Get mildew smell out?

[hikingfish]

Hi!
I was wondering if there was a way to get rid of the mildew smell in a tent? A friend of mine stored his tent while it was wet and it pretty much reeks now.

Any tricks would be appreciated!

Fish

 

[Stan]

The best way I know to kill mildew is to add bleach to the wash water. I'd expect after such a washing it would need a good treatment of water proofing and seam sealer.

 

[Oldsmores]

Try putting about a cup of chlorine bleach in a gallon of water and then wiping down the tent inside and out with a sponge, first with the bleach mixture, then with water to rinse.

 

[hikingfish]

I've passed the suggestions along. I'm just concerned that this might be more trouble than it's worth, as his tent is a 50$ CDN that he won at a contest and just the cost of seam sealant and waterproof chemicals might come up to more than the price of the tent.

He's been eyeing the MEC Tarn 3 tent for a while now...so this might be the excuse he was waiting for to make the purchase! Lucky him, he actually has a non-made up excuse for buying new gear!

Fish

 

[Rick]

I have had some success with Odor-Ban, which you can usually get at the local warehouse club or local pet store. I have found it works for a number of things, including dead bodies. (Though hopefully you wion't finde a mildewy. moldy tent with a dead body in it )

 

[DougPaul]

The recommendations that I have seen for cleaning a tent say just to use water and wash by hand. The waterproof coatings tend to be rather delicate (both chemically and mechanically) and can be damaged by detergents or bleach and the agitation in a washing machine.

I just searched for and found a report on Rec.backcountry of someone who washed a tent: "I washed it in bleach or something sometime and all the sealant flaked off the tub floor. Peelies everywhere."

Doug

 

[skiguy]

Buy the new Tent!

 

[mommabear]

Sounds like the tent's shot. Even if your friend managed to get some of the smell out, the tent won't perform as well. My vote is to get a new one too.

 

[sierra]

classic mistake. I would say unless the tent is otherwise in great shape and cost at least 300bucks, go shopping.

 

[BorealChickadee]

Don't soak it in bleach or detergent. I speak from sad experience as a last ditch attempt to save a tent. There was more tissue paper like coating floating around in my bathtub than a box of Kleenex.

Ditch the tent. Buy a new one.

 

[sierra]

off subject

borealchickadee, I really like that screen name, very imaginative, cool little bird.

 

[jjmcgo]

Given the negative effect of bleach on fabric treatments, direct sunlight is probably the only thing that might be effective while not destroying the tent. Might be effective. Set up the tent in sunlight, take it down, turn it inside out, expose again to sunlight.

 

[jbreen]

If you want to experiment and report back here, I saw on the TV show Mythbusters that skunk smell can be removed with a solution of baking soda and perixode. It may work here.