EDC Magnets

Magnets can be useful in several scenarios and while it is not common to see someone carrying a magnet just in case it may be a good idea to add a few to your EDC kit.

Modern magnets today are made of rare earth aleations, mainly neodymium, they are incredibly strong and if used without care they may pinch your skin.

Magnets can be used to hold EDC items such as flashlights to metal surfaces, hollow disc magnets can be added to a pen to clip it to a metal surface, slim discs can be used as buttons with your clothes, they can also be used to attach a light to baseball cap, collect small screws and other metallic objects and a myriad of applications.

The collection featured in this picture shows a wide variety of neodymium magnets, including rods, spheres, cubes, discs and rings. As long as you keep them away from any electronic device they can be surprinsingly useful in many situations.

You can order in different shapes and sizes from Amazing Magnets.

UltraPod Mini Tripod

The UltraPod is a minimalistic ultralight tripod for digital cameras and other devices with a tripod mount like some flashlights.

It has three foldable translucent polycarbonate legs with a metal cap in the end, the legs can't be adjusted in length. The head has a ball-joint adjustable camera attachment, that is used to point the camera in the right direction and angle.

The Ultrapod comes with a velcro strap that can be used to attach the tripod to a tree limb, a chair, a pole, a rock etc. The idea is that you fold the legs, attach the folded legs and then attach the folded legs to the anchor point using the velcro strap.

This is a tripod that works very well with the small digital cameras but is probably not a good idea with big SLR or SLR-like cameras, if you have one of the small and light cameras having one of these in your kit can always be a good idea for those long exposure night shots or to take a group picture without leaving someone behind.

The total size when folded is 5'' and it's extremely light, it can be carried in any bag or backpack without risk of damage since the construction is solid.

You can order from Thinkgeek for $12.

Personal Battery Caddy

This is a line of battery cases available in many different presentations, colors and sizes for different battery types. We'll review the slim line because it is the most suitable for EDC.

There are 6 models in the slim line: 4xAA, 4x123, 6xAAA, 4x9v, 4xC, 4xD. Each model is available in different colors: GITD, orange, yellow, clear, red, green and black.

The caddy is constructed in solid plastic, each battery is well protected and locks in place with a small plastic tab, inserting and removing batteries from the holder is easy and the locking mechanism seems to be strong enough to be used thousands of times. Both the positive and negative contacts of the batteries are protected to prevent shorts.

The finishing of the product is of high quality, there are no sharp edges or pointy corners so you can put them in your pocket or inside a bag without any problems. The colors are bright, the glow in the dark version charges very well and glows bright for the first minutes with a glow enough to find them in complete dark for several hours.

There is no attachment point for a splitring, lanyard or a clip so you have to just drop the caddy inside a pocket or bag.

If you need to carry spare batteries the Personal Battery Caddy is a very high quality product with many versions available and will do exactly what you expect it to do: hold and protect your batteries.

You can read more, find about the other versions and order from the official website.

Purrell Military Hand Sanitizer

Hand sanitizer is always a good idea for your EDC, first aid kits, travel bags and other kits. This version features purrell's traditional hand sanitizer product in a special bottle with the military in mind.

The product itself is an alcohol based gel with usually 70% of alcohol, applied over your skin and rubbed it will kill 99% of germs and bacteria, it dries very quickly leaving no trace or residue except the characteristic smell of alcohol.

Among other uses hand sanitizer is an excellent fuel so it can be used as a firestarter when camping.

In this version the bottle is refillable, in foliage green color and made of a very strong plastic, it can be dropped and abused in several ways and won't be easy to break. It also offers a low infrared profile for night operations, there are grips on the side to help use the bottle with just one hand.

We find hand sanitizer a very useful EDC product, this version maybe more masculine than the colorful bottles you can get at the pharmacy but the product is still the same, so you can pick the container that you like the most, this is just one of many options.

You can get it for $3.50 from CountyComm.

TAD Gear's Titanium Dog Tags v 3.0

This is a new version of TAD Gear's Titanium Dog Tags. The Tags can be used as both an identification device and as en emergency cutting tool.

The tags have two titanium parts that pivot around a black anodized titanium pivot, one of the edges is sharpened to be used as a cutting tool you just pivot and click to open or close the tags.

There's also one side available to be engraved and be used as a regular tag with the information you want, depending on what you do or what you want to put in the tag.

The construction and quality of this new version is very high, all the parts are very well built and the titanium pivot is a particular good detail, it can be adjusted to the tension you want depending on how easily you want to be able to rotate the tags to open and close, if you wear them around your neck then you should adjust them tight and have the blade as an emergency one. If you hand the tags somewhere else you can leave the pivot not so tight and have a quick mini blade handy when needed.

