For the second time in about 2 years, I tried to set a tent up and discovered my tent pole shock cords had lost most of their elasticity. The first time, I replaced them after I returned (from Yellowstone, where we were savaged by mosquitoes as I struggled with the slack cords) with new shock cords. This time (different tent, which was new in 2017 and maybe used twice since) there is still some elasticity, but quite a lot of slack. This time at least I had the sense to set it up in the house first, and I shortened the original cords enough to make it work again.

How common is this problem? It is quite annoying, and I have 4 or 5 tents, so it would be quite annoying to have to replace cords every 5 years or so on all of them.

Any suggestions for preventing or minimizing this problem? I store the poles disassembled with no obvious stretching of the cords in the original tent pole bag.

It has happened to me a few times. I think that suppliers of shock cord use variable quality of shock cords, and that is a pretty minor thing to a tent maker so I suspect the tent manufacturer does not spend much time trying to make sure their poles actually work past two or three years.. I have a Big Agnes tent with bad shock cord and the pole is designed in a way that I can't get at the ends of the shock cord to replace it. The ends were crimped to the tubing. Major bummer. AAAAAaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhgggggggggg.

I have bought new shock cord at REI years ago but I do not know if they still sell that. They keep dropping the low profit items from their inventory so they might no longer sell shock cord.

Important things like tent, liquid fuel stove, etc., I always test at home before a trip. Tent is put up to make sure it still looks good, etc. One of my tents had taped waterproof seams on the fly, the taping was peeling off, so it was a good thing I put it up so that I realized I needed to seal the seams first. I also have some Goretex rain pants that had taped seams, the taping was peeling off. Water filter, I always use the syringe to backflush it with tap water before a trip, and do that at the end of a trip too. Camping gear needs maintenance and inspections as much as a bike does. One of my liquid fuel stoves, the fuel tank cap seal had split, would not hold pressure and would leak, good thing I figured that out at home instead of on a trip.

I agree with Tourist on the variability quality thing, I've had tents where the shockcord was fine after many years, and other tents that it was getting loosey goosey---but never to a point that it was a functional problem when putting the poles together or putting up the tent.

Only once with one tent after many years, but that incident was enough to put thoughts in my head when I gI to pitch my tent.

I must have been lucky as none of my tents over the years (including Tarptent, Black Diamond, Big Sky International, Wilderness Equipment) have had problems with tent pole shock cords. Now of course ....

Elastic is one of those things that you never know if the quality is any good until years later. Over a decade ago I bought one pair of Ex Officio (brand name) undies. Decided I liked them for travel, even though they were quite expensive, bought several more pair. Each one cost more than a bundle of cheap ones, so it was an investment. Only used them for travel, so minimal use. Less than a decade later, one of them was as good as new, the rest all had bad elastic. It is a roll of the dice. Not buying anything else from that brand.

A couple weeks ago I rode my errand bike to the gym, rear tube had only been ridden on a few times. Came out of the gym, rear tire was flat. I do not carry a spare tube on that bike, only used for short distances. So walked the bike a couple miles home. Pulled out the tube and there was a thin area in the rubber, the tube had an 8 inch long tear along that thin spot. It is a roll of the dice. That is why I always have carried two spare tubes on a bike tour. Two years ago I did a bike tour with a former co-worker, he had a tube blow out, similar problem. Fortunately he had another tube and never needed it on that tour.

My partner is originally from the West Coast and was surprised to see me having to replace a stretched shock cord.. Said that she never had that problem out west and hypothesized that East Coast humidity may be a contributing factor.

Polaris , what tent brands had this problem?
I also strongly suspect that better tent companies use better cord.

Also, it's impossible for us to know how slack your tent pole cords are. Like I said, we have some old tents (25, 30 years old) that are loose, but you can still reliably put the poles together, but hey, after that long it doesn't seem like a huge deal.

I just set up my Eureka Timberline out of the 1990's. Shock cord still works perfectly.

Welp, there goes the humidity theory...

I am three miles from the Pacific Coast, and it is much drier here than there. What both of these tents had in common is a rather elaborate pole assembly, not just four (or whatever) linear poles. I think they are harder to disassemble and repack without stretching the cord (something I noticed while re-packing the poles for the tent I just fixed).

Not sure about this, as my pricey Nemo tent cords were awful after 2-3 years and I had to replace, hopefully the new cord I installed lasts longer. I've had much less expensive Kelty tents where the shock cords were fine after a decade or more.

well, there's that theory out the window.....
I have an old Sierra Designs tent that is so so, but its super old. My newer tents , a couple of MSRs, one probably 10+ years old, is okay, the other about 7 years old and is fine (put it up the other day)
My 1p tent is now 3 years old and fine also, a MEC branded tent.

I had a Eureka tent for over 20 years. The shock cords outlasted the tent.

I use an REI tent now and had to replace the shock cords after 2 years. The new cords seem to be fine after 5 years. I wish I could remember what kind of cord I bought.

All shock cord is not created equal.

EDIT: Holy crap I actually found the good cord I bought years ago. It's lasted quite well:

.https://www.ebay.com/itm/16649236907...UAAOSwvghd~6f0

These were REI Half Dome and Quarter Dome tents. The cords were sufficiently slack as to make it impossible to put the poles together. There is only so much slack cord you can stuff down a hollow tent pole.

REI's remedy is to simply replace the tent. In the case of the Half-Dome, I said that was incredibly wasteful and asked if they would just replace the cord. Nope. I wound up having to buy my own cord (from them, yes they still sell it) and do it myself.

I am pretty sure I have some older tents that don't have this problem.

I think I still have one of those... if I recall the fly got all nasty eventually.

Interesting. I have a Quarter Dome that is maybe 4 or 5 years old. I hope it doesn’t develop that problem as I really like it for flat(ish) tours and the model has been discontinued.

I have several tents and store them in the same place. Only two have had bad shock cord.

One of the ones with bad shock cord is my newest tent.

The good thing is it is fairly easy to service, as long as you have something to cut the cord to shorten it. The end caps screw in and out, and they have little hooks on the inside. Just cut off the slack loop and tie a new one (be careful to make your knot smaller than the ID of the tent pole). The longest one has a slightly different end-cap, which is plastic and pull-out, but the idea is the same. It was the hardest one for me to fix.
The nuclear option (which I would have used in the Yellowstone mosquito feeding frenzy if I had brought a knife) is to cut all the cords and assemble without them. Labeling the pole matching ends would help.

I purchased the Coghlans replacement Shock Cord and so far so good but can't yet vouch for the durability, only the accessibility and the price.

FWIW, I have several tents and have always stored the poles assembled and set horizontal across the garage rafters so the shock cords are as relaxed as possible. They are all fine, many of them are decades old. I suspect that one problem is storing them with the poles folded and the cord stretched around the end of each section all the time.

Cords are easy to replace, as mentioned above.