Any long term feedback on the DutchWare Xenon Sil 5300?

[Geoff Caplan]

Does anyone have experience of this fabric in a tarp or groundsheet?

https://dutchwaregear.com/product/xenon-sil-5300/

It’s a 20d, 1.34 oz poly taffeta with a sil/sil coating and a claimed HH of 5300.

It seems to be a different Xenon from the one that aged poorly in Richard’s testing:

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/107266/

With 5300 in hand it could age badly and still be waterproof!

It doesn’t seem to get much love, but if it performs to spec it looks like the best poly out there for shelters. Plus MYOG vlogger Tac Blades, who builds to an insanely high standard, says it’s easy to sew clean seams as it can be ironed to a crease.

Price is nice too, though the colours are disappointing. Only the olive looks usable for a shelter.

Any reason not to use this? Feeback would be much appreciated…

[Sam Farrington]

Given the history on the BPL forums with fabrics, suggest that we obtain a swatch and seek testing before using them.  Stephen Seeber has been willing to assume some of this testing.  We are very fortunate to have had folks like Stephen and Richard to provide guidance.  It got to the point that without such guidance, I almost always got burned, and now have a lot of useless rolls of fabric to clean out.  Since becoming more cautious, a lot of time and $ have been saved.

 

[Geoff Caplan]

Sam,

I’ve been chatting with Dutch about this. He’s very bullish about the Xenon 5300 – says it performs very well in field for just a small weight penalty over lower HH polys and he’s happy to back it with a guarantee. I know he has a mixed reputation here but he was pretty convincing.

I only need a few meters and the price is very reasonable,  so with the the guarantee I’m not taking a big risk.

To get a sample here to the UK and then back to the US for testing would cost a lot in postage. But it’s an interesting fabric. If someone could blag some off him or spend a few dollars on a sample it would be great to get it tested.

This is a really interesting fabric – not sure why it’s been so much under the radar. The claimed HH of 5300 should theoretically mean a long life in the field before the proofing gives out. The RSBTR Silpoly seems to get all the love, despite its iffy aged HH.

The only drawback is the rather dire range of colours. Dutch says it’s not a big seller because it’s a few grams more than the alternatives and people seem to prioritise weight over performance, so he’s not planning to expand the range. Colour doesn’t seem to be his strong point – I don’t understand why he wouldn’t offer some of the more popular options like grey  and coyote brown…

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