Single wall tents and dealing with condensation the next day

[Andrew P]

Over the summer I did the Collegiate Loop using a Tarptent Double Rainbow Li (DCF). The tent worked out great and was well worth the slight penalty in packed volume. The major downside was a few very wet nights which led to some pretty nasty condensation the next day.

 

I had no issues with it raining in the tent or me otherwise getting wet. The issue was having to fold and roll up a tent that was very wet on the inside. I wiped it down as much as possible, but my bandana wet out long before I could get all of the moisture. This meant that I would have to stop at some point during the day, pitch the tent, and wait for it to dry out. This ended up being somewhat stressful as, inevitably, the timing of a spot with the proper combination of sun, breeze, and surface never came at a time when I was ready for a break.

 

For those of you with more single-wall tent experience is there a better way to dealing with drying out the tent the next day?  Do you always end up doing a loose pitch of the tent during the day to dry it out or do you have a better method?

 

As an aside, I took a Nemo Hornet Elite 2P (double wall) on an 8 day section of the AZ trail and found it so much easier to deal with on the few days where condensation was a problem. I just stuffed the fly into an exterior pocket and shook it out in the sun during a rest stop. If it weren’t so cramped it might be the best solution for me.

[John S.]

You don’t have to pitch a tent to get it dry. Just lay it out or lightly “sway” it around to help the water evaporate. I used to do this with my golite hut 1.

[Bruce Tolley]

+1 to John’s recommendation.  If you pack up very early in the AM and have breakfast once the sun is fully up, you can do this at breakfast.  Or at lunch on the trail.

There are many detailed threads here at BPL on how to minimize condensation in your shelter by campsite selection. Just one example, do not camp next to streams and large bodies of water.  In my TT Double Rainbow I often leave the doors fully open which helps a lot.

Years ago, I took a lightweight backpacking workshop from the Sierra Club. For our overnight, the leader took us to Henry Coe State Park which is in the Diablo Range here in the San Francisco Bay Area.  Our overnight was to be a dry camp. After our dinner near a stream and packing up water, we walked for a couple of hours. We kept passing what I thought to be obvious and quite nice places where we could camp.  The leader said we needed to get to just below the top of the ridge to be above the dew line. Sure enough we had slight breezes all night and minimal condensation. The next day we passed a few parties who were crawling out of double walled tents and drying out their gear,

[BlackHatGuy]

“In my TT Double Rainbow I often leave the doors fully open which helps a lot.”

I do this as well. And, thanks to a tip from Dan Durston, unless flying bugs are really bad, when I get into my shelter for the night I leave a bit of the screen open at the top which facilitates heat escaping (according the Dan the noseeum screens restrict air flow more than you might imagine). While I can’t say never, I did rarely have condensation inside, or serious condensation inside, on most of my trips with single wall shelters (which is all I’ve used for years now).

Also, I carry a small bit of cloth that will keep soaking up water even when wet instead of a bandana for wiping down condensation. It’s worth, to me, the couple of extra ounces.

[Brad W]

Also look at replacing your bandana with a more water absorbing material.

[Sam Farrington]

Even if you are using a double-wall tent, any condensation will form on the inside of the outer wall.  The remedy for that is good ventilation of the area between the two walls.  The best tents are designed to vent well, but others not so much.  Note that many of the nylon products  absorb moisture, though.

I am not among those who are content with the swabbing approach, and my tenting partners agree.  Although if it is raining when we get up, I swab the outside of the tent before packing it into its stuff sack.  But we have no trouble staying bone dry in the tent.  Some on BPL have questioned my veracity on this point.  I wonder if some of them are promoters using BPL to market their products and get folks to put up with being wet in tents.

[Andrew P]

Thanks everyone for taking the time to comment. I guess I should have been a bit more clear on a couple of points.

 

The times when I had real issues involved late-afternoon rains with humidity that stayed elevated through the night. Campsites were literally soaked the next morning so the site selection was less of an issue. Normally I’m very careful about site selection.

As for swabbing I guess I should have been more specific as well. I carry a microfiber towel that I use for wiping down the tent (among other things).

 

You don’t have to pitch a tent to get it dry. Just lay it out or lightly “sway” it around to help the water evaporate.

Interesting. Based on how long it took to dry with a loose pitch I figured I’d never get any results without getting real airflow through the interior.

[Ross Bleakney]

I carry a couple of these towels. I keep wiping it down and wringing it out with one towel until the tent is mostly dry (and I can’t wring much moisture out of the towel). Then I take the other one and wipe it completely dry.

[dirtbag]

Hence not a fan of tents or single wall tents. I prefer a tarp. If using a single wall tent I have found leaving doors open helps but otherwise,  not much else will do. Embrace the condensation??  Like others have said.. lay it out to dry ( hopefully its not a cool rainy day ) ?  I pick and choose when and where to use a tent and honestly,  single or double wall, it is my last choice.

[bradmacmt]

The condensation issue is a very personal thing. Some can tolerate it, others not so much. I fall in the latter category. But one thing I’ve learned in life as I’ve aged is I can change my mind. Last single wall tent I had was a TT Rainbow. Didn’t matter where I pitched it, it collected a LOT of condensation. But that was 11 years ago, and I’m willing to give it a go again, I think the Rainbow is such a great design for those of us that don’t use poles (I’d prefer a DCF Moment tho).

