Does Cuben crack in the cold?

On how cold you mean. I've had mine in snow and ice storms, no problem. If Yer talking below zero I don't know about that.

I've had mine below zero, well, with wind chill anyway. No issues.

Depends as a shelter – yuck.

Cuben in liquid nitrogen would be disappointing. I can't comment on anything below 0 Kelvin.

Wind can only cool the tent fabric down to the (outside) ambient temperature, not below that.

"Cuben in liquid nitrogen would be disappointing."
I have access to some. Next week I'll try this. If flowers are any indication, it'll be fun.

Video or it didn't happen ;)

"Cracking" as in physically failing, no. But I've had my HMG Porter out a bunch this past week in -10° to -15° temps here in MI, and the handling qualities of the fabric definitely change as the temp drops. Noticed much louder and more severe crackling when opening the rolltop, and some minor difficulty rolling it back down again. Entire bag seems stiffer and somewhat brittle.

This morning I took my son to a chemistry demo for kids at the local university. They dunked a ping pong ball, apple, banana and flower into liquid nitrogen. Left them there for over an hour. The organic matter shattered when dropped on the floor. The ping pong ball didn't bounce, but it didn't break. I don't know if the mylar will just crank like a sheet of ice, or simply shrug off the liquid nitrogen. But I'd love to find out, Dan.

I'll do this next time I'm using N2, which is gonna be 5-10 days from now.

I'm not quite sure how best to do it, since cuben is so light you can't really throw it at the ground once it's frozen like you normally can with stuff. Maybe it'll shatter with a firm exhale.

This has lots of information about the Mylar component of CF.

http://usa.dupontteijinfilms.com/informationcenter/downloads/Physical_And_Thermal_Properties.pdf

Mylar gets tensionally stronger down to -70C (-94F)

Dave

Very cold. ¨-113*F.
You have thick gloves and safety glasses, I hope ?

I've a 150D hybrid cuben pack out in -25F. The fabric is very loud, but suffers no ill effects.

Thanks for the responses. Great info Dave. My concern was rolling up my tent at sub zero temps. Looks like I'll be safe down to the liquid nitrogen level!

Had my MLD Duomid out in -5F weather with lots of wind a few nights ago, it held up fine.

I think if a fabric can absorb water, it has the potential to crack in really cold weather as the moisture freezes. Since cuben does not absorb water, I would think it would be just fine.