Has anyone successfully been able to remove or improve the smell of an old nylon? tent?
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Happy Birthday, Bill Mason (1929-1988)! 🎨📽️🛶
Smelly nylon tent
- Thread starter lowangle al
- Start date
I'm not sure if this applies, but the odd time, I cook in my dining tent and pack it up wet. Once in a while after that, I've missed setting it up again at home and airing it out. Let me tell you, it STINKS of rotten fish if I make that oversight. Simply airing it out isn't enough. It's a relatively heavy nylon full size dining tent, an MEC Chowhouse.
I've found that spraying vinegar and letting it sit out on a warm sunny day can work wonders. Failing that I've actually used pet odour eliminator, but that gets expensive.
I've found that spraying vinegar and letting it sit out on a warm sunny day can work wonders. Failing that I've actually used pet odour eliminator, but that gets expensive.
Short answer...not really. Had a very old timberline that someone put away wet. Stunk bad. Set it up outside and used a brush with laundry soap and scrubbed every square inch, then rinsed it several times with a hose. Left it set up outside for a couple of weeks afterward. When it was totally dry, I packed it up and put it away. When I set it up again, it still stunk, but not quite as bad. It has been retired, although I kept the poles.
Have you tried baking soda?
No, but I've boiled milk.
Seriously though I just googled that and it looks like a good place to start, thanks for the suggestion. It's worth a shot, even though the tent is about 35 years old, it's in good usable condition. It's been stored for almost 25 years.Even though it smelled when I last used it, I don't feel comfortable taking it into bear country anymore. I feel any different or unusual smell may peak the interest of a bear, it doesn't have to be food.
This might be a stretch but; around here i make and use Lacto Bacillus serum on certain garden items and as a compost starter. It’s reputed to be a great odor eliminator and has a certain following with organic live stock producers! It’s very easy to make and i’d imagine you could stuff the tent into a 5 gallon pail with the lacto and let it set a couple days before washing with soap and water.
if it’s something you’re interested in let me know and i’ll post a link. You can almost put a batch together in less time than it took to pen this!
if it’s something you’re interested in let me know and i’ll post a link. You can almost put a batch together in less time than it took to pen this!
I always thought it was the urethane waterproof treatment that degraded over time and caused the smell. I had a 35 yo Timberline that developed the smell. I washed it which minimized the smell for awhile but finally tossed it. Same thing happened with some old treated EMS stuff sacks which also had to go.
I’ve had the Eureka curse happen with a couple of Timberlines including one this last summer that I found at a yard sale in really good shape but smelled wretched. I hung it up in the barn for a couple of weeks to air out. Seemed to work for the most part. We keep all our sleeping bags and tents in loose laundry bags for storing when not in use. The Timberline goes into a mesh laundry bag so air can get to it. We used it last weekend and it was tolerable after being set up for a while. Rob
I have an old PU coated tarp that has lived up to its name. It smells like an acrid combination of smoky fires and unwashed laundry. Absolutely no idea how that happened but with numerous airings in use and the backyard clothesline it is coming round to tolerable. I will make an attempt to deodorize it with a run thru the rinse cycle with sodium bicarbonate aka baking soda. An alternative might be to soak it in the solution in a laundry tub and then rinse.
Success. I ran the stinky tarp thru the warm wash cycle adding borax to the half measure of soap. I added white vinegar to the rinse cycle.
It came out smelling "normal". I'll let it dry on the clothesline for the day. Might want to give this a try Al. Good luck.
It came out smelling "normal". I'll let it dry on the clothesline for the day. Might want to give this a try Al. Good luck.
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I can't believe I didn't think of borax! I add it to all my regular laundry loads already...
Thanks for all of the comments, it sounds like all is not lost. The tent is airing out until I can get back to it, probably in May, and then I'll try the borax thing. I don't think I'd ever trust this tent on anything longer than a weekend trip because of its age, but it would be nice if it was usable.
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