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Quote: Originally posted by ianpm on 14/3/2010

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It's a Vango Diablo 900. Thanks for the advice we'll try the Milton solution

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No, don't do that unless it has actual mildew on it. Musty does not necessarily equal mouldy. And re-treating a tent after you've put Milton on it is a long and tedious job. Instead try opening it up and leaving it pitched for a couple of days. Hose it down with plain water and allow tpo dry. You can wash inners in the washing machine if they are small enough...non-bio powder, 30'c wash, rinse cycle twice to make sure all the powder is out.

If you've got mildew on the flysheet though you've probably wrecked the waterproofing. You can try Milton, soap solution (not detergent) and several rinses with plain water before treating with Fabsil to reproof it. However it's a tedious process, Fabsil is not cheap and unless you completely eradicate the mould spores it will probably come straight back as soon as the tent gets damp. In addition sleeping in a mouldy tent is not ideal, especially if you have kids, anyone with allergies or anyone with asthma in the family. In a lot of cases it's best just to dump the tent if the mould is extensive....and never put a tent away wet again, mmm?

We put our Carrera 600 away last year after drying it off in the house for several days after rain on the last night of our last trip.

Everything was definitely dry but we hauled it all out a few weeks ago just to check all was well (and to calm the "I wanna go camp" noises in my head!!).  The flysheet was fine (polycotton) but the inners which were stored in the other side of the Vango "valise" smelled a little musty.  No visible signs of damp at all so we just aired them again in the house - snow outside and the garden not big enough for the tent unless we and the postman walk through it to get to the front door of the house!!

After a few days, the smell had gone so the inners have been repacked but this time we've left the pack open slightly - don't fancy that musty smell on next month's first outing!!

Hi woodchip,

what do you do with the bicarbinate of soda

hi

ive  had to reseal ours(montana outwell 12) due to us having mould witch i used milton fluid to stop it and clean it does the job great.

then i resealed it spraying it with thomsons waterseal i used 5 litres to do the lot. 

first time out and it poured down,we all had bets on witch puddles would run off the tent first.

hope this helps(if you have to reseal it)hope its not that bad.

yngwie.

Hi

I used a vango diablo 900 for 3 years, i gave up in the end trying to keep it clean, its camping after all, i always packed a febreeze and would spray it in the inner tent every now and then and keep all the windows open for a while, worked a treat

Pete