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Spent 2 years ruining my tent with the wrong waterproof spray | Camping Gear Reviews - Chatter Central

Spent 2 years ruining my tent with the wrong waterproof spray

Bought a cheap silicone spray from Walmart in 2021. Used it on my nylon tent every spring. Then a buddy saw me doing it and laughed. Said silicone ruins nylon over time. He pointed to the sticky residue peeling off my rainfly. Looked up the specs online. Sure enough my tent's fabric is polyurethane coated. Had to buy a $60 replacement fly last month. Anyone else make this kind of gear mix-up?

3 comments

3 Comments

jamiew535mo ago

Nylon and silicone don't mix at all. The silicone actually breaks down the coating on nylon fabrics over time, which is exactly what happened to your rainfly. Polyurethane coated stuff needs a special spray made for PU fabrics, not the general silicone stuff. That sticky mess you saw is the coating degrading from the chemical reaction.

brian3285mo ago

Ugh that's such a bummer. It really sucks when you try to do the right thing with your gear and end up making it worse. I've messed up stuff before by using the wrong cleaner and it just feels awful watching it fall apart in your hands. The thing is most people don't even know there's a difference between silicone and PU coatings. Companies should really put a big warning on the bottles or something. At least now you know what happened and can get the right spray to fix it up proper.

rubys805mo ago

@brian328 I totally get that "watching it fall apart" feeling, it's the worst. I did the same thing with an old tent fly a few years back, put regular silicone spray on it and it turned into a sticky goo. What ended up working for me was just getting the right PU specific waterproofing spray from Nikwax or something similar. I had to clean off the old silicone residue first with some rubbing alcohol and a soft cloth, took a couple passes but it worked. Did you try anything like that to fix yours or did you just replace it?