Quality of gear versus quantity

by Todd Owen
(Denver - Colorado )

Hey gang, I got a ton of new Wilderness gear for Christmas and was going through some of the old stuff I had and sorting it all out. I see now that all the big stores have gotten away from selling the Nalgene type bottles and have once again started to hype the stainless steele variety ones.

Wal Mart and Target have shelves after shelves of these 3 to 5.00 dollar water bottles. BEWARE !!!! I have one I carry around with me at work, I was looking really close at the inside and there is a seam on the inside. This may not seem like a big issue to you , but if you were to try and boil water in this vessel you may run the risk of the seam rupturing from the high heat. This would make the bottle useless after that for carrying water. Many of the higher quality versions are made from a single piece of metal thereby making it a true SOLID tube.

This all comes down to buying stuff that even though it has a great price, it may be better to invest in something a little more expensive that will be durable enough to last more beyond the Summer and actually be an investment that will last many years to come. I am all for finding items to use that serve many purposes, just avoid items that you may actually rely on to save your life by getting the cheapest item you find....

Thank You and Happy Survival to you all.