Take Care of Your Tent!

I learned the importance of tent care after buying a used Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3 tent from Ebay without asking the seller if it had an odor. It smelled like a seafood buffet! The previous owner must have pitched it without a footprint on a beach covered with seaweed and dead sea creatures. The tent bottom was caked with fishy mud, and the inside contained sand, indicating that it had been stored without being cleaned.

I tried everything to eliminate the smell. I washed the tent so many times that all the seam tape came off, and I had to reseal the seams. I washed it with Nikwax SolarWash, microbial enzyme deodorizers (Revivex and MiraZyme), pure laundry detergent (a no-no), vinegar, baking soda, and activated charcoal, but to no avail. The money I spent cleaning the tent was almost enough to buy another used one. I soaked the tent so much that the polyurethane hydrolyzed and released a sweet, fruity aroma. Now my tent smelled like a seafood restaurant and a candy shop. I gave up.

When I pitched the tent in bear country in the Smoky Mountains, I could smell the sweet, fishy odor from at least 50 feet away. Sure enough, I woke up in the middle of the night to a noise outside my tent. I poked my head out and saw a black bear less than 10 feet away. It walked away and never came back. Needless to say, I resold the tent to someone who wasn’t concerned about the smell.

The morals of this story:

1) Always ask about odors before buying a used tent online

2) Don’t sleep in a yummy-smelling tent in bear country (duh!)

3) Take care of your tent