Do tents these days 'breath' ??

[Nertbush]

I have been hiking for a little while, but have always returned home at the end of the day...

Now I am wanting to begin 2,3,4 day expeditions and was curious about something after reading a sad story online...
The person used a small bbq inside their tent and ended up dead ! after inhalation of the gases !

Ive read a lot on here about good and bad ventilation in tents and wondered if this is all I had to worry about ?? OR do the fabrics of 'modern tents' allow oxygen and other gases to pass through them without any issues ??

*paranoid guy* :p

Thanks

[Rico]

You are not supposed to cook in a tent, especially in a 4 season ones as they have less ventilation. All tents have systems to allow a sufficient air flow to allow people inside to breath, but I don't think that there is in the market a waterproof fabric able to expel enough carbon monoxide to allow to cook inside without any air vent open. Also fabrics don't breath very well when wet. The vestibule is usually fine if you are REALLY careful not to burn the tent down, with you inside it. Most good fabrics are treated with fire retardant chemicals, but it doesn't mean that they will not burn.

Rico

[Scottyk]

I have been hiking for a little while, but have always returned home at the end of the day...

Now I am wanting to begin 2,3,4 day expeditions and was curious about something after reading a sad story online...
The person used a small bbq inside their tent and ended up dead ! after inhalation of the gases !

Ive read a lot on here about good and bad ventilation in tents and wondered if this is all I had to worry about ?? OR do the fabrics of 'modern tents' allow oxygen and other gases to pass through them without any issues ??

*paranoid guy* :p

Thanks

What an odd thing to worry about! If you don't light a BBQ inside your tent then no problem.
Tents don't breath through the fabrics, maybe the inner but not the fly. The do ventilate through openings and that's it.

[wayno]

they breathe enough to keep you alive without a barbeque going....
some have mesh inner walls but if you've got a solid woven fabric outer you'd still need a good breeze and you'd still probably get carbon monoxide poisoning..
you can get tents with a door at either end if you really want well ventilated, but you just dont want to be in an enclosed space with your method of cooking, carbon monoxide physically damages your brain as well as starving you of oxygen

[Joomy]

Usually when people talk about ventilation in a tent it's in relation to condensation not CO poisoning. You can cook inside a vestibule, even inside the tent proper if you take proper precautions like keeping the flame away from anything flammable and proper ventilation. Great series of articles on CO here by Roger Caffin: http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin ... index.html

Quote from the intro article: "To ensure its safe and proper operation and avoid health hazards, provide a fresh air opening of at least 10 square inches’. (The fine print underneath does say to not use it in a tent, but that’s just the lawyers speaking.) If you think about it, a vent some 5 inches wide by 2 inches high is fairly easy to have at the top of the door in many good tents. Just make sure there is somewhere down low for the air to get in - if necessary, clear the snow away to make an inlet hole at ground level."