Frost in tent

“Hello. I am a novice backpacker and have gone on a few short trips so far. I love it!
I just got a new tent. A small, 2 person tent and slept outside last night to test it. It's a 3 season tent and it did get down to 20 degrees.

I expected and got frost all over the fly of the tent but noticed in the middle of the night and morning that I had frost all on the insides of my tent as well. Is this normal? I just wasn't sure if it was.

Thanks!”

“It's normal if your tent doesn't have adequate ventilation. You may need to keep the rain fly zipper cracked open to help compensate. If there's 2 people in the tent, believe me, the frost will start falling back on you. There's quite a few gear threads here about tent ventilation. GO ahead and do a search.”

“Yeah, it has great ventilation which I found strange that I still got frost inside.”

“With that temperature there will be some frost. Looks like you did well. Welcome to trailtalk.”

“Either don't close the doors of your tent or unzip every window and door...personally, I don't see the point in closing those unless it's really windy and even then leave the windows open...it's gonna be about the same temps inside as out...that little 5-10 degree difference doesn't really count for much...if you have frost inside your tent, you didn't have enough ventilation...”

“With this tent, the top and door side is all screen. I thought that would be enough ventilation since the ran fly does not touch the ground.”

“Thats a common thing to happen, It does not bother me, I just give a shake before packing up and just move on. I also like to use a tarp in the winter time.”

“A tarp over the top?”

“Nope no tent just a tarp”

“It means you spent the night breathing. That's always a good thing.

ventillation helps
last edited: 2/17/07 11:08:08 AM”

“What happened to you is not unusual with any tent unless you can leave the door(s) open quite a bit. Unless it is raining, by son and leave our side doors cracked open (e.g. REI Half Dome).

If you are camping on wet ground or grass, the moisture from that will also contribute to condensation.”

“Great. Thanks for the help.”

“While we are on the subject of frost, it should serve to illustrate just how much moisture you lose just by breathing...Dehydration can get ya in lots of ways; exhaling, sweating and urination....even your stool has moisture in it...

Frost just makes the moisture loss visible.”

“What part of the country are you in? Seems it would be worse in humid areas, and not as bad in dryer climates, such as here in the CO Rockies ( where my bedroom is over a mile high )”

“Charlotte, NC”

“One of the biggest factors is temperature. As the temperature drops, the dew point will rise. That's why they call it "relative" humidity. It's relative to the temperature. As the temperature increases, the relative humidity would decrease. That's why the colder it gets, the more condensation will occur on objects such as the inside of a tent.”