Silnylon lifespan

How long can a wool jumper last ?
To explain, there are many different types of silnylon fabrics made and of course the tent manufacturer, the user, where and how the shelter is used will make a huge difference.
I would expect to get answers between 20 years plus and one season.

Re-coating silnylon (silicone spray or liquid) will increase the life span but avoiding a lot of daylight exposure and keeping the fabric clean will help getting a much longer usage just as looking after your wool jumper (what type of wool ?) will achieve the same result.
BTW, I am not aware of any tent fabric that will last forever….

sometimes sun will damage the nylon making it rip easily, then it’s pretty hopeless

I had a pack that did that after a number of years – lots of sun exposure it was on the top.  I wouldn’t recommend silnylon for a pack though

for a shelter, typically I’m hiking during the day so it doesn’t really get that much exposure

if you had a shelter up as a basecamp during a summer it could start to be a problem

another thing is the silicone coating can degrade causing it to leak.  Then you could just recoat it.  This would be more likely in lower quality silnylon?

Thanks very much for the replies. I know it’s kind of a stupid question, and I know I’m kind of stupid because I googled wool jumpers. :)

My 6 shelters come from 6 previous owners and 4 manufacturers with varying material and designs hence the vague question.  I don’t expect them to last forever so I shouldn’t have included that term, but anything approaching 20 years would be really nice. I’m curious if someone could get ~1000 nights from a pyramid or if that’s wildly out of the question.

So I’ll expect the material to gradually become more porous. I just read an old thread where Richard Niesley said the post-use hydrostatic head dropoff of Silnylon (depicted on a graph) will be hockey stick shaped (fast then slow.)

Wool jumpers..

I lived in England, NZ and Australia, sometimes I get confused about the various versions of English, particularly with the Americans version .

(my favourite : I could care less )

“Forever” was understood to mean a longish time (my kettle takes forever to boil and when it does only the water inside is really  boiling…) but I would give the typical 30D silnylon 200-400 nights before it’s time to retire it.

I do maybe 70 nights a year, but use tent only half the time so that’s 35 per year

Silnylon mid has lasted 6 years, so that would be 200 nights

Doesn’t seem like it’s anywhere near “wearing out”.  I did replace the zipper once, but it was a #3 which is really too light.

Another demise for a tent is to put it away wet, even slightly.  Dry for a week after use.  Or else there will be mildew that makes it unusable and un-cleanable

Silicone has a good resistance to UV radiation as does nylons. So combining the two will work quite well in increasing the longevity of silnylon. But, it has to be applied before it is used for maximum effect. Once the nylon is damaged there is no feasible recovery. It is just weak. A normal fly/tarp will last about 6 years or so at about 50 nights per year: Or around 300 nights. The silicone coating will often wash off and start misting around the second year or so. Some of the stuff I have seems like it was never coated…it misted the first time out, soo I just coat a new tarp, 100%, seams, and body. My tarp just blew out after 17 years of use and it took a 50mph gust to do that (the pole poked through and started ripping down the front.) So, it is possible that the thin coatings applied at the factory to save weight are inadequate to preserve the fabric.

Spotted on the Tarptent Facebook page today comments posted by Brian Redbear Fletcher about his experience using the TT Contrail since 2010 .

Quote :

After a 5 year trip around the world, with years of my life spent inside my tent, I arrived back in the USA…

details at :
https://www.facebook.com/tarptent/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf