Here at Outdoor World Direct, we often get asked in store, and on the online chat, whether hot weather can affect the pressure inside the air tube, and cause it to burst. I also hear stories of customers releasing pressure from their Air tent in hotter weather conditions. The truth is, it is not really necessary to do that, each brand has different beams, with different designs and tests, which are applied to them, to make sure they can cope with varying climates.

Personal Experience:

At Glastonbury, 2019, I used my Vango Celino 500 Air tent, and the weather was incredibly hot that entire week, with the weather hitting 37 degrees on the peak day. However, the weather was consistently over 30 degrees each day. I checked the pressure of the tube every morning, and evening, and the pressure never budged from 6PSI.

The Brands

What do Vango Say:

Temperature does increase the pressure within the tubes, however the pressure stays well within the limits and tolerances set.

Using the helpful gas laws formulae, and an example of the Vango Stargrove Air 600XL tubes, an initial temperature of 10°C, and tubes fully inflated to 7psi…

If temperature of the tube is increased to 40°C, pressure increases to 7.7psi. That’s well within our limits. (30°C - 7.5psi) If I wanted an internal pressure of 10psi (which I think we’d all agree was upper limits of acceptable), I’d need a temperature over 100°C to achieve this increase in pressure. At that temperature, but not below, we also begin to see softening of the PVC.

So, to summarise generally, hot weather correlates with burst tubes, rather than causes them.

Outdoor Revolution Oxygen Airframe

The Outdoor Revolution tubes are designed with their "Intelligent Frame Relief System" - which is designed to sense a pressure change inside the tube, and release air from the tube in hot weather conditions. Therefore, you never need to worry about the tube swelling due to pressure, as the pressure release system, will release air. In fact, Outdoor Revolution are so confident in their Airframe system, they offer a lifetime warranty on the tubes.