I've just come back from 2 days in France and it poured throughout when it came to packing up. I now have a very wet 6 person tent hanging in the bathroom. It looks like a parachute in there and like it'll take a week to dry.
If anyone has any tips I'd certainly appreciate it. I'd love to put it into the tumble drier but I guess it might not do it much good...
Can you beg or borrow a dehumidifier from friends or family? If so I would sponge off the standing water with kitchen roll, then spread the tent out over as wide an area as possible in a spare room or dining room, stick the dehumidifier on, and shut the door on the lot. Turn the thing over every 4 hours and keep empting the de-h reservoir and it should dry really quickly. If your home has any tendancy towards damp or condensation then a dehumidifier might be worth you buying anyway - they are around £99
------------- If you go camping to "get away from it all" - why take it all with you?
If anyone has any tips I'd certainly appreciate it. I'd love to put it into the tumble drier but I guess it might not do it much good...
Lol.....
Well, lets think about this. You shouldn't put synthetic garments in a tumble drier on hot because you can damage the fabric and the garment will come out all creased. Given that synthetic tent fabric is made up of multiple layers of hi-tech stuff heat bonded together there's a fair chance a hot tumble drier would cause the flysheet to delaminate. Warm then? I still think it would crease horribly. Cold? Not a lot of point...
But apart from anything else, I doubt you could stuff a Gelert Cadiz 5 into a domestic tumble drier anyway. Why not just give it a good shake out every couple of hours and once it's stopped dripping, spread it out over the hall or lounge carpet with a couple of chairs underneath?
As Val said, tumble dryer is a no no, we hang ours on the landing and down the stairs by it's guys on small hooks strategically placed then put a warm air blower at the bottom step, we have to walk through the tent to negotiate the stairs but it's a small inconvenience
Some notes for next time: a de-humidifier is an incredibly slow way to dry objects.
Much faster is to get a fan or two. Hot air will be better, but you may be surprised just how fast a tent will dry with a fan blowing air around it. Similar to drying clothes outside in a breeze.
Ive read of places that will collect your gear dry it out for you and deliver back to you for a fee, some even store your gear if your stuck for space and will deliver when you wanna go camping.
-------------
Special Needs Mum, Overprotective With Serious attitude!
brumb. you are exactly right about the hair dryer. but a hoover would be better. the air is moving better. not a lot of heat actualy need. it is the movement of air that does the trick. so if the tent can be put up in a spare room. door closed and spout of hoover into the tent. leave for about 3 mins. then again 20 mins later. and the same again until the tent is dry. that is the best way. but not alwats possible due to size of home. and no spare room. but tent could be put on the lawn. with extention wire for hoover. still do the job.
If we bring back a wet tent we pitch it in the garden (even if its raining) and just wait for it to dry... only takes a couple of hours if its windy and dry - but we have had to wait sometimes for 3 or 4 days before we get a dry one.
We have the same problem - we have a little terraced house with a gaden smaller than our big tent.
We usually lay it out in the back bedroom as best we can and keep refolding it to get the air to as much of it as possible. Touch wood so far have been lucky not to need to pack down when it's really wet, but I guess that's only a matter of time!
------------- Life is not about waiting for the clouds to pass, but learning to dance in the rain.