How to Fix a Tent Zipper

When your tent is your only shelter it will be absolutely paramount to your survival, providing protection against the cold and the heat, against rain and wind, as well as against wildlife, including flies and mosquitoes. However, in order for your tent to provide you with the benefit of suitable protection, you will need a tent zipper that actually closes properly!

In other words, you need a tent with perfectly functional and reliable zippers.

The zippers are probably the tent components that are the most exposed to wear and tear, so its hardly surprising that they are the components that fail or get damaged the most frequently.

In a SHTF situation if your zipper breaks on your cold weather tent and you are facing a night outdoors in sub zero conditions you haven’t got the luxury of shrugging your shoulders and driving off to the nearest motel, you need to be able to repair the damaged zipper as soon as.

A damaged zipper does not mean that the tent is no longer usable, it just means you have a little repair work to do!

Here are a few tips about how to repair damaged tent zippers.

Fixing the Zipper with a Repair Kit – Replacing the Slider

Most repair kits include multiple sliders of various sizes and types, slider coils and some yarn. Here is how to use the kit:

Remove the seam that stops the old slider, then remove the old, damaged slider from the track (if the slider seems to be stuck, use pliers to loosen it);
Choose the most suitable slider from the kit and slide it on the track;
Pull the new slider until you see a few inches of locked zipper;
Re-sew the slider stopper using the yarn provided in the kits and a needle.

Check out this great Tent Zipper Repair Kit!

Fixing a Tent Zipper without a Repair Kit

The method is almost the same as with repair kits, but you will need to find the new zipper slider in your home. Most tents use medium-sized, double sliders.

If the slider still works, but the pull has broken, you can remove what is left of the pull using your pliers, then you can introduce a piece of thin wire or cord through the eye of the zipper, make a knot to tie both ends of the wire or cord and use it as a temporary pull. If the zipper does not run smoothly with the new pull, run a bar of wet soap on the track to ensure obstacle-free operation (this is also the best method to use if the zipper stops because of some fabric stuck between the slider and the track or between the teeth of the track – when the track is properly soaped, all you need to do is to pull the fabric gently and it will come out easily).

The Best Repair Method if your Tent Zipper Has Teeth Missing

Unfortunately, if your zipper fails because one or both sides have lost teeth and you are in the middle of nowhere, I’m sorry but you’re going to be screwed! Missing zipper teeth cannot be fixed at home, never mind out in the wilderness – they either require professional replacement of the entire zipper or a tailor who has zipper teeth and the tools necessary for fixing them. Getting your tent zipper replaced or fixed by a tailor is way cheaper than buying a new tent, so it is definitely worth the effort of looking for the right professional and taking the tent to the tailor’s workshop.

If you have a sewing machine and you also have experience in mounting long zippers on large pieces of fabric, you can remove the old zipper and try to mount the new one yourself – if your attempt fails, you can still start looking for an expert tailor in your area.

Tip 1 – In an emergency, if you need to batten down your tent hatches, proverbially speaking, then it may be time to utilize that roll of duct tape that you’ve hopefully remembered to pack in your emergency bug out bag, this will at least provide a temporary fix to the problem until you get a chance to repair your zipper properly.

Tip 2 – Buy Quality Tents! A better made tent made with better quality fabric and zippers is not 100% safe from problems like zipper failure, but they are a lot less likely to have these types of issues than a cheap, off the shelf, poorly made tent would.

How to Ensure Your Tent Zipper Never Fails

Although it’s practically impossible to 100% guarantee that your tent zipper will never fail there are certain things that you can do that will make a zipper failure less likely, the first of which was touched on in the tip above.

By purchasing an extremely well-made tent from an established and well respected brand, it will ensure your zippers will be built to last and not fail on you at the first time of asking.

Do Not Force Stuck Zippers

Even if your zipper is the best tent zipper since, well,….since tents started having zippers, it doesn’t mean it will never get stuck. If it does get stuck the worse thing you can do is to force it as it will often result in a more serious failure such as lost zipper teeth.

The most common reason for a stuck tent zipper is fabric being caught in the track. To overcome this issue you will need to back the zipper slider up with one hand whilst firmly holding the track with the other. If the fabric does not release itself then roll the slider from one side to the other until the pinched fabric is eventually worked loose, patience is the key to success.

Sometimes, after the zipper has been released from being stuck, a zipped track will often pop open immediately after it has been zipped closed. This happens because the slider has been widened slightly when the fabric was stuck in it. You can address this problem by pinching the slider back into shape, after which the two sides of the zipper track will start to be correctly connected.

Be careful not to pinch the slider too firmly as this could also cause the zipper to stick.

Regular Cleaning Facilitates Better Functionality ( A Clean Tent Zipper Will Work Better!)

With regards to your tent there are few parts that will be as worked as much as your zippers will be and that is why regular maintenance would make sense!

Tent zippers are exposed to the worst that mother nature can throw at them, not to mention the wear and tear that frantic zipping and unzipping will do and that many of us are guilty of.

Cleaning your tent may take some time but cleaning the zippers on a regular basis isn’t a time or labor intensive job but it can make a massive difference in extending their usefulness.

There are no specific cleaning products needed to clean your zippers, soap and water are perfect for the job. Zippers and zipper teeth can be easily cleaned with the use of an old toothbrush which will enable you to get all the dust and dirt out from in between teeth and from inside the slider, particularly useful when they’re very dirty.

Finally, once cleaned make sure the zipper is completely dry before storing your tent away.