Argon silnylon

I'm digging it.

Well see how it does in the real world.
Thanks…

1

Thanks, Richard!

That's scarily disappointing, though its so cheap that I can see some applications for it myself.

I'll bet it would work great on shelters with a steep pitch, vertical doors, umbrellas, vestibules, etc. I wonder if there is any breathability that would allow it to work for bivysack tops etc?

+1

Once my fabric arrived, I had suspicions that it was the 20d nylon and not 10d. Oh well. May wait a while on making that big square tarp I was planning. Hopefully the field reports start coming in soon.

Ryan

It may work fine if you don't touch the inside, in which case fluid will wick through

Set up your fabric outside. Have an area underneath it with something you can tell if it gets wet. Wait for hard rain. See how well it works.

"Assuming one side is more coated than the other, which side would you recommend facing out for a shelter or poncho application?"

For a shelter, I would put the more water resistant side facing out, because nylon by itself is quite absorbent and will sag like the dickens and even leak when enough moisture passes through the coating and permeates the fabric. But of course, that makes the inner more vulnerable to absorbing condensation.

But maybe it's a choice that doesn't have to be made. The best silnylons, like that sold be Thru-Hiker, appear to be permeated with silicone and equally water resistant on both sides. (Sorry if my constant references sound like a promoter for T-H, which you might suspect as we both have resided in NH. But it's not so, and we've never even met, although Paul did send me a free swatch of the silnylon currently being sold when he first began selling it, which was unsolicited and a nice gesture.)

I've found that the higher HH silnylons sag substantially less, and theorize that is because they can absorb less moisture. The Terra-Nova stuff mentioned in my earlier post is the best I've seen in sub 1.2 oz sils, but you know I had to be crazy to pay a hundred bucks for a tarp just to get around 40 sq. ft. of it. This tent insanity is freely admitted, and the T-N fabric is very probably going to go into a sil tent. Will post of course when this happens.

P.S. Thanks, Richard, for the retest.

Richard – just for comparison, could you provide any information for other normal silnylons you have tested?

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=43902

John,

This thread shows you my test results for a broad range of shelter fabrics both when new and also aged: Shelter Fabrics Tested

It looks like at least one shelter has been made using the Argon Sil at this point, and even though it's early days, I'm wondering if anyone has any anecdotal evidence of how well this fabric deals with rain or wet ground or the like? I had ordered a few yards prior to Richards 'proper' test results post, and have been reluctant to put this fabric to use on a shelter after seeing the sub-1000 HH value.

Any early adopters out there that would care to share their experience?

Thanks!

It's been over a year, any updates? Apologies if I missed another thread with this information.