There have been any number of threads on this board that have complained about leaking tents and having to return them. I bought a new tent last year for this season and have been really happy with it, despite heavy rain there have been absolutely no leaks.
The thing is though, do we expect a tent to be perfect straight out of the bag? Nice when it happens, but surely the odds are against it. I'm not talking about mega-leaks here, just the odd seeping seam or a few drops coming in around the toggle loops which seem to be a favourite leak point. Would you be happy just to apply a little seam sealer, or would you return the tent?
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I think you're right. After returning 3 Sun Valleys for different reasons over the last year, we now have an Outwell Vermont. Haven't used it yet, but have come to the conclusion that if there are any small leaks in it, we'll just get the seam sealant out. Can't be bothered to go through the returning tent process again.
We have the hartford and have never had any problems with leaks and thats been in some very windy wet situations, but recently bought the vango oregon 600. It leaked from windows, reinforced patches on the sig where you connect bed pods and a few other places so as not to spoil the weekend we did our best to seal the tent but we were still mopping up puddles. When we got back we phoned the store and they decided they would pick it up the next day for inspection.
We were unsure about what would happen, would they repair or replace, but they have replaced it although they didnt have the same tent we have chosen the Khyam ontario 8. I think we will put it up soak it really well and should there be any small leaks repair them ourselves, but anything more and I would have no hesitation on sending it back.
We are new to camping and the information on this site has been brilliant.