I’ve been using tarps and double wall tents going back to 1974 or a bit earlier (I started backpacking in 1975). In all that time, the only double wall tent I just cannot seem to collect condensation in is the Nemo Hornet 1P (I’ve had both versions going back to 2016). It just seems impossible to get condensation to collect in it, no matter where or what conditions its pitched in. Really it’s a great little design.

Sorry for the early morning rambling that’s slightly off topic… I chalk it up to not enough coffee yet :)

[John S.]

My nemo hornet 1p gets condensation frequently (Arkansas lately) but I could care less.

[dirtbag]

The few times I have slept in my Nemo Hornet have been pretty successful, even when camping near water.  It is a sweet little tent!

True.. It is a personal thing. Kind of like soot on bottom of your cook pot. Its there and I have learned to embrace it, doesn’t bother me at all.  There have been some mornings though waking up to condensation in a tent where I was annoyed.. thankfully it was not a trip of multiple nights to have to deal with it.  Soot I can embrace way more then condensation!

[S Long]

I think I got a defective Nemo Hornet. I only took it out two nights. It rained on and off the entire time but never really got below about 50 degrees. I expected some condensation, but it was absolutely sodden. I think the rainfly was leaking. I heard Nemo had a bad batch of fabric, so maybe I just got one of the bad ones. I hear enough good things that it’s tempting me to try it again.

[dirtbag]

If you brought it directly from Nemo.. FInD out!! They will know from the batch number. Happened to me with my 3p tent.. unfortunately I got burned on stupid eBay so they would not help me out.. but they did verify batch number and its defectiveness.

[bradmacmt]

I think I got a defective Nemo Hornet.

I think you did. I had a circa 2016 regular Hornet, and have a 2019 Elite Hornet – both have been dry and condensation free, including in driving rain, snow, and pitched next to streams and lakes.

[DWR D]

S Long, “I think the rainfly was leaking.”

Don’t just think or guess… find out… on a dry day, set up your tent on the deck or back yard and use a nozzle on your hose to simulate rain for 20 minutes… then check inside for rain…  then you can be sure…

 

[S Long]

That tent is long gone. I got a pro deal on it, so it wasn’t a big loss. I gave it to one of my cousins who said he “didn’t care” if it leaked. *shrug* I might give the Hornet Elite a try. To correct for thread drift, I take a piece of shamwow with me and whenever there is condensation I just soak, wring, repeat until an acceptable level of dryness has been achieved. For point of reference, I currently use a Tarptent Moment. Double wall, but that just means the condensation happens somewhere else (when it happens). Hasn’t been a problem for me yet, and it’s been through some good rainstorms in the Wind Rivers.

[Dan]

I normally don’t worry about a little condensation inside the tent, since I figure it will dry pretty quickly once I pitch it the next day. However, if I have extra time in the morning, and the sun is up, I turn it inside out and drape it over a boulder. Dries in no time.

[Rex Sanders]

Too often I backpack in cool, foggy conditions, where condensation is unavoidable – even on windy ridge tops. Quickly learned that a cotton bandana is woefully inadequate for wiping down single-walled tent condensation.

Started carrying a small PackTowl. At least I can wring it out and repeat until the tent is mostly dry. Silnylon soaked up water like a PackTowl, but can’t wring it out. So I had to repeat the wipe-down every evening after setup. Got old, fast.

Switched to a silpoly single-walled tent. Only one trip so far, with one night right next to a lake. Much less condensation, much easier to wipe down, and much drier that evening. Tolerable. For me.

Supposedly DCF, the magic fabric with an equally magic price, is also far less prone to condensation. Seems like I made a good enough choice.

— Rex

[Roger Caffin]

I would have thought that the amount of condensation would mainly depend on the humidity of the air and the temperature of the fabric or surrounding air, with a big allowance for the amount of air movement and ventilation.

To be sure, condensed water may run across the surface of a tilted fabric down to the ground, but a silicone coating does not exactly wet out that much – regardless of the substrate. Mind you, an aged silicone coating might be a bit different from a brand new one.

Not simple at all.

Cheers

[Jerry Adams]

I find condensation to be worse on a clear night.  The walls cool due to radiative cooling.  This causes more condensation

Often, the air temperature falls until it’s close to the dew point.  Then, it’s hard for air temperature to fall below that because it requires condensing water.  If the wall is then cooled (about 10 F) below that because of radiative cooling, it’s well below dew point and gets a lot of condensation.

A solution would be to pitch the tent under a tree which blocks the view of the clear sky.  Or if it’s cloudy then there will be little radiative cooling.

[Diane “Piper” Soini]

If there aren’t going to be horrendous clouds of mosquitoes, I find that a tarp is the best kind of shelter. There’s no “inside” to get wet. If it’s actually raining, you just pack everything up while you are under the tarp and the last thing you do is put the wet tarp in the mesh outer pocket of your pack. Then if the sun comes out you can lay it out to dry. If the sun does not come out, or you never get around to drying it, you can set it up wet and it doesn’t matter because there isn’t an “inside” to get all your stuff wet.

[Vincent K]

So I’m a little late to this thread but I recently discovered Sweedish cloths. These things are amazing for wiping down a wet tent. They soak up a ton of water and wring out pretty thoroughly so you can keep using it for more wiping, and they dry very quickly hanging off the back of a pack. I find them much more effective than the polyester PackTowels. They work well, they’re small and light, and available for cheap on Amazon.

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