--- title: "Caring for ultralight tents – storage, repairs, prevention" description: "In this article we'll focus on how to care for your ultralight tents, and tarps too, so you can rely on them on trips into the unknown for many years." canonical_url: "https://gramino.com/blog/caring-for-ultralight-tents" last_updated: "2022-01-25" --- # Caring for ultralight tents – storage, repairs, prevention Authors: David Czempka Date: 2022-01-25 In this article we'll focus on how to care for your ultralight tents, and tarps too, so you can rely on them on trips into the unknown for many years. In the previous article we went into detail on [how to choose an ultralight hiking tent](/blog/ultralight-tents-everything-you-need-to-know). By now you've surely settled the dilemma of which shelter to take on the road, and nothing stands between you and a lighter, more enjoyable adventure. But as you know, lightweight gear often comes with slightly higher demands on care and on the know-how to use it. That's exactly why this article focuses on how to look after your ultralight tents, and tarps too, so you can rely on them on trips into the unknown for many years to come. ## Always dry your tent before you store it If, like me, you love traveling to the Nordic countries or Scotland, rain is a familiar companion. [Tents](/c/sleep/tents) and [tarps](/c/sleep/tarps) are there first and foremost to protect us from bad weather. So plenty of adventurers might fall for the illusion that a tent handles a bit of damp just fine, even in longer storage once you're back home. The opposite is true. The flysheet, the tarp and the floor that protect us from rain and the other elements all have a coating (most often polyurethane – PU) that makes them waterproof. When they're **stored damp for a long time, mold forms and grows and hydrolysis sets in**. That process breaks down the chemical bonds between the coating and the base fabric, which can eventually lead to the coating peeling off. **Naturally this damages the coating and it irreversibly loses its original properties**. The same goes for the tape sealing the seams. It's a good idea to build a routine. **After every trip** **hang the tent up and dry it thoroughly before you store it**. It doesn't even have to rain for the flysheet and floor to end up wet – internal condensation or damp ground is enough, and if you don't dry and store it properly you're asking for trouble. If your tent has already been through a lot, it's worth cleaning the mud and dirt off it now and then. ## Where to store your tent **Avoid storing your tent anywhere in direct sunlight** – over a longer period UV radiation degrades fabrics and coatings. **Be careful about storing it in attics and similar spaces (or in the trunk of your car)**, where summer months can bring **genuinely high temperatures**, which the ultralight fabrics of tents **don't get on with either**. The best place to store a tent is **a space with lower temperature and humidity and no big temperature swings**. **Store the tent hanging up or in a large storage sack** (similar to the ones for sleeping bags), in a wardrobe for example. If that's not an option, store it in its original stuff sack. If you won't be using the tent for a long time, take it out of the sack every 3–4 months and unfold it (you don't have to pitch it). That prevents mold from growing and the coatings from being damaged. - [Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2](/p/big-agnes-tiger-wall-ul2.md) - [Big Agnes Copper Spur UL1](/p/big-agnes-copper-spur-ul1.md) - [NEMO Hornet OSMO 2P](/p/nemo-hornet-osmo-2p.md) - [NEMO Dagger OSMO 2P (2025)](/p/nemo-dagger-osmo-2p-2025.md) - [MSR Mutha Hubba NX 3](/p/msr-mutha-hubba-nx-3.md) - [MSR Hubba Hubba NX](/p/msr-hubba-hubba-nx.md) - [Big Agnes Fly Creek UL2](/p/big-agnes-fly-creek-ul2.md) - [NEMO Dragonfly OSMO 2P (2026)](/p/nemo-dragonfly-osmo-2p-2026.md) ## Repairing broken tent poles Whether you went for a [free-standing tent](/c/sleep/tents/freestanding-tents) or a more minimalist [shelter with no poles of its own](/c/sleep/tents/non-freestanding-tents), always keep in mind on the trail that the poles – tent poles or trekking poles – are absolutely essential to the tent working properly, and treat them accordingly. Without them, in many cases you won't pitch the tent no matter how hard you try. Folding tent poles are usually light and easy to pack, but their main weakness is that **careless handling can snap them**, especially at the joints. As I've found out the hard way a few times, a single broken segment is enough to turn an easy trip into an adventure that demands a serious dose of ingenuity when picking a place to sleep and rigging a shelter out of whatever nature provides. To avoid that kind of intense experience, **always make sure every segment seats fully into the next when you pitch the tent** – a segment that's even slightly out of its socket cracks easily under load, and then the fun begins. These incidents mostly happen when you're rushing to pitch in the dark, or trying to dry the fly on an unstaked tent in the wind. If you're heading out on a longer unsupported adventure, I'd definitely recommend packing a simple **repair kit for cracked poles – manufacturers often offer metal 'splints' for their tents** that you just slide over the cracked segment and secure. When repairing poles, first aid for your gear in the form of [universal repair tape](/p/gear-aid-tenacious-tape-repair-tape) is often indispensable too – legend has it that it can even mend a broken heart. When it comes to how tough the support is, minimalist tents and tarps have a bit of an advantage over classic pole tents. [**Trekking poles**](/c/gear/trekking-poles) **feel