom line is though to be an utter fanatic about drying out your tent. I air mine off even when they've come home "dry", and my life is easier anyway because I mostly have non-SIG tents. It's a terrible temptation with SIG tents not to air them out because relatively speaking they're so unwieldy, but they're also more prone to damp groundsheets even when taken down on dry days.

Our last synthetic tent (inner tent) gained some mould but it came up like new after washing with a mild solution of milton fluid.( The stuff people used to use for soaking baby bottles with). I was told the mould stains might not come off but at least the Milton would kill the mould and it would then be inert but the stains came off too.

I used a soft brush dipped in the solution and left it for an hour, then washed it again with plain water. I was unsure if i needed to re-water proof the inner tent after this but I asked in a camping shop and they said not to apply such a treatment to an inner tent because it might stop the fabric breathing and cause more condensation.