Spend any time in any respect researching outside gear, whether or not it is a new tent or a brand new rain jacket, and you may shortly end up awash in a complicated array of jargon. Silnylon, polyurethane, X-Pac, cuben fiber, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE)—what are this stuff?
What none of them are is ideal. Every has its personal weight, value, advantages, and disadvantages. However there’s a cloth that is good for you and your specific use case. We put this information collectively that can assist you strip away the advertising and marketing and higher perceive what every cloth does, what it is best used for, and the place it struggles.
Desk of Contents
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Outside Material Sorts
Let’s begin by breaking this down into the assorted fibers and supplies utilized in outside gear. We’ll skip a number of the older issues, like waxed canvas, since most individuals are accustomed to it. Listed here are probably the most generally used materials within the outside trade in the present day.
What is the Distinction Between Dyneema and Cuben Fiber?
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This causes an limitless quantity of confusion in on-line backpacking boards, however there isn’t any distinction. They’re the identical factor. Dyneema Composite Material (DCF) was referred to as cuben fiber (and in addition generally “non-woven Dyneema”). It was initially developed to make sails for racing yachts (the place it is nonetheless used, along with dozens of different makes use of).
The corporate that first introduced it to market was referred to as Cubic Tech, which was then acquired by a Dutch firm, Koninklijke DSM, which renamed cuben fiber “Dyneema Composite Fabric.” (Koninklijke was then purchased by the Swiss firm Firmenich AG and the acronym DSM now refers back to the firm DSM-Firmenich AG.)
Silnylon
The oldest of the bunch, this time period refers to silicone-coated ripstop nylon. This versatile cloth is extensively utilized in tents, some (nonbreathable) rain gear, stuff sacks, and plenty of different items of drugs. Its strengths are sturdiness, excessive tear power, and waterproofing. The draw back to nylon is that it absorbs water—even, sadly, when coated with silicone. Therefore the DWR therapies, however even with these, in some unspecified time in the future nylon will moist out and begin absorbing water. This is the reason your tent’s rainfly sags when it will get soaked. Nylon can also be sluggish to dry.
Polyester
That is one other very versatile, extensively used cloth with one big benefit over nylon: It would not take in almost as a lot water. This implies it would not sag as a lot. That is significantly essential in ultralight backpacking tents that pitch with trekking poles. Sag is not simply annoying, it is a lack of structural integrity and may collapse your tent. The draw back to polyester is that it is not as sturdy as silnylon in lots of circumstances (it particularly tends to tear), and presumably not as sturdy over the long term. That mentioned, I personally discover this draw back to be overstated. I’ve two tents with polyester rain flies which have assist up effectively over the course of almost 20 years of use.
{Photograph}: Scott Gilbertson
Nemo Osmo
What should you may mix the perfect qualities of nylon (sturdy, sturdy) with the perfect qualities of polyester (hydrophobic, much less stretching)? That is the query that led Nemo Tools to develop its Osmo cloth, a proprietary mix of nylon and polyester. I have been testing Nemo’s Osmo line of tents since they debuted in 2022 and have discovered that Osmo does certainly handle to sag much less that straight nylon rainflies.
X-Pac
This can be a laminated cloth that begins with a nylon face, lays in a polyester grid, then a PET plastic layer to offer waterproofing, and eventually, a nylon backing to guard the extra fragile interior layers. The benefit over ripstop nylon is the waterproof layer, which is best generally than even silnylon. X-Pac is available in varied weights, however the most typical in packs (which is the place I’ve discovered X-Pac actually excels) are VX21 and VX42. These thicker, heavier, variations of X-Pac are extra abrasion-resistant and nonetheless stay about 20 % lighter than silnylon in the same denier. The draw back for X-Pac is that it may be somewhat fragile, particularly when it come to abrasion.
Dyneema Composite Material
Within the outside trade, Dyneema is probably the most acknowledged model identify of a composite materials manufactured from woven ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). UHMWPE is a extensively utilized in many industries for a lot of issues (together with bulletproof vests), however the model that exhibits up in tents and packs is, like Dyneema, fibers which have been spun collectively after which layered into a cloth. Therefore, the identify Dyneema Composite Material (DCF).
The ensuing cloth is 15 instances stronger than metal per weight. That cloth is then sandwiched between outer layers (often polyester) so {that a} waterproof coating will be utilized (it will not follow the DCF immediately).
Dyneema is extremely sturdy, like off-the-charts sturdy in comparison with nylon and polyester. It is also very mild and waterproof, all of which have made it a favourite amongst ultralight hikers and backpackers trying to shave off the ounces. Dyneema’s weak point is abrasion. I’ve seen the nook of a Dyneema rainfly overwhelmed to shreds by wind in a single evening of flapping towards sandstone. It is simple to restore, but in addition very costly relative to nylon and polyester, and it would not pack down as small. Nevertheless, correctly used and cared for, Dyneema is definitely the strongest, lightest cloth on this listing, making it glorious for packs, stuff sacks, and tents.
