Long Term Cuben Use

[Edward Jursek]

As I spent part of yesterday repairing some cuben items I was wondering how other folks have fared with cuben. My MLD DuoMid needed repaired because the cuben material was just starting to fail by the lower buckle of the front door. This is an area of maximum stress and was already damaged when I bought the Mid used. The repair was small, simple and inexpensive. It consisted of a small adhesive repair patch of 1.43 cuben and tacking the grosgrain piece that holds the buckle back down. My Zpacks Poncho/Ground Sheet in 1.0 cuben needed 2 small patches of .51 cuben repair tape for 2 pin holes and one small piece of .51 cuben repair tape for a 1/2" cut. I have used the poncho/groundsheet for 3 seasons now, so that does not seem too bad. Again, the repairs were simple and cheap. Overall, I am OK with the trade off of weight vs. durability and the added cost of cuben. What other items are failing over time or needing repairs? Any thoughts on the long term durability of cuben?

[Brian Lewis]

I did a long thru-hike with a cuben tent and have done some additional trips with it, and the tent fabric is still great (cuben upper, silnylon floor). Zippers a little wonky, but the cuben is fine.

I've got zpacks cuben rain skirt and pack cover. Stabbed the latter with something, but as I think is well understood, cuben is easy to repair. Both are doing fine.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "long term". If it's just a lot of days of use, then I've got that for all three of these items — though less so for the skirt and pack cover, as they spend a lot of time being carried in my pack, unused.
If it's time in a more absolute sense, then just a scant few years.

Bottom line is that apart from the expense, I'm still a fan of cuben, to include for long term use.

[John Klinepeter]

I have no experience with Cuben tarps or packs. I have used Cuben stuff sacks for many years. They are used for storage of clothing, food, personal items and they all appear to be in good condition. The one exception is a small sack that I use to hold my point and shoot camera. These sacks are all about 7 to 10 years old (just a guess). The camera stuff sack has been in and out of my hip belt pocket perhaps 2000 times (another wild guess) and has shown considerable wear and tear for the last few years. The photos show horizontal and vertical tears and also some stringy fuzziness.

[Brian Lewis]

Looking at the last post I realize that I forgot about the STUFF SACK for my cuben tent. The stuff sack was also cuben (I understand the manufacturer corrected that error in later manufacturing runs). The cuben stuff sack is similarly shredded only worse.

So I should say that, of course very much depending on the particular grade/thickness of cuben and how you personally use it, I'm a fan of cuben except for situations where abrasion is an issue. Once I realized what was happening with my cuben tent stuff sack/cover, I started putting that inside a plastic grocery sack. Then later I stopped using the sack in favor of just the grocery sack.

[Owen McMurrey]

My .51oz/yd cuben stuff sack(which is oversized vs. the factory silnylon one) was coming apart at the seam within half a dozen uses, and the one made to fit my cook kit split where the lid of the pot rubbed it after being stuffed in a pack once or twice without having been actually carried or used.
My 1oz/yd stuff has been fine, but "long term use" for .51oz/yd or lower strikes me as complete fantasy.

[Serge Giachetti]

I've had great luck with my zpacks hexamid tarp and probably have somewhere around 150 nights in it. I wore through a hmg cuben hybrid pack in a matter of months (which included a lot of heavy use for climbing and skiing) so I doubt I'll be going back to that material for a pack anytime soon. I like cuben fiber stuff sacks like and the zpacks food bag/bear bag kit, but they abrade pretty quickly when you put stuff with edges on the inside. IMO, cuben is the ideal shelter material.

[Miner]

My early 2008 Cuben Fiber Tarp from MLD (.60 Spectralite fabric rather than the current stuff) is still in use as my primary shelter. Used it on a PCT thru-hike and the northern 30% of the AT plus numerous shorter hikes. Its had a few pin holes for a couple of years. Finally noticed a larger hole near the wider end this past Memorial Weekend during a light snow dump in the Sierra Nevada that is about 75% of the diameter of a typical straw. There looks to be some small damage around it like it got abraided somehow. May finally have to get some tape out since, unlike the pinholes, water may get through this one.

I've been using Cuben Fiber stuff sacks since 2008; mostly Zpacks though I have some heavier MLD ones that don't get used much anymore. Most last several years of heavy use. The only sack that I have to consistently replace is the one I use for my clothing/pillow. It shows signs of abrasion after much use. Probably the zipper on my down jacket that gets stuffed in it every night as a pillow is the main culprit. One still lasted long enough for a PCT thru-hike even if it had some small holes near the top.

[Nick Gatel]

My Cuben stuff sacks are the thin stuff and start to fall apart after a couple years.

I have a EE quilt in Cuben and I poked a hole in it with a finger nail stuffing it into my pack – user error. Cuben tape fixed it up.

Cuben shelters are fine.

Cuben Poncho surprising fine as I used it a few times as a ground sheet, which I no longer do.

I thought my zPacks Zero was going to fall apart by now, but it is still in great shape.

I like Cuben. I also like Cuban Gooding. Never smoked a Cuban cigar.

[Jerry Adams]

How about renormalization with Cubans?

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