Does Nylon have a lifetime?

[cougarmeat]

From time to time I come across rules of thumb about how long to keep items even if they have little wear. I think the life span for tires and kernmantle climbing rope is five years. But my old nylon (tent stuff) is kept out if the sun in rubbermaid containers. Just like it would be on a store shelf. Maybe even better because there is no UV.

BUT - I've also had headphones where the foam ear pads disintegrated over time; just a crumble of pieces. The same happened to foam inserts in my plastic climbing boots. These items, especially the boot inserts, were never in direct sunlight.

So I have seen things dissolve over time; regardless of use/wear. Has anyone had that experience with tarps/tents/hammocks that are ... say over 5 years old? I have lots of clothes that are over 5 years old. Some things seem to handle time just fine.

I'd hate to pull a tarp or tent out for a non-hammocker to use and have it break down just because the material is old.

[SilvrSurfr]

Everything has a shelf life, though I can't tell you what the shelf life of a hammock would be. I would imagine certain tarp materials would have a shorter shelf life due to the waterproofing used. Just guessing, but it seems like PU-coated polyester would deteriorate faster than silnylon, which would deteriorate faster than cuben fiber. Not sure about silpoly, but I'd guess it's got a shorter shelf life than silnylon.

I've had my cuben fiber HG Winter Palace for six or seven years, and it doesn't seem to have lost any of its waterproof capabilities. It looks exactly like it did on the day I bought it.

[Monkeyboy42]

I’ve definitely had Pu coated tent flys, and back packs go bad. The PU coating starts to get sticky, and lose its water resistance. Then the coating starts peeling/flaking off. The underlying fabrics still seemed good though. Nylon and polyester fibers should have very long shelf lives, if stored in dry climate controlled situations.

I’ve definitely seen foams disintegrate over time, but I suspect they are different plastics altogether. This is a question reall6 for a petroleum chemist, or a materials engineer though...

[SilvrSurfr]

I have a North Face backpack I bought in 1985 - whatever the waterproof coating is (probably PU), it started peeling off many years ago. It's still a great pack - it's just not waterproof anymore.

[rhjanes]

Stuff next to skin (ear bud foam), breaking down due to sweat and skin oil.

[ricktreks]

Cuben fiber so far has been the greatest disappointment for me. I bought a Mountain Laurel Designs Hammock Tarp in 2011, and by 2015 I was already doing some serious patchwork on it. Later that same year I found myself taking a Hennessy stock asym tarp along to put over the cuben. At that point I decided that a silpoly tarp would probably weigh less and look less ridiculous than my shantytown setup. So I got one.

The same thing has happened to every cuben bag and stuff sack I’ve owned. Ain’t going back to cuben.


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