Ecopak/Extremely
Ecopack is one other cloth that involves ultralight mountain climbing from the world of crusing, the place it was initially used for, effectively, sails. That is one other UHMWPE face cloth, laminated to a water-resistant lining. You may see this cloth underneath model names like EPL Extremely, Extremely 100, Extremely 200, and Ecopak Extremely, amongst others. The numbers usually correspond to the denier, so Extremely 200 makes use of a 210 denier face cloth. However that cloth can also be woven UHMWPE fibers (about 70 % for Extremely 200), making it rather more abrasion resistant than Dyneema Composite.
Courtesy of Dyneema
Dyneema Woven Composite
Dyneema just lately launched a brand new cloth, Dyneema Woven Composite (DWC), which marries a completely woven Dyneema face cloth to DCF. Proper now, solely Hyperlite Mountain Gear packs use this new cloth, however we anticipate to see others undertake it going ahead because it improves Dyneema’s abrasion resistance. It is going to be attention-grabbing to check DWC to Extremely since DWC is basically DSM’s reply to Extremely. We’ll replace this information when we’ve extra time to check DWC packs.
Different Material Elements
If you happen to have a look at the above and judged solely on what I laid out, you’d in all probability by an enormous fan of Dyneema and Extremely, particularly should you’re into ultralight backpacking and also you’re aiming for base gear weight (earlier than meals and water) of lower than 10 kilos. Sadly, different elements inside every cloth additionally have an effect on how effectively it performs, so it is exhausting to make apples to apples comparisons.
As an example, there’s a big distinction between ripstop nylons used throughout the trade. Seize a cheapo nylon tent off Amazon and evaluate it to a Hilleberg tent and you may shortly understand that, other than each being manufactured from the identical base materials (nylon) they don’t have anything in frequent. That is the place elements like thread depend, calendaring, denier, weave kind, and extra come into play.
What Is Denier?
Denier might be the strangest unit of measurement you may ever encounter. Denier is the burden in grams for 9 km of thread. So 9km of Hilleberg’s Kerlon 1800 weighs 40 grams. What does that let you know? Just about nothing, however it’s a helpful option to evaluate materials and know, as an example, that Hilleberg’s Crimson label tents, which solely use 30D ripstop nylon should not as sturdy because the fashions made with 40D.
The explanation Hilleberg tents are so effectively made, and final for many years, is that the customized nylon mix and weave the corporate makes use of are higher than what you may discover on different “nylon” tents. Hilleberg’s nylon, which the corporate calls Kerlon, is 40D excessive tenacity ripstop nylon, which is made for high-strength expedition tents.
Denier is helpful to make comparisons throughout producers as effectively, so you’ll be able to know that your cheapo Amazon tent with its 8D nylon will not final almost so long as a 30D mannequin from extra respected manufacturers. On the similar time, denier shouldn’t be the tip of the story both. There are additionally various ranges of coatings. Keep in mind that nylon absorbs water, so you must apply a coating to sluggish that course of down.
What Is Hydrostatic Head?
One other unit of measurement that you simply would possibly see is hydrostatic head, which is an trade normal unit of measurement used to find out the waterproofness of a cloth. Technically talking, it’s the peak in millimeters of a column of water {that a} cloth can stand up to earlier than liquid begins to maneuver by way of the weave. Hilleberg’s Kerlon materials additionally coat either side with a 3-layer software of one hundred pc silicon, which supplies the nylon an HH score of 5500mm and make the material a lot stronger.
Weaves and Coatings
To showcase one other manner through which all these score and measurements should not the tip of the story, we’ll contemplate yet one more tent maker, Durston, which just lately dropped the denier of its polyester cloth X-mid tents from 20D to 15D. That feels like Durston made a weaker tent, however based on the corporate, the brand new high-strength 15D polyester provides “96 percent of the strength of the 20D while being lighter.” The corporate merely modified the weave and the coating.
The coatings are additionally completely different. In contrast to Hilleberg, Durston makes use of a silicone coating on the skin of its rainfly and a polyether coating on the within. The hydrostatic head for the X-mid is 3500, which is loads to maintain you dry. Having spent wet nights in each the brand new Durston X-mid and a Hilleberg Akto, I can guarantee you that, whereas every firm has taken a special path to the completed product, each tents are sturdy, well-made, and waterproof. The result’s similar—you keep dry.
A Phrase on Dyneema
Dyneema and different UHMWPE materials like Extremely are positively probably the most thrilling materials in outside gear proper now. They overcome two main downsides of nylon and polyester: they’re lighter and so they do not take in water. A lot of the push into outside gear manufactured from Dyneema has come from ultralight backpackers attempting to cut back their pack weight.
As famous above, Dyneema’s power is its resistance to ripping, which makes it an awesome choice for tents, packs, and on a regular basis gadgets like stuff sacks. Whereas many bigger manufacturers have now embraced Dyneema, it was actually the small, cottage trade manufacturers which have pushed innovation.
