Water Leakage in Bell Tent 100% Cotton Bell Tent

Thanks for buying Shumaxx Bell Tent and please note that Cotton shrinks when wet, making itself waterproof when it rains. The first time your tent gets wet it may leak a little, don’t worry THIS IS TOTALLY NORMAL!!

for 5M 10 person Shumaxx bell tent you can check at the link below

https://www.shumaxx.com/collections/10-person-bell-tent

for 4M 8 person Shumaxx bell tent you can check at the link below

https://www.shumaxx.com/collections/8-person-bell-tent

Once it dries out for the first time that shrinkage closes up any little holes to ensure that water leakage won’t happen again.
The canvas has been impregnated to protect it from dirt, ultraviolet radiation and fungus. This makes it mould-resistant but not mould-proof. If the canvas remains damp, in a place where mould can grow, eventually mould will grow. If you put your tent up in a damp corner of the garden, next to a hedge, or under a tree long term it will eventually get mouldy (as would a car or anything left there). Therefore it’s worth considering the right spot that has some ventilation, as mould is not covered by the manufacturer’s warranty.

Brand new canvas tents may leak. This is perfectly normal. Cotton tents need to go through a weathering process to become watertight, it is the same for all bell tents and all canvas tents. When the canvas gets wet the cotton fibres in the weave will shrink (technically the fibres expand, this causes the gaps between the weave to shrink so the process is referred to as shrinking) and knit tightly together closing up any tiny holes in the weave, making the canvas water tight.

As well as the canvas needing to become water tight through weathering, the seams will also need to weather to become water tight. This is because the hole the needle makes for stitching the seams will be larger than the thread. The tiny holes in the seams need to expand around the thread in order to seal the seams (the thread itself will also expand inside the hole)

The canvas itself will be the first to weather, usually in the first couple of heavy soakings with the seams usually taking longer.

Not only does the tent need to get very heavily soaked for the weathering process to be effective, it also needs to dry thoroughly (bone dry) between soakings.