Otter Wild Interior Canvas Problem

I bought the Otter Wild T600 Cottage three years ago and have had to replace the canvas every year since due to the interior coating coming off, all under warranty mind you. This is what I look at after 5 trips this year. Otter tells me that this is a wear item but this should not happen after 5 trips.

After replacing the first one they said it was due to poor material from their supplier in China. Second one did the same thing and now so is the third. The were all replaced under warranty now Otter has changed there tune and will not replace this one. To add to the matter I cannot install all the wind poles because the canvas is too tight even thought I installed it in the dead of summer and left it outside to stretch. I have been calling Otter’s Customer Service and leaving messages and I do not receive any call backs. Getting pretty frustrated with this company. My opinion is that these canvases are just bad design or the coating they used was just inferior, I mean why do you think they designed the new shelters to have a sewn in lining instead of the coating?

Does anybody else have this problem with there shelters?

The same thing happened to mine. They replaced it and then I sold the house. I know others who have houses that look like yours as well, so it is a common problem.

I have the full thermal house and it’s amazing.

I also have a Otter Wilderness Series house that I have had for years. I use that as my one man house. I have considered getting a 650 series cottage to use as a one man on the few solo trip I do a year, but I have heard a lot of complain about this lately.

Here is what it says on their website.

http://www.otteroutdoors.com/warrantyperiods.html

NOTE:

The black interior coating on the non-thermal shelters is a “wear item” and is not covered under the 1-year warranty. It is normal for some of the coating to come off the inside of the fabric during use. This does not affect the function of the fabric. Over time, you may wish to apply a new layer of rubberized coating to your shelter. A product you may use for this is Plasti Dip Black Multi-Purpose Rubber Coating available at Hardware and Home Improvement stores.

That is what there CS rep sent me. I totally understand wear but I only took it out 5 times. It should not look like that after 5 trips. I had a frabill one man that was about 8 years old and it didn’t nearly look as bad as what my canvas does.

Sounds like they finally cut their losses and quit warranting a known to continue issue. Don’t blame them.

Does it effect how the house performs?

Besides the overall tight canvas. I’m strickly talking the rubber coating.

That looks like the case, I love everything else about the Otter. It just drives me nuts looking out the front of the shelter and seeing the damaged goods. I guess I am just very disappointed that they warrantied the first two for me and now I am stuck with the third. Sucks to spend that much money on a shelter then have to spend more time and money to fix there quality issue. I understand why now they have the sewn in lining instead of the rubberized coating.

It’s not just Otter that has had issues with the black coating coming off. Clam has many issues with their shelters that used the black coating coming off or becoming a sticky mess.

Makes me glad I opted for the new thermal shelter. So far no problems after nearly 25 times out this year.

That’s just business. I had the same thing happen with my minnkota maxxum. In the first season, the power head went bad, took it in and it was fixed under warranty. The guy who fixed it, told my that there was a bad batch of them. Next season, same problem. Took it back in and it was fixed under warranty, but came with a letter that told me if it happened again, I was on my own to have fixed. so I am not surprised to hear of your experience

looks like mine around the zipper, still blocks the wind and no issues with the performance.

Mine looks like crap too, never considered contacting them about warranty though. I guess I just thought they would say it was normal for it to wear. As long as it doesn’t completely fall apart, I plan to keep using it for years.

I guess I fail to see the issue here? Its a wear item not covered under warranty, yet they gave you a warranty replacement twice already. You should consider yourself lucky that it was replaced the first 2 times by Otter at no cost.

As far as the black on the inside goes, as stated before, they all had the problem with the interior coating coming off. I had an older Clam that this happened to and used the recommended product to spray on. It served the purpose, didn’t look as good as new but it was something to be expected since it was stated as a wear item. I sold the clam and bought a new XT 650 so I’m not sure how its holding up on year 2.