far more robust than classic folding poles and don't risk cracking at the joints** – even so, when you pitch the tent you should always check that every segment is firmly tightened, **so the roof doesn't come down on your head in the middle of the night**. Despite offering less comfort, minimalist shelters have the advantage that you can easily guy them out to all sorts of features in the surrounding landscape (trees, rocks) and are generally far more versatile to pitch. So if a trekking pole cracks or gets damaged some other way, there's still a good chance you can pitch your shelter without it. In case you manage to **tear the tent's flysheet** or damage it some other way on a trek, **equip your repair kit with universal** [repair tape](/p/gear-aid-tenacious-tape-repair-tape) or a [patch](/p/gear-aid-tenacious-tape-silnylon-patches). If you carry a repair kit for inflatable sleeping pads, it'll serve you well too. For example the Tear Aid Type A patches from the [Therm-a-Rest Permanent Home Repair Kit](/p/therm-a-rest-permanent-home-repair-kit) repair kit. ## Repair kits and patches - [Sea To Summit Air Mat Repair Kit](/p/sea-to-summit-air-mat-repair-kit.md) - [Therm-a-Rest Permanent Home Repair Kit](/p/therm-a-rest-permanent-home-repair-kit.md) - [Therm-a-Rest Permanent Instant Field Repair Kit](/p/therm-a-rest-permanent-instant-field-repair-kit.md) - [Warmpeace Self Adhesive Patches mix of shapes](/p/warmpeace-self-adhesive-patches-mix-of-shapes.md) - [Warmpeace Self Adhesive Patches 2x75 mm](/p/warmpeace-self-adhesive-patches-2x75-mm.md) - [Patizon Fix-It Tape](/p/patizon-fix-it-tape.md) - [Gear Aid Tenacious Tape Repair Tape](/p/gear-aid-tenacious-tape-repair-tape.md) - [Gear Aid Tenacious Tape Mesh Patches](/p/gear-aid-tenacious-tape-mesh-patches.md) - [Gear Aid Tenacious Tape Silnylon Patches](/p/gear-aid-tenacious-tape-silnylon-patches.md) - [Gear Aid Tenacious Tape GORE-TEX Fabric Patches](/p/gear-aid-tenacious-tape-gore-tex-fabric-patches.md) ## **Protecting your tent floor** A cellar you probably won't find in a tent, but a floor you will, quite often. For a lot of adventurers the tent floor is the deciding factor when choosing one. Plenty of people don't fancy tents or tarptents without a floor, if only out of fear of soaking up damp ground or an invasion of annoying insects. If you've gone for a tent with a floor, try to protect it from abrasion and keep it as good as new for as long as possible – that's the only way it'll still give you the same waterproofness and comfort years down the line. **The single most essential accessory for the floor of an ultralight tent is the so-called** [**footprint**](/c/sleep/footprints), which you can read more about in our [comprehensive article on tents](/blog/ultralight-tents-everything-you-need-to-know). In short, it's an extra groundsheet you lay under your whole tent, protecting the floor from excessive abrasion. Especially when pitching high in the mountains, there's no shortage of scree, gravel and sharp rocks. **Without an extra groundsheet, the floor's waterproofness will drop rapidly with active use.** If you don't feel like investing in the original footprint, you can replace it with a slightly less elegant but noticeably **cheaper DIY solution in the form of Tyvek**, which we've already prepared in a version [for one](/p/tyvek-groundsheet-230-x-75-cm) or [for two people](/p/tyvek-groundsheet-250-x-150-cm). Either way, keep in mind that despite its apparent toughness the floor is a fairly delicate part of the tent and needs proper care. ## **Caring for and lubricating tent zippers** At first glance a tent might look like a fairly static piece of gear, but you should still pay plenty of attention to its moving parts. We're talking about zippers. Few things catch you out as unpleasantly as a jammed or, worse, a split zipper. **So always be careful when opening and closing ultralight tents in particular**, and if fabric gets caught in them, free it as gently as you can. Long-term zipper care is a chapter of its own. **Just like any moving mechanism, zippers benefit from a dedicated lubricant**. A great little product is the [Zipper Cleaner and Lubricant from Gear Aid](/p/gear-aid-zipper-cleaner-and-lubricant), which lubricates the zippers and, thanks to its built-in brush, also cleans dust, sand and other dirt out of them. [Gear Aid Zipper Cleaner and Lubricant](/p/gear-aid-zipper-cleaner-and-lubricant.md) ## **A happy tent means happy travels** One final piece of advice above all others – **love your tent and treat it well**. Before you pitch it, make sure you're not putting it up on unsuitable ground, open and close it with love, don't overtension it… simply treat it as the absolutely essential travel companion it is, one that repays a little care with a light, portable and reliable roof over your head. - [Sea To Summit Aeros Ultralight Pillow (2026)](/p/sea-to-summit-aeros-ultralight-pillow-2026.md) - [Sea To Summit Aeros Premium Pillow (2026)](/p/sea-to-summit-aeros-premium-pillow-2026.md) - [Tyvek 150x250 cm (for 2 people)](/p/tyvek-groundsheet-250-x-150-cm.md) - [Big Agnes Gear Loft Trapezoid](/p/big-agnes-gear-loft-trapezoid.md) - [Nitecore NB10000 Power Bank GEN4](/p/nitecore-nb10000-power-bank-gen4.md) - [Petzl Actik Core 2025](/p/petzl-actik-core.md) - [Platypus Softbottle 1.0 L Apex Push-Pull](/p/platypus-softbottle-1-l-apex-push-pull.md) - [Kula Cloth](/p/kula-cloth-pee-cloth.md) - [Sea To Summit Lightweight Dry Bag](/p/sea-to-summit-lightweight-dry-bag.md) - [Gramino AURA Pouch](/p/gramino-aura-pouch.md) This post is also available as [HTML](/blog/caring-for-ultralight-tents). ## Sitemap See the full [sitemap](/sitemap.md) for all pages.