Being made of titanium the tags are very light and will resist corrosion and wear, the engraved part can get scratched from play against other neck chain since titanium is strong but gets scratched more than steel or even aluminium.

You can read more and order from TAD Gear for $59.

Smart Tube

The smart tube is a simple and practical device to create an hydration system from a water bottle. The tube comes with different sized caps that can work with different bottles, from the regular bottles of water this includes regular bottles of water from the supermarket and Nalgene wide mouthed bottles.

The tube passes thru the cap and ends in a mouth bite valve similar to camelback systems, you have to bite sligthly for the water to flow. It is realtively spill free and will not leak unless pressure is applied to the bottle or the drinking tube.

Besides not needing a water reservoir the smart tube makes the cleaning of your hydration system easier, since it's easier to clean a bottle than a water bladder you can also just buy a bottle of water anywhere, screw the tube and use it to drink water while running, hiking, bycicling or other outdoor activities. You can choose the size of the water bottle depending on your activity, location and time of the year.

From our tests we could see that basically this worka as the Camelback hydration systems the only difference being that the reservoir of water is your choice. In conclusion a good idea to have a handsfree hydration system.

You can read more and check out different models form the official website.

Sun FeatherWeight Mirror

This is a signal mirror made by Sun Company. It has some interesting details compared to other popular signal mirrors.

The first difference is that this mirror is bigger, at 4.2 inches by 3.1 inches it is not suitable for a wallet and barely ok for a pocket. It is also very thin and extremely light only 1/3 of an ounce.

There is a small hole in the center used to aim when signaling (not seen in the picture), the reflective material is plastic and is not really very good reflecting light that is why the mirror is probably so big.

In our tests this mirror had problems aiming and the reflected light was not very bright compared to other signal mirrors. In our opinion this mirror makes sense as a backup or if you manage to cut it down for wallet size as something that you can carry in your wallet without adding weight and will only be used in case of need. As a test we cut this mirror to credit-card size with a simple pair of scissors, cutting it was not difficult at all and the mirror survived the operation without problems. Carrying the trimmed mirror in a wallet is fine as a backup signal mirror or as an utility mirror.

To check your face, apply makeup or similar tasks it works fine. Just don't put your chances of being rescued in the hands of this mirror because there are better ones.

You can get it from EDCdepot at $3.25

Zippo Hand Warmer

This is a handwarmer from the world famous lighter company Zippo. It is a reusable warmer based in the Zippo lighter fluid.

To use it you fill it with the lighter fluid, then light it up with a lighter (Zippo for example) and close it; you store it in a pouch that comes with the warmer and put it in your pockets. The warmer will quickly start producing heat and it will continue working for about 24 hours per refill.

The refilling process is simple and the fluid is widely available for Zippo lighters and that makes this really reusable compared to other warmers that need a special fuel or more preparation to work.

The amount of heat generated is quite good without being hot enough to produce burns or problems, the way the warmer burns the fuel without the generation of flames and fumes is a mistery but we can say it works perfectly well.

You can read more and order for $30 from Zippo.

Nalgene Travel Kit

This is a small travel kit from Nalgene designed to carry some personal items such as shampoo, perfume or maybe your preferred sauce complying to air travel regulations.

The kit contains 6 flasks, the blue cap bottle fills 1/2 ounze, the red cap is 2 ounces, the green cap is also 2 ounzes, the square flask is 1 ounces and the two straight sided bottles hold 1 ounce each.

The bottles are made of very strong plastic and are tested to be leak proof even with changes of pressure as expected when traveling by plane.

Each bottle in the kit can withstand temperatures from -100ºC (-148ºF) to 120ºC (248ºF) and they can be cleaned in the dishwasher without problems.

A good kit for travelers and a good set of flasks or bottles for your EDC kits.
You can read more and order for $8 from Nalgene.

Sister Clips

Sister Clips are simple attaching devices commonly used in boating for ropes but also interesting for keychains and EDC items.

Each clip has two holes, one of them with a small opening in the side, you can match the openings of two clips to attach them, once attached the clips will not dettach unless someone specifically moves the clip to make the holes match again. They are very easy to attach and dettach but very secure since accidental release is almost impossible.

The clips are made of grade 316 and 305 stainless steel the bigger one has a ferruled attaching hole, measures 1 7/16'' and weights just .4 oz, the eye diameter is 13/32 inch, this clip is able to resist up to 550lbs of weight. The small one is 15/16 inch with an eye of 9/32 inch and works up to 150lbs.

These clips are very practical to attach items to a keychain or other places, you just have to put one of the clips attached to your device and the other attached to the keychain, backpack or other attachment point.

You can get them for $2.10 (small one) or $3.40 (big one) from this site.

Guyot Designs Gription

The Gription is a replacement lid for a wide-mouth Nalgene Bottle. You unscrew the nalgene cap and screw the Gription and you have some features that were not present in your original bottle.

