Drying your equipment

[Welshwizard]

Something I,ve allways had a problem with in our climate (UK) - how do you dry your equipment before stashing away until your next outing ,particuarly tent,basha,bivvi etc which are proofed and therefore cannot go in the dryer and weather carries on being inpossibly wet or just too damp to get it out quick enough to prevent mould or other damage ?

 

[Trunks]

All my stuff goes straight into dry bags in the rucksack, i then hang them up in the cellar when i get home.
If you don't have room in your house to hang them up - back seat of the car

 

[Mesquite]

Outside if it's dry by the time I get home. If it's still wet outside then it's over the bannister at the top of the stairs.

Drives the wife mad but the smell of campfires permeating through the house as the kit dries is lovely

 

[blacktimberwolf]

I'm not in the UK, but same as Mesquite, if the weather is too wet to dry outside on the washing line then tent & fly are hung over the banister ( no camp fire smells though, just damp dog ).&.they will be there until they're bone dry as nothing, absolutly nothing is packed away damp.

 

[Toddy]

Hmmph. My chute got soaked on the last day of a meet, so I took it home and stretched it out over the bannisters that run the full length of the upstair hallway.
I went away to work (Highlands I think) and came home to a husband with one of those, "I've done a clever thing!", look about him.

He'd gotten fed up of the smell of the smokey chute so he had, in his own words, "Just put it into the washing machine."

Took all my nice smoke tar waterproofing off it :yikes: and the damned thing got me some very funny looks when it went up next, smelling of Persil

Drying stuff's a pain in a wet climate. Over the bannisters or opened up on the living room floor overnight is usually the best I can do if it's chucking it down outside.
If it's dry then the washing lines and the whirlie.
I do know someone who stretches his tarp out over his hedge to dry it off.

cheers,
Toddy

 

[John Fenna]

I do not own a dryer - wet stuff either goes in the garage and later over the drying rack over the Rayburn stove in the kitchen....
Airing and storage is done in the spare bedroom.

 

[Teepee]

It gets laid out over anything in the house-its not unusual to lose all of the house furniture unders drying fabric.

I love the smell of it so much it makes me want to get straight out again.

 

[Shewie]

Most of my soggy gear goes down in the cellar for a couple of days, I've got a couple of lines strung up which I can clip a tarp/bivvy to. A dehumdifier/heater works a treat for the damp shelters

Some gear goes up in the spare bedrooms and hangs off light fittings and wardrobe doors

 

[resnikov]

I try to dry my kit indoors if I cannot dry it outside. Just moved so have a garage which is set aside as mine so I can use it to dry it as its not filled full of household cr@p. Before that I used to either hang stuff over the bath if it was really wet or if just damp over the dining room table.

 

[beenn]

Washing line, under the shelter out the garden if soaked or tied up inside/over the banister

 

[DavidJT]

Washing line if weather and my whereabouts allows, otherwise hung from the beams in the garage.

 

[drewdunnrespect]

daddies garage then on two shelves in said garage

 

[Welshwizard]

Its down to any available indoor space then by the looks of these replies ,something I,m short of in our house - 200 year old cottage with five adults (plus girlfriends of my sons) and two dogs , I suppose I will just have to keep watching the weather for drying and use of kit .
Thanks everyone for your replies .

 

[Paul_B]

I dump really wet stuff in the bath and use a clothes dryer frame thingy that stands on the edge of the bath to hang more stuff over the top. Then if only damp or only wet on one side (like a groundsheet) I just spread out a bit on spare room floor. BAsically get the worst of the water off in the bath and finish off in another room. dehumidifiers work to help things dry indoors.

BTW synthetic materials are less prone to problems these days with being stored wet. One of my other techniques is to leave the tarp/tent in the stuffsack and dump it somewhere then come back to it just before a trip I need it for. Then I find it still wet (sometimes it dries in the sack) and I just pack it anyway and use it normally. SO far never had any problems with it not working. Of course cotton canvas is not like that (old force 10 tents) and you do have to dry it out or it stains or goes mouldy. But modern synthetics are pretty good.

 

[rb1985]

proofed fabrics can go in the dryer gore-tex for example tell you to tumble dry after washing. even nylon can be put can be put in the dryer on low you just have to keep an eye on it, never tryed sil-nylon so have no idea what would happen with that.