I agree ventilation is key to cutting down the damp BUT I wouldnot recommend a gas heater if you do have a damp problem. Gas appliances generate more moisture which will only compound the problem even if it feels warmer because once the air cools the moisture will appear.
------------- Nigel
March 2012 - Dove Meadows
6th July Moving to Hayle
When camping with a tent or Combi, we usually keep clothes in the car (if the worst happens, at least clothes are dry) - leaves more room in the tent for all the other junk lol
And in the caravan for damp use old butter cartons (without lids) with cheap household salt ..... guess they would work the same in a tent
Hi
One thing that hasn't been picked up by other posters is the type of clothing you take in the first place. Cotton, for instance, takes an age to dry. I bought some microfiber towels from Lidl for a couple of quid and although they do not have the same feel as a cotton towel, they dry in a fraction of the time and are much more absorbent. Similarly, jeans not only seem to suck moisture from the air but take ages to dry. Silk and wool are good in damp conditions and so are man made fabrics although they can quickly get smelly.
We take the clothes out of the bags and put them in black bin bags, this stops the damp getting to them but have not really had a problem with our current tent as it has plenty of vents and we keep them open. As others have pointed out try and take clothes that dry quickly and leave damp towels etc in the car if it is wet.
Thanks everyone for all this info. We didn't have a problem with damp until we had this prolonged rain! We were thinking of getting a gas heater for when the weather got a bit colder but the fact that it can make damp worse has put me off a bit. I'm reluctant to go down the EHU route because I really like basic camping. I'll try the cat litter and salt thing the next time we're away too and keep all the clothes in a bin bag. Thinking about it though, we didn't have a damp bedroom but we had a smaller space and the vent was fully open. In the main area of the tent there is only one other vent apart from the windows that we had to keep closed because otherwise the rain would have come in. Oh dear, lets hope we don't have continuous rain the next time we venture out!
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Damp stuff in the tent
