Failing #3 Zippers?

"Planning on scrubbing it with a toothbrush and maybe adding some Teflon lube tomorrow"

since it's just 6", get a tub of soapy water. Let it soak. Scrub with brush…

When everything came with #8 zippers, there were lots of failures.

In other words, zippers fail.

They wear out from dirt and use. Even #10 behemoths wear out rapidly when used in a salty, sandy environment.

Zipper sliders, unless made of plastic for salty places, or the $5 apiece handmade YKK stainless sliders, are made of pot metal, then painted or chromed. The material wears away with use. So the more metal in the slider (IE larger size) the longer it should last other things being equal.

Keeping it clean and treating it gently is key.

When you set up a tent, the zippers should all be closed before you put the poles in or stake it out. Other wise there will be too much stress on the slider when closing it after set up.

Some lubes may pick up dirt, making a nice sanding compound to quickly hone that slider metal to a fare-thee-well.

I try to make my tents and other stuff so that replacing just the worn out slider is a simple matter of taking out a few stitches, sliding on the new one and stitching it closed. Something that could be done in the field if you have a blade, needle, dental floss and spare slider.

> I try to make my tents and other stuff so that replacing just the worn out slider is a
> simple matter of taking out a few stitches, sliding on the new one and stitching it closed.

To be very highly commended! Well done David.

Cheers

Somebody will have to figure out how to manufacture zippers out of titanium.

–B.G.–

Cheers Jerry,
I'll see how it goes!
Benen

on a tent, you could have several pairs of ties – at the bottom, middle, maybe two more in between. Then, if zipper failed, you could close with ties. Not optimum but would be better than having an open door in the rain.

We (Seek Outside) , use # 8 on most lightweight shelters, and #10 on heavier duty or very large shelters and #5 for screens / nests etc. On packs , we use a combination of #8 and #10.

Keeping zippers clean does help a lot, but is not always feasible. Most failures we have seen have been excess sand related and pulls.

Gen at Yama Mountain has gone to #5 zippers as standard on syl and .8 cuben shelters because of the problems with the sliders. On .5 cuben shelters he is still using #3 zippers as standard.

for 60 inch zipper – #3 = 0.6 ounces, #5 = 1.4 ounces

if it makes it more reliable, 0.8 extra ounces worth it

on the other hand, my tent had #3 for a couple years before failure. Maybe 50 or 100 nights. Maybe that's good enough.