Nikwax: Clean and Protect Your Tent and Gear with Waterproofing and UV Protection

MK: Easy to use, very effective, overall an excellent product I would recommend for breathing new life into old gear!

United States on Sep 21, 2023

Loretta Hensley: Value for the money, water resistance, low to no odor and it dried quickly so I could put my replacement canopy top on.

United States on Sep 05, 2023

Nerf: Highly recommend this product. Two bottles was enough to cover our North Face Wawona 6 person tent, including the floor. Next time we used it we got pummelled with heavy rain for hours on end and not a single drop of water made it into the tent! I would suggest wearing dishwashing gloves for applying the product to your tent; it sticks to skin just as well as it sticks to nylon and no, washing with soap does not get it off!

Canada on Aug 24, 2023

rob hunt: fantastis product need 1-1/2 bottles to complete to job, but the tent stayed dry ., i would recommend this to anyone, my tent is a tarn3 about 12 years old we also did all the seems , .

Canada on Aug 22, 2023

Hendrix: I ended up getting less than a third the stated coverage because the sprayer head makes a mess. It's like a fine mister that randomly covers whatever you spray with tiny puddles of the product. I had to mop up quite a mess when I was finished. The product worked great but, if I buy again I'll transfer the product to a better spray bottle.

Canada on Jul 30, 2023

Guy: The bottom length-seams of my awning started to leak, heavily. This was almost instantly waterproof as it rained as I was spraying. Very easy to use, and versatile. I plan on spraying a coat i have that is beginning to be less protective, and maybe my hiking boots if I can remember b4 I leave LOL.

Canada on Jul 07, 2023

Samuel G.: I've been using this stuff for the past decade when I first got into camping and it's the best thing! Long gone are the nights you wake up because you just received a drop of cold water right between the eyes, now you can let the soft melody of the rain hitting your tent bring a well deserved night of sleep. It is easy to apply and provide a great water repellent finish on a veriety of synthetic fabrics. Whether it's to give that old tent an extra life or treat your brand new gears, you can't go wrong with Nikwax, simply make sure the product is compatible with the fabric you're using it on and that the surface is CLEAN. I noticed that when you hose down a tent, the area most susceptible to leak wil get soaked up instead of water beading on it and that's were Nikwax really shine; since it's water based it will penetrate into the seam or area that lost it's water repellency and work it's magic. Make sure to follow the instructions and wait at least 2 mins for the product to dry a bit before removing the excess with a microfiber or soft cloth. I suggest you wear gloves as your hands with take a few washing before water stop beading on them, that's how good this stuff is. Side note,...

Canada on Jun 20, 2021

B ChristensenB Christensen: The media could not be loaded.  If you have an older "mid-priced" tent (like an REI half dome) - something that cost you between $150 and $300 and its over 5 years old, chances are that the three waterproofing elements it uses are compromised. This product is ONE of the things you need to bring back that waterproofness. And it works very well if you follow the complete process. As you can see in my video, I simulated a very strong rain storm for about 45 minutes with heavy rain and occasional sideways gusts (as usually happens in a big storm). After spraying the tent HARD for 45 minutes, I climbed inside and inspected the interior. I did not find a single drop anywhere inside the tent, and running my hands along the inside surface of the rain fly I could not detect any seepage, including along seams. There did seem to be some darkening of the rain fly fabric (as you can see in the photos) which indicates saturation of the nylon fabric, but the PU coating on the inside of the fly did its job and kept the interior dry. With a Saturday of effort, I totally restored my tent.

Background:
Mid-grade tents are mostly made of nylon fabric with three waterproofing steps - on...

United States on Dec 08, 2018

M. Chalfant: I used most of a bottle to re-waterproof my tent and fly before heading to the Wind River Range in Wyoming for 5 days. It rained every day, and I was glad I used it.

I scrubbed the entire tent and fly thoroughly with warm water and a scrubber sponge first. I didn't use Tech Wash, so keep that in mind. Then i followed the instructions and sprayed a coat on, waited one minute, then wiped excess liquid off with a cloth. A piece of advice: this is water-based, so unlike some coatings and adhesives, it really does DRY, not cure. I started to work in the sun, but it was drying too fast, so i moved to the shade, which gave me more time to work.

For the most part, it kept water out of the tent. Through steady, constant rain over two days, the floor stayed dry, and the fly didn't drip. However, during a high-intensity precipitation event, the floor was essentially in a puddle before the water could drain, and it pretty quickly penetrated the waterproofing. This did NOT happen at the seams, but rather, in the center of a panel of nylon that I had thoroughly re-waterproofed. I'm still giving it 4 stars because it was relatively easy to apply, and performed well, given that I...

United States on Sep 03, 2014

H. Hodges: The first time we used our untreated pop-up tent we got hit with a spate of bad weather and had to get a hotel room. The pop-ups (the round kind you just unzip and throw in the air) don't have the surface tension qualities of a staked-out tent so after two wet nights the tent was damp through to the liner and would not have withstood any more water.

For our next trip, we treated the surfaces with Nikwax and the seams with Gear Aid Seam Sealant and despite the rain we couldn't have been happier. No leaks, no problem. This time, instead of absorbing moisture until it hung down to our noses in the night, the liner stayed where it was supposed to be. When we got home and unpacked the tent it was still soaking wet in places, so it the rain was substantial but none of our gear inside had got wet and we slept well.

Nikwax is so easy to apply - we sprayed it on and spread it with a soft wallpaper brush, blotted off any excess which pooled at the bottom and the next time I looked at the tent it was dry and otherwise identical to what it had looked like (felt like etc) before Nikwax. It's hard to imagine when it's dry that it will be waterproof because there is no visible...

United States on Jul 17, 2014