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Bought a $189 tent at REI in Denver three years ago and the rainfly zipper froze solid on night one at Gross Reservoir
Three years back I grabbed a tent at the REI on 17th in Denver, $189 on sale, and the guy at the counter swore the rainfly was the best part. Fast forward to a trip at Gross Reservoir in late October, temps dropped to 22 degrees overnight, and that zipper turned into a solid brick of ice. I sat inside that thing at 5am yanking on it with gloves on, then bare hands, then a lighter to warm the metal, and nothing. My buddy's $60 no name tent from a big box store opened fine because his zipper was plastic, not metal. I ended up crawling out through the door on my hands and knees like a dog, which was humiliating at 37 years old. Wrote a review on the site when I got back and it got buried under 40 five star posts from people who only camped in July. Has anyone else had a metal zipper just straight up fail in freezing weather, and did you find a way to fix it or did you just toss the tent?
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noahbaker16d ago
That plastic vs metal thing your buddy proved is the whole ballgame. Metal conducts cold right into the teeth, so once it hits the teens the slider and the coils basically weld together, and yanking just rips the pull off. I had a metal zip on a Marmot do the same thing at 11 degrees near Leadville, and what finally got me out was holding the slider against my bare stomach for about four minutes until my body heat thawed it enough to move. After that trip I started rubbing a crayon on the teeth before every cold weather run, and it worked all season. Wax or graphite from a pencil works too, just lay it on thick on the outside of the teeth. The plastic zip on a cheap tent is honestly the smarter call below freezing, metal looks tougher but it lies to you.
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