To ensure we meet and exceed family expectations in terms of stability and security, we have invested heavily in our own wind and rain facilities located at our Danish head office and all our Outwell tent collection designs undergo stringent tests to ensure reliable performance. We do not have a legal obligation to do this but do so because we believe that this unique service is vital to deliver the highest quality, reliable products possible that perform at their best no matter the conditions so you can camp in comfort, safety and style.
We have designed our test rig so that we can subject a tent to high winds from various sides and angles to test stability in extreme conditions as well as the reliability of its components, like stitching, construction and the integrity of materials. We combine high winds with our rain machine to simulate real wind-driven rainfall up to severe downpour conditions and can also transfer wind tests to grass pitches to ensure a correctly pitched tent performs to expectations.
Our test facilities are highly regarded by Europe’s leading outdoor magazine, OutDoor, and its test team has independent access to them in order to generate results for its annual review of technical lightweight tents.
To help you understand an Outwell tent’s wind-shedding ability we use the internationally recognised Beaufort Scale to illustrate the performance of our tents in the stormiest of weather as it is the empirical measure that relates wind speed to observed conditions at sea or on land.
Depending on the collection, we ensure all our correctly-pitched family tents are rated to withstand between Force 8 to Force 10 winds on the Beaufort Scale – with Force 10 being the gale storm rating considered enough to uproot a tree!
The determination of the performance of an Outwell tent in wind is based on the knowledge and technique available to us at the time of testing. During the test we register the maximum speed impact a tent was subjected to without failing. This figure is shown using our Wind Test icon for all tents using our Outwell Wind Stabilizer System and the Aerodynamic icon for inflatable tents.
