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hi all after many many years of camping i have a bit of a problem, recently bought a used 2008/9 sunncamp vario 900 massively bi tent and very nice.  however just returned early from a very very wet and windy holiday in south devon ( no names no pack drill)  everytime it rained we had small ingress of water in the form of drips and the top of the tent was wt as if it were condensation. Now i do know the tent is leaking and it isnt in just one place its generally all over so i am assuming the waterproofing has failed.  i cant understand how such a young tent that doesnt appear to have had mega amounts of use can be so leaky. my 2001 trailer tent has never evr leaked a drop in all its life, i was wondering if when the tent was new it never had the proofing activated i dont know just guessing so any help would be great. thanks

How used was it, that's the question? Decent qualitry synthetic tents have a cumulative life span of about six months of UV exposure...so if you used it for one two week holiday plus three weekends a year it will last you about seven years. But if you spent two months camping per year, the life span would be three years. Even less if it was in a sunny climate. Or it might have been a display tent?

Anyway it's easy enough to tell if the laminated layers are starting to break down from UV exposure. The fabric will go stiff or crunchy, the inside layers will start to look milky and it may start to split along creases.

On the other hand, it could just be condensation.  Do you cook in the tent or bring in wet clothes? Do you remember to keep the vents open and air the tent out fully every day? If you answered yes, yes, no and no then it's almost certainly condensation rather than premature fabric delamination.