Cleaning a silnylon tent

> Would cleaning it with soap degrade the coating in any way?

Mild soap and water, followed by a good rinse. No worries.

Cool/lukewarm water, mild detergent or buy Techwash (I wouldn’t bother). Go easy on the scrubbing and hang it to dry– completely. No hot water or dryers and the more you keep it out of direct sunlight, the longer it will last. Silnylon is more permeated than coated– we’re used to PU coated stuff peeling like an old sunburn :)

Pitch is the kind of stuff that makes me crazy. I’d love to hear from a manufacurer as to what kinds of solvents would be safe– alcohol, Goof Off, etc.

Good to know some soap can be used! I guess sometimes I get carried away worrying about how fragile some of the SUL gear is, but it’s really not that bad if you use some common sense for the most part. Thanks for the tip.

Sap is my arch-nemesis as well. Last time I was out with my HS Cloudburst, I decided on a whim to try removing some fresh sap on the (silnylon) canopy with a small dab of sunblock (Aloe Gator 40 SPF Gel). It worked like kryptonite on Superman! Dissolved the stuff, killed all stickiness and allowed me to wipe it up with TP, leaving a very faint residue. Which you could then wash off with soap and water at home. Not sure as to long-term effects, but my guess is that it’s pretty begnin. Certainly better than leaving the sap there. Not sure if other brands / formulations of sunblock have similiar properties, but it’s worth experimenting.

Now there’s a home remedy I forgot about– peanut butter. It is the only thing for getting chewing gum out of your kid’s hair (or the dog’s). I would want to get the odor of it out of a tent though– peanut butter would have to be the best pest attractant around. I don’t want to wake up with Yogi and BooBoo trying to snack on my shelter :)

Of course the active ingrediant is oil and that is probably what worked with your sunscreen.

I have found alchohol works pretty well without damaging my tarps material.

>Pitch is the kind of stuff that makes me crazy.

My wife mentioned today, after a sticky encounter of the pitch kind, that a baby wipe takes pitch off easily. I suggested just scraping it off and rubbing dirt into it, but she didn’t like that idea.

The baby wipes might have mineral oil in them. Most products that mention “moisturizing” have some sort of mineral oil included.

I would want to hear from the manufacturer about anything oil or alcohol based just to be safe.

Try Goo-Gone, its a citrus cleaner and wroks great. Also works to remove pitch from clothing, etc. Purchase at a grocery or hardware store.

Will:

Have you used Goo Gone with regular tent fly (i.e. coated nylon or polyester)? Wonder if it’s OK on fabric DWP / coating?

I talked to Black Diamond about removing pitch off of one of their Epic fabric tents. They strongly recommended that I use nothing but soap and water, as detergents, oils, and the like COULD damage the highly water repellant nature of the Epic fabric ( an encapsulated silicon product) .

Since soap and water did not remove the sap–I’ve just put up w/ it( after the sap more or less dried I could peel off most of it).

Have you used Goo Gone with regular tent fly
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No, I haven’t, so I don’t know what it would do to a DWR treatment on a tent or jacket. DWR treatments are mainly removed by repeated washing, so I suspect it would remove it. I have no problems using Goo Gone on silnylon and hiking clothing, but I would hesitate to use it on a fabric with DWR. Probably better to ive with the pitch as you suggest.

Best, Will

first time post…

I put a few TBS of laundry soap (“Tide” which is what we wash our clothes with) in the tub and fill to a few inches with warm water. I then slosh the tent around gently in the tub making sure to get the soap inside and out. Then I drain the tub and fill to a few inches with warm water and rinse. Then I repeat this until I am sure all the soap is gone. Finally, I let the tent drop dry for a while then I pitch it and let it dry out the rest of the way. It works well but there may be a better way.