Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
276 of 278 people found the following review helpful.
By D. Whitaker
I purchased this as kind of a starter kit, and while it helps to give you an idea of some useful things to put together, it really falls short in delivering several of them. What I found was that it had the cheapest possible versions of everything it was providing. After getting this and looking what was in it, I pretty much started from scratch with a new bag (the one that came with the kit has a single stitch that was already failing when I first opened it with a 3-inch tear by the zipper).
For ~$40, you get a good starter kit, though:
Emergency food bars
Water
Emergency Blankets
VERY basic first aid kit
Light sticks
Dust masks
Nitrile gloves
Whistle
Ponchos
Tissue
My problems are as follows:
The backpack was falling apart from the get-go.
The first aid kit was too basic to be very useful (it's the kind that you might toss in your back pocket for daily carry).
The emergency blankets are pretty standard and cheap to buy.
The 12-hour light sticks are easily and cheaply upgraded to the 200hr LED glow sticks for $5 per 3-pack at Home Depot.
Dust masks can be had at the dollar store.
Gloves are really cheap (the ones that came in my kit were replaced immediately as they were just too cheap to rely on).
The whistle is just a whistle.
Ponchos are pretty standard and cheap to buy.
Tissue could be replaced with a ziplock bag of tissues and be just as effective.
If you're looking to build a cheap emergency kit, look at the individual contents of this and decide what you need. If I were ever to rely on this, I would be a bit afraid. That said, after buying this I had a lot of fun rebuilding it with an "I can get better" attitude and ended up spending quite a bit more buying "better" versions of its contents and filling some gaps. $40 isn't too bad a price to get at least part way there, but I can't see why they even bothered with such a low quality backpack to hold it all, as I'm pretty sure I use higher quality grocery bags.
168 of 174 people found the following review helpful.
By D. A. J.
I love this backpack has some extra room - so you can add essential items for your family that aren't included. Overall - a really good start. I added a Swiss army knife, some gum and hard candy, pull ups (I have small kids), sanitary napkins, and a few other odds and ends to make this a more complete bag for our family.
I used this as a start, then created my own bag (we have five in our family). I would feel very safe with just the contents that came in the bag though. The things I added were just "extras" that were important to me.
If you don't have a 72 hour kit - go ahead and purchase this one. It will get you at least moderately prepared and you can build from there. The bag is small, so it will easily fit in almost any trunk and I "think" would probably even fit in a motorcycle carrier. So, just like jumper cables should be in every trunk, this would be an easy way to be a little more safe. The food products and water are good for five years, so you don't have to think about it and rotate things out every six months as you would with something like bottled water.
90 of 96 people found the following review helpful.
By Marie Shemanski
This kit has almost everything you need for an emergency. It is compact, and easy to take with you. I only needed to add an emergency radio, flashlight and some batteries. It is a time saver also. It is easier than trying to gather all the products that are included in it. A real bargain!