The Gription has an orange button that you can press to open the valve and take sips from your bottle, if you press ligthly the valve will open just a little for a small sip if you press more you will be able to get a good gulp of water.

In either open or closed position you can lock the valve sliding the silver lock mechanism, this will let you keep the bottle closed for storage in a leak proof way or opened permanently when you are in constant need of its contents.

The Gription has a very large handle that can be used to hold the bottle when drinking and can also be used to clip the bottle to a pocket, backpack or something similar, the handle is long and strong enough to support the weight of the full bottle and the shape makes it specially useful for this dual purpose.

Between the lid and the handle you can find a large plastic hole that can be used to attach the bottle to a backpack or a belt loop using a carabiner or something similar.

Without doubts the Gription is a must-have companion for your Nalgene Bottle turning a nice water storage bottle into a very nice hydration system.

You can order and read more from Guyot's designs website.The retail price is around $12.95

Anderson's Ti Pull

The Ti-Pull is a Titanium Zipper Pull by Knife Maker and artist Tom Anderson. The piece is made from 6AL4V titanium with a heavy duty Stainless Steel Split Ring, it is 1/2'' in diameter.

The design is very nice and useful, the knurled body helps the grip and the titanium makes the pull almost weightless compared to other metal pulls. It can also be used as a fob for a keychain or a lanyard it can even be used as a piece of jewelry on your neck if you want.

The ti-pull can be ordered for $30 from Tom Anderson's website.

Maglite Fiber Optic Adapter

This is a small accesory for AA or AAA Mini Maglite flashlights. It consists of 20 inches of flexible 3mm fiber optic cable and a flexible plastic cap for the flashlight bezel.

The cap is attached to the flashlight and the fiber optics transmits the light to the tip of the wand allowing you to reach difficult areas where a complete flashlight is not easy to handle. The wand is flexible so you can shape it to reach places that require some twists or turns. Flexibility is limited because the fiber optic is fragile.

Since the mini maglite is focusable changing the focus will change the amount of light that is conducted by the fiber optics and will allow variable brightness at the end of the tip.

You can read more information at niteize website and you can get it for $11 form Lighthound.

Sony MDR EX71 Fontopia bud style headphones

This earbud-style headphones from Sony are a good quality for the price, they have excellent bass sound and very good noise cancelation, the plastic buds are confortable to wear inside your ears.

They come with a carrying case and a cord extension, the cord without the extension is good for arm or neck carried MP3 players but will probably be short for your pockets or a backpack, with the extension the length will be fine but maybe a little excesive. Does this mean the cord is always either too short or too long? Probably yes but it all depends on how you carry your gadgets.

For an Ipod and comparing to Apple headphones this ones have better sound, extremely good bass and they don't have the "ipod owner please mug me" label on them. The cord is probably not as strong as the cord in Apple's headphones so some care will probably be needed. The cord did not break or shown signs of wear in our tests but it looks more delicate than Apple's.

You can get them from Amazon for $30.

Titanium Chain

Chains are very versatile tools for EDC, you can use a chain for carrying gadgets or items on your neck, you can use it to secure your wallet to your belt loop, you can use small chunks of chain to create better belt loops, you can use it as a keychain or to carry items inside your pockets that you can retrieve easily without risk of losing them and many many other uses.

These chains from Titaniumstyle.com are made of pure grade 1 commercial titanium, they are available from sizes 6-09 (1.8 mm) to size 6-14 (6.9 mm). From $69 to $119 respectively. In the middle you have four intermediate sizes. They can be ordered in lengths of 16'', 18'' or 20'' larger sizes can be ordered at an extra cost.

The chains feature a 100% titanium lobster clip and a small titanium ring at the other end where the lobster clip can be clipped to get the chain closed. The clips are quite small so they are probably not good to attach the chain to gadgets or a belt loop, they can be clipped to the chain itself to create a loop if you want.

Countycomm's $3 titanium screw links are probably a good idea to complement the Titanium chain and have some 100% ti attachment points if you plan to use it for something else than neck carry.

You can order this chains following this link.

Rivet Powerbroker Clip

The Rivet system consist of a series of systems and accesories to provide attachment points to carry your gadgets. The Powerbroker we describe here is one of the many options available.

The system consists of a clip (e-clip) and a pin. The powerbroker comes with the e-clip that is the foundation of the system (pictured) and several options to attach the e-clip. Included are a belt clip plate, a QR fabric plate and an adhesive plate. The e-clip is then attached to your person, backpack or similar while the pin goes attached to your gadget of choice, mp3 player, cell phone, etc. The powerbroker comes with two pins one with a small lanyard and a fixed one with adhesive.

