In this post and the accompanying video, I’m comparing the longevity of DCF (Dyneema Composite Fabric) and silicone-coated nylon shelters. To do this, I’m going to take a look at two Mountain Laurel Designs shelters, one made of DCF and the other made of 30 denier silnylon, to see how they’ve faired over the years.
One of these is my tent, a late 2015 Duomid made from 0.74 oz/sq yd DCF. I’ve used this tent around 100 nights but a lot of those were hard nights with 30-mile per hour winds and blowing sand. Because it endured a lot of thrashing around, and because I pitched it tight, the fabric has stretched in places. The hem is now floppy, and the perimeter is no longer really a rectangle. And because I used it in the desert, the zipper sliders have worn out frequently. I think I’ve replaced them about five times. In my opinion, sliders tend to wear out much more quickly on DCF tents than on silnylon or silpoly tents because DCF tents are high tension and therefore put a ton of stress on the zipper. High stress tends to grind sand into the interior sides of the slider instead of giving the malleable teeth the opportunity to bend around the grains. Nylon or polyester have some give to them, so there isn’t as much strain on zippers and therefore sliders don’t wear out as quickly.
The other tent is my friend Porter’s Mountain Laurel Designs Solomid XL made of 30 denier silnylon. He bought this tent in the Spring of 2017 and has used it for around 150 nights. His tent has endured conditions very similar to mine. He has never had to replace the sliders and the fabric appears to be in good condition. Likely the fabric’s hydrostatic head or water resistance is probably much reduced as a result of spending many nights in southern Utah, but it is still waterproof in his experience.
The Mountain Laurel Designs website says that silnylon has a slightly longer service life than DCF. Comparing these two shelters, I think I can corroborate this. I don’t know that I would want to use my Duomid this year because there are several pinholes right above my sleeping area suggesting more that I can’t find or more that could develop soon. This isn’t necessarily to say that silnylon is better than DCF, that would be too simplistic. DCF tents are a little bit lighter, have great tear strength, and their rigidity seems secure in theory. They also don’t stretch when wet. These are benefits. But silnylon is cheaper, nearly as strong, packs smaller, and as we can see, last a bit longer. It does, however, sag when wet, and it weighs a bit more than DCF. In my opinion, both fabrics performed as expected both in terms of attributes and service life.
There are probably other ways to compare these fabrics. They may behave differently with different shelters or under different testing scenarios/conditions. There are also other weights and qualities of both DCF and silnylon. It’s a good idea to remember those things when watching this video.
Of course, everyone has to decide which fabric attributes matter most to them, but I hope these visuals help. I hope that it helps to see that silnylon probably does last a little longer than DCF when used similarly on a similar product.