Are Tents Waterproof? Everything You Need To Know

There’s nothing worse than hunkering down for the night in your cozy little tent, listening to the rain beat down outside, and feeling that dreaded drop of water hit your nose…

“But, surely this tent is waterproof?” You might ask. And many people would assume the same. But the answer isn’t as simple as it seems. For not all tents are actually waterproof.

Although some tents are indeed waterproof, many are simply water-resistant, and there’s a whole range of ways for tents to keep out water – and some backpacking tents are definitely better than others.

Here, we’ll go through what actually makes a tent waterproof as well as some techniques for waterproofing your own tent at home.

Which tents are waterproof?

So how can you tell if a tent is waterproof in the first place? Well, waterproof tents are made of fabric that keeps water out entirely, although this rarely lasts forever. The degree to which waterproof tents keep out water also varies but, luckily, there’s a way to compare the waterproofing of different fabrics.

Waterproof Ratings

The Hydrostatic Head (HH) of a tent tells us how well it can keep out water. It measures in millimeters how much water the fabric can resist when a column of water is held above it. For example, if a material has a HH of 1000 (1000 HH), it can withstand the pressure of holding a 1000mm water column above it – anything above that and the water will start to seep through.

So, the larger the HH rating, the larger the water column it can resist and the more waterproof the fabr