Debate: How long is too long to spend finding a leak in your tent?

same as title

2 comments

2 Comments

Stop searching after 15 minutes max and just patch the hole enough to stop major leaking. I'll sit there with a bucket of seam sealer and a blow dryer for two hours tracking down a pinhole and that's completely normal. You're going to be living out of that shelter for days or weeks, so taking an entire afternoon to find every last weep is time well spent when it saves you from waking up in a puddle at 3 AM. A slow leak becomes a soggy sleeping bag becomes a ruined trip, so I'll happily burn a whole afternoon on it.

tarag2820d ago

Yeah but @henry604 I gotta push back a little on the 15 minute thing. I mean, you're totally right about the slow leak ruining a trip thing, that's real. But blowing two hours on a single pinhole? Idk, that feels like overkill to me. Maybe it's just me but after like forty minutes I'd start wondering if I'm chasing a phantom leak or just making the seam wet with my own breathing. Like sometimes you just gotta seal it good enough, let it dry, and trust it.