Have just returned from an aborted first trial of our Icarus 500. Like many users, I had read loads of excellent reviews of this tent, only one of which had mentioned problems with leaking. Last night there was fairly continuous rain (never a problem with my Vango Yukon), and this morning the rain was coming in via little 'sprays' from the ceiling, forming little droplets on the floor, and collecting in little pools in the corners of the tent and along the edges adjacent to the bedrooms, which would reappear after mopping up (I don't think the problem was lack of tautness either). Also the rain had collected in a small pool in one of the bedrooms. As some other users have mentioned, because there is no central rear guy, the outer fly lies very close to the inner berth, and in the rain these two surfaces were touching in places, presumably enabling the water to come through? So, we were very disappointed, and my gut feeling is that I shall take the tent back and ask for a refund. I have incidentally been told by folk at Go Outdoors that 2000 HH should be perfectly sufficient for this country. Such a shame as I was convinced that this was the shortbreak tent for us! Anyone else had these problems?
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If you have a lot of condensation on the inside of the flysheet and the inner touches it, the inner will wick the water through into a puddle. This doesn't mean the flysheet is leaking though. Condensation will also spray from the roof if the rain is pelting hard enough on the outside to make the flysheet bounce. It's only in cotton canvas that when the inner touches the outer it causes the rain to seep through the flysheet. This just doesn't happen in synthetic tents unless the outer fabric is very old and started to degrade. The vast majority of leaks in synthetic tents are via the seams.
So, consider if it was condensation. Classic weather conditions for bad condensation are continuous rain and very cold outside. Was there any extra source of water vapour in the tent, such as wet coats/towels/dogs, or you cooking/boiling a kettle? Finally, were the vents all opened fully?
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Topic: water leaks in Vango Icarus 500
