New tent - small leak at seam

maroontag

Hi,
We recently purchased a 5 man tent from Halfords and had our first camping trip on the August bank holiday weekend. On both nights there was torrential rain and heavy winds and to be fair I was impressed the tent pretty much stood up to it all.
However, on the second night the center seam leaked a bit when the rain was at its heaviest. A couple of drops would fall approx every 10 seconds. When the rain lightened off a bit, it stopped.

My question is should I be concerned that the seam leaked at all considering it's a new tent or would it be considered fair enough as the rain was bad. Would I have reason to return the tent and have it replaced?
I am a little concerned that should we encounter bad weather on future trips that the seam could deteriorate further. I believe there is seam glue that you can use to make repairs but I would have thought this was something for a tent that has seen a bit of wear.

Thanks in advance!

Pat Mustard

That doesn't sound good at all. A good tent should have held up to the wind and the rain and should not have leaked on the second night, certainly not in the manner described by you.

Were the seams taped?

I think that you should bring that tent back to the shop, ask for a full refund and then get a better tent with a trusted brand, somewhere other than Halfords.

Tigerandahalf

Is it possible that the outside layer was touching the inner layer at that point and the rain was thus soaking in? Perhaps a pool of water had gathered on the outside layer pushing it down towards the inner.
I am just wondering this myself and would love to know from experienced tent users.

maroontag

Not sure if the seams are taped and it doesn't say on the website.

We bought it as it was a reasonable price (wasn't sure if we were going to take to camping) and it had good reviews both from Halfords website and some independent ones too. Another lady at the campsite had the same tent and had only good things to say about it ... she had endured some mad storms on the west coast.
However, I didn't get to talk to her after the leaking episode (

Still I think I might go back to Halfords with my concerns.

Tigerandahalf, the inner and outer layer were definitely not touching. The seam that leaked was the centre one and was where the front part of the bedroom pods were suspended.

maroontag

Spoke to Halfords and the guys I spoke to was surprised to hear that model had leaked. However, he has no problem to refund or replace it for me so I'll be heading in this week.

Good customer service to be fair.