Care for your Tent

Your shelter, if looked after lovingly, will give you years of excellent use and value. Whether you have bought a tent costing £50 or £750, the same principles apply.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to store your tent dry; wet tents go mouldy, rotten and stink. When you get back from a trip, pitch your shelter or tent and sponge off any dirt with clean water, which could include some pure soap in it. Leave the tent up until thoroughly dry and aired (helps keep the smells away!) Don’t use detergents as these leave a water attracting residue on the fabrics.

When pitching your tent, ensure that you use all of the guyropes. Be careful not to pitch it on stones or sticks, or anything that may damage the groundsheet.

If your tent needs re-proofing, there are various products available, such as Nikwax Tent and Gear Proof and Fabsil by Grangers. Firstly pitch the tent, clean it, and re-apply the proofer to the outer flysheet fabric using either a brush or the spray on type of product. This will replenish the durable water repellent coating on the fabric.

If you damage a tent, most manufacturers will repair it at a reasonable cost.

Don’t forget pegs, poles and bags. Ensure these are always clean, bent pegs replaced, and keep an eye on the poles because they can break, even the most expensive ones.

Care for your Sleeping Bag

To wash, or not to wash? That is the question.

Ideally, don’t. Washing your bag will greatly increase the rate that the fibres/down, break down resulting in a loss of warmth in the bag.

To keep your bag clean, Peglers recommend using a liner, and if you go for a silk one it doesn’t weigh a great deal more, but is easily washed, dries quickly and is quite nice to sleep in. Silk liners can also add warmth to your bag.

When you get back from a trip, hang the bag up to air; this allows the fibres to dry out completely. It is important not to store your sleeping bag compressed in its stuff sack. This can cause the insulation to lose its loft, and again result in loss of warmth. Ideally keep the bag stored loose hanging up.

If you need to wash your bag, follow the care instructions on the label, again ideally using a pure soap product such as Nikwax Tech Wash if it is synthetic, or Nikwax Down Wash if it is down filled. These can be done in a domestic washing machine if it’s a smaller bag. Bigger, heavier bags would probably be better in a larger commercial machine such as those at a Laundrette.

Synthetic bags can be air-dried or tumble dried at a low heat setting (again following the label). Down bags need to be slowly tumble dried to ensure the un-clumping of the down. Take the bag out periodically and manually break down the clumps of down.

Alternatively, we can recommend the following cleaner for down bags and clothing: W. E. Franklin Ltd. This normally takes three weeks.

Care for your Rucksack

As with all outdoor products, your rucksack needs to be kept clean and dry.
When you get back from a trip, brush/wipe off the dirt if need be using water and a pure soap based product. Check the bag over for any damage/wear and get this rectified now, as it could take a couple of weeks, something you don’t want to be doing just before your next trip. Peglers know some excellent repairers, so give us a call on 01903 883375 and we can let you have their details.

Care for your Trekking Poles

Contrary to popular belief, these also need to be looked after, just the usual clean, dry, maintain.

Keep your poles clean, wash off any build up of mud, and other stuff that may stick to your pole.

Dry your poles thoroughly; if you store them wet the poles can corrode and the sections with stick together, or not lock securely.

Most trekking poles are designed to come apart into three sections which can then be laid out and dried. Never oil you pole, as they lock in place with friction.