You slide the clip along the e-clip until it locks, to unlock you press a button on the side of the e-clip and then slide the clip again to release your gadget. The e-clip is small and stylish and the lanyard pin is very small and practical once locked it is quite safe. The many options for attachment and the quality of the mechanism make this accesory a good option to consider when you need a carry option for your gadget, it works specially well with smaller gadgets and scales quite well up to the size of a handheld GPS but probably not more than that.

Other models from the same manufacturer are based in the same clip-pin system but have different pins and different accesories to attach the pin they are all compatible so you can buy a couple and get many different carrying options at the same time.

In this particular model we can say the e-clip may be a little bulky for our taste, a small or flatish clip would have been better for a belt to avoid getting it in the way of objects as you move around. If you are used to cellphone holders this is more or less the same in size as the small ones.

You can read more and check different models in the official website or order from the online store for about $18.

Camelback Water Bottle

This is a 25fl.oz water bottle from CamelBack. It is constructed in Lexan polycarbonate a material that is bullet-proof so it will resist many hits, bumps and impacts without breaking.

Lexan can also be heated without much damage so when camping and after removing the lid you might use this bottle to heat water but of course a metal utensil should be preferred.

The cap features a no-drip bite valve, you flip up the valve and then bite to drink, flipping down the valve closes the valve making it quite safe against spills. With the valve up liquid should not spill unless you bite or press the valve but I wouldn't say this is a 100% spill safe as fliping down the valve. The cap is unscrewed to fill the bottle which is wide-mouthed for easy refilling.

There is a small plastic handle in the valve that helps attaching the bottle to a backpack using a carabiner or something similar. On the side there is a scale listing the aproximate volume of liquid left in ounces and mililiters.

The cap is standard sized so it will fit if you want other water bottles such as Nalgene and similar. We found the bite valve very easy to use and very practical for outdoor activities or urban hydratation, the bottle is practical and easy to carry and can be refilled with any normal water bottle or just from the tap if drinkable.

You can order it from REI at $12.

Sima PLE Lens Cleaner

This is a pen-shaped lens cleaning kit by Sima, there are similar products by other manufacturers as for example Nikon.

One of the tips of the pen features a cleaning compound that will not spill or dry out, it can be used to remove minor scratches, grease and dirt from lenses without damaging them. The product is applied making circular movements over the lens with the soft tip. It removes fingerprings, smudges and other marks. This end of the pen has a cap.

The other end features a retractable soft brush that can be used to remove dust and small particles from the lens before cleaning, dust can scratch the lens when cleaning if you don't remove it first. For clean lenses the brush is good enough, when the lens is not clean you have to use the brush then apply the cleaning tip and then brush again.

This kit can be used with camera lenses, sunglasses, reading glasses, camcorders, telescopes, binoculars, flashlights and anything that has a lens and needs some careful cleaning. It has been particularly useful to remove grease and fingerprints from sunglasses and flashlights to me and can also be used to clean your wristwatch.

It can be obtained in most optics or you can order for $8.50 from this site.

PocketMods

The Pocketmod is a 8.5 x 11´´ sheet of paper split into 8 sections that once folded makes a little paper book and allows you to select from different inserts. You can have a calendar, day planner, notes, tables, story board, lists, contacts, games and many other options.

From the website you can design your own pocketmod selecting the 8 sections you will want to use, then print it, fold it following the instructions and you are ready to go. The final result is a 2x3 notepad with the 8 sections you selected. It is small and flat enough to go in a pocket, wallet or inside a book. For customization the website offers a tool to convert a PDF file to pocketmod format so you can add your own information, guides, and make topic specific pocket mods for you and your friends.

Pocketmods are free and you can try them at pocketmod.com, enjoy.

Civilian Lab Bottle Mini Holster

This bottle holder from Civilian Labs features a stainless steel bottle holder buckled to a clip. It can be used to carry water bottles hanging from a backpack, a belt, a waistpack or other options.

The metal snap adapts to the neck of common water or soda bottles and the clip attaches to your belt or pack to use it you unbuckle the plastic buckle so the clip stays clipped to the belt or backpack while the metal snap stays clipped to the bottle.

The advantage over other common rubber ring based holders is that the metal snap won't get brittle or break with use and that you don't need to remove and reinsert the bottle in the holster every time you need to drink. The plastic buckle is fast enough to get the bottle whenever you want.

Our field test showed that either hanging from a belt loop or a backpack a bottle of water is at no risk of falling and the buckle makes it very easy to get the bottle, sip some water and put it again in the holster.

The construction is very solid, the metal snap will resist a lot of use, the plastic clip is probably not the best clip for attachment but has not demonstrated any problems during my tests. The wire gate may get out if you try to clip it to some tight straps but it is easy to put it back on. Once clipped it stays well in place.

You can read more at Civilian Lab's website or order for $7 from TAD Gear.