Do All Tents Get Condensation & How To Prevent It
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Camping is so much fun and a great way to explore the countryside but something that can be an issue for many is condensation within a tent. While this may seem strange and might cause you to worry, it is very normal and common among campers.
All tents get condensation no matter what time of year you are camping, where you are camping or how many people are in a tent. There are however a couple of things you can do to reduce the condensation by adding mats, removing heaters and camping in well-ventilated areas.
In this article we are going to talk about what to do if you have condenstion in a tent, how to prevent it and what you should be doing.
Do All Tents Get Condensation
Condensation in tents happens to everyone. It’s one of the unavoidable consequences of camping with a tent.
The effects of the laws of physics are inevitable. Condensation is a natural process that occurs with all tents irrespective of the fabric or material they are made of.
Tent condensation is inevitable because of the following natural phenomenons and common activities that we usually carry out inside tents:
- Natural humidity in the atmosphere.
- Using Wet objects inside the tent or vestibule adds to the moisture that forms under the roof of the tent.
- Cooking inside a tent creates vapor from cooking fuel or steam from the food
- Evaporation from exposed damp ground or underneath the tent.
- Breathing: we release moisture with the carbon dioxide we breathe out.
- Pitching close to a body of water brings greater humidity and colder temperatures at night.
Tents with good ventilation and an inner tent will fair best. The design of any tent can be surged over by moisture in specific weather conditions.
What To Do If Your Tent Gets Condensation?
Tent condensation can be very frustrating to deal with. Staying dry throughout the night is what any camper would want. The person would also want to wake up in the morning without having his/her tent covered in moisture.
If you pack up your tent when there is still moisture inside of it or under the mattress, you will have to open it once you get home and let it air out.
The most effective way to put an end to tent condensation in a rooftop tent is by adding an anti-condensation mat, properly airing it, and also adding a fan to assist with air circulation.
The following are some of the most effective solutions to this issue. Having identified what works, let’s discuss each solution and how you can implement it.
1. Anti-Condensation Mat
The manufacturers of RTT realized that condensation build-up was a major issue for most campers. They corrected this by making a mat that will help absorb and reduce the moisture created inside your tent. This is achieved by allowing more air to flow between the mattress and the base of the RTT. One of these mats cost roughly $100 – 150 dollars.
2. Apply Carpet Tile To The Base
A more affordable and labor-intensive solution to ameliorating condensation is to apply carpet tiles instead of an anti-condensation mat.
The fact is that adding these carpeted tiles will help absorb the condensation that forms between your mattress and tent’s metal base.
3. Ventilating Your Tent Is Key
RTTs already have the advantage of being off the ground and not sitting on a wet or damp surface. That said, you might still notice condensation in cold climates.
The completely free thing you can do to prevent condensation from building up on your RTT is to simply keep it ventilated by opening multiple windows. Allowing air to circulate through your tent before, during, and after you sleep inside the tent will make a difference
- You can also buy a rechargeable fan to run throughout the night and assist with air circulation!
- Wiping the walls with a towel or cloth is a good way to remove condensation from the surface and stop any drips.
- On polycotton, avoid pressing against the sides of the tents as this can cause water to seep through.
- If you are staying in one location, remove all wet items from the tent and dry them so that they don’t create more moisture the next night. Dry and ventilate your tent as best as you can.
How to Prevent Condensation in a Tent
The following are some of the ways of preventing tent condensation, they are:
1. Ventilate Your Tent
This is one of the most effective ways to prevent condensation. It is associated with reducing the internal humidity of your tent by promoting good airflow. Scrutinize your tent for low and high venting options and open them to let the moist airflow out.
If the weather conditions permit, leave the upper and lower sections of the door open, mesh sections can be kept fully zipped. If appropriate, also ensure vents at the rear of the tent are fully open. Make sure the vents are not obstructed by bags or sleeping bodies.
Ventilate early, frequently, and completely.
The air inside the tent is almost always more humid than the surrounding air, so you want to replace the interior air with the drier outside air. Ventilation strategies include the following:
- Pitch the tent door to face the outside breeze.
- Stake the tent out tightly and tension the fly to maximize the airspace between it and the wall of the tent.
- Unimpeded rainfly doors and rollup sections; only use them if rain starts to fall.
- Unimpeded all rainfly vents, especially opposing ones for cross ventilation.
- Unimpeded all inner tent windows.
- Rain flies are mostly wet in the mornings, but if you follow these tips, most of the moisture should stay on the outside—where it belongs.
2. Store Wet Stuff Outside
Camping needs like Towels, boots, waterproofs, swimming trunks, and wet stuff should be kept out of the tent. Use an awning or hub to provide storage for the wet kit.
3. Don’t Touch The Sides
If the pressure is applied to the tent walls of tents like polycotton tent, water may leak through. Keep bags and other items away from tent walls.
4. Never Cook Inside Your Tent
Primarily for safety but cooking also releases large amounts of moisture into the air. Remember that extractor fan in the kitchen at home?
5. Turn Heaters Off
Further warming the air inside the tent will increase water vapour in the air as warm air can enhance the creation of more moisture plus, the warmer the tent, the more moisture will be released into the tent through evaporation and perspiration.
Instead of using heaters, warm yourself up with the right clothing and good sleeping bags.
6. Pitch In A Spot Where There Is A Natural Breeze
Places with Shelters are more prone to generating condensation. Pitch your tent so that vents are lined up with the prevailing winds.
7. Don’t Pitch Too Close To The Water
Rivers and lakes can increase humidity. Pitching your tent, a little further away from water sources can help reduce condensation.
8. Take Spare Towels
In some weather conditions, condensation is difficult to avoid. Reduce it using the steps above and pack a spare towel to simply wipe it away.
9. Pitch On Dry Ground, Preferably Under Trees
Trees are your friend because air under trees tends to be warmer (as opposed to say, a wide-open field), so your rainfly will be warmer, too. Also, condensation happens on top of their foliage, instead of on your tent.
10. Minimize The Additional Moisture Sources Inside Your Tent
Moisture in a tent comes from three places:
- The existing moisture level in the air itself (humidity)
- Moisture added to your inner airspace by each breath you take at night
- Moisture added by any wet items you might have inside your tent
Once you’ve picked a place to pitch your tent, the humidity level of the air is set. And, though you’ll breathe out moisture throughout the night, not breathing isn’t an option. But you can control whether you stash or hang wet clothes inside a tent. If condensation control is the goal, then dry things out during the day.
11. Make Distant The Flysheet From The Inner Tent
Verify if the tent is pitched properly and that the flysheet is not exerting itself on the inner tent. You may need to tweak the tension of the guy ropes in damp conditions to preserve tension, but this simple step goes a long way to preventing condensation from seeping into the tent from the underside of the fly.
12. Dry Flysheet Before Packing Up
At dawn, when there is moisture build-up in your tent, use a lightweight camp towel to dry the wet areas. In other words, you can leave the tent pitched for as long as possible with the doors open to allow it to dry before you pack your tent away.
If you pack your tent up while it’s wet there’s a 99% probability that it will be soaked through by the time you set it up again later that night.
While condensation can make one pellucid, it’s still an inevitable part of sleeping in a tent. But, you can greatly reduce the amount of moisture build-up by encouraging airflow through your tent.