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If you've never actually used one of those foil (mylar) emergency blankets, you might be wondering how well they actually work. I certainly did! That's why I decided to test one out. But of course that wasn't enough, so I tested not one but two mylar bivvy sacs too just to see how they compare to a standard emergency blanket.
Here are the Emergency Bivvies from this video:
Go Time Gear Life Bivy: https://amzn.to/458Zdl7
Esky Emergency Sleeping Bag: https://amzn.to/489ZLtD
Pantry Preparedness is a trademark of Income School LLC, an Idaho Limited Liability Company
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0:00
Most emergency kits are going to come with one of these
0:02
It's an emergency blanket made out of mylar. But I had the question, does this actually do much of anything
0:09
And is it good enough? That's what we're going to explore today. Hello, my friends
0:16
Welcome back. This is pantry preparedness. My name is Rick. And today I'm doing some legitimate testing on an emergency blanket
0:23
These mylar blankets have been going around for a long time. Basically, every emergency kid has one
0:28
And I think there's probably a pretty good. reason for that but I'm not one to just sort of trust that things are going to do
0:34
what people say they're going to do I kind of have to test it myself which is one of the things I love to do here on this channel and today that's what I'm
0:41
going to show you last winter I went up into the mountains and kind of a place where
0:46
we love to to hang out nearby here in Idaho and I decided I was gonna test
0:51
one of these out but in order to make that testing a little bit more scientific
0:55
I decided rather than just wrap myself in this and say do I feel warmer
0:59
I would do something just a little bit more measured. In fact, what I did is I took meat thermometer with two probes on it
1:08
I taped one to my chest and I taped one to my back just on the outside of my shirt
1:14
I wore fairly thin shirt so some of my body temperature was definitely like there on it
1:19
And they're on the front and they're on the back. And I started out by getting a baseline reading
1:23
Now, this was late winter. So it was starting to warm up outside and also with my
1:29
my body heat on it. The temperature readings on these thermometers were 51 degrees on the front
1:34
54 degrees on my back. So not like super, super cold, but definitely chilly. Then I pulled out an
1:41
emergency blanket. I don't think I've ever opened one of these before. And I started unwrapping it
1:46
And one of the first things I noticed was like pulling it apart for the first time. It was actually like a huge pain to unfold because it was all like sticking together. I had to
1:56
peel everything apart and there's a lot of static, a lot of friction. And so not something that you're
2:02
going to be able to pull out and just like have on you in 10 seconds. I know I probably sound a little
2:07
bit whiny, but when you're reviewing stuff, you kind of have to be willing to point out the
2:12
flaws. And so this is one of the things that these things when they're wrapped up super tight
2:17
they take a little bit to get apart. So it's going to be a couple minutes until you're actually
2:20
ready to go. But then I wrapped it around myself. In fact, I started out, I kind of laid it out on the
2:25
ground on the snow. You can see here, I sat down on it and then wrapped it around me
2:30
And then I kept an eye on that meat thermometer to see where the temperature kind of stopped
2:34
increasing if it increased at all. And there are a few important things that I noticed when I was
2:41
using this. First of all, you can see with a standard emergency blanket. This one is 84 inches by
2:47
52 inches, which is like 70 feet by a little over four feet. So it's pretty decent size, but still
2:53
I could only really wrap it around my torso. So my legs were pretty much exposed still
3:00
I could sit on it and it could keep like this nice waterproof barrier between me and the snow under me, which was nice
3:06
But I couldn't completely cover myself. So my feet, they stayed cold
3:10
But on the flip side, these only cost like around a dollar a piece, a little bit more, a little bit less
3:15
depending on how many of them you buy at once and where you buy them. They're super cheap
3:20
And so having a couple of them on hand, I probably could wrap myself all the whole
3:23
way up and it would have been just fine. But this was the cool thing is I noticed
3:27
really really quickly that I actually was quite a bit warmer and that's for two
3:32
reasons. First of all, not only was this you know keeping me dry from sitting off
3:37
the snow but it was also keeping the wind off me. Mylar is a great wind break
3:41
material and so I wasn't getting that chilling effect of the wind. Now the
3:47
chilling effect of the wind is something that that temperature probe is not going to pick up but it legitimately cools you off faster and makes you colder Like it makes it more dangerous if there a breeze when it comes to staying warm and staying safe and staying alive But then second of all the mylar was doing what myelar is
4:05
supposed to do, which is it was reflecting the radiant heat, the heat that radiates
4:10
off my body. It was reflecting a lot of it back to me. They say these can reflect
4:14
90, some people say like nearly 100% of your heat back at you. Of course, only to the
4:21
extent that you're able to completely enclose it, right? But it will bounce the heat back to you
4:26
most of it. And it did a good job of that. After a few minutes and after those temperature
4:30
probes sort of settled out, the front temperature probe on my chest measured 69 degrees. Before it was
4:37
51. So that's a pretty good increase, right? 18 degrees warmer on my front than it had been before
4:44
And on my back, it went from 54 degrees without it to 65 degrees. Now, why would my back not
4:51
warm up as much as my front. I think the biggest reason for that is I was sitting on a
4:56
hillside in the snow. And so my behind was still sitting on literally on the snow with
5:03
only this little thin blanket between us. Which brings up the next point about my
5:08
alarm materials. They don't insulate like at all. There's no insulation here. And so
5:14
that conduction heat transfer, which is what happens, I'm getting all like engineer
5:18
on you. I was a chemical engineer before, but there's those three different forms of heat transfer. I talked about the radiating heat that was coming
5:24
off my body being bounced back. I talked about that breeze. That's called convection and that
5:29
dramatically speeds up heat transfer. Makes you cold faster, which is why the wind chills
5:35
is a real thing and it's something that our bodies feel because our bodies are measuring how quickly the heat is leaving our body, not the actual temperature of the air around us. But the conductive heat
5:44
transfer, that's when an object that's warm and an object that's cold are touching each other
5:48
and as they're touching, those warm objects start warming up the colder objects, and in the process
5:53
those warmer objects cool down. The warm object in this case being me, particularly my keyster
5:58
So, overall, myilar blanket, worth it? Yeah, worth it. Worth a buck and worth the tiny amount
6:04
of space and tiny amount of weight that it adds to my emergency kit. But it's not the only option
6:11
There are others that I absolutely prefer, and that I also tested too. I went ahead and I picked
6:18
up one of these. This is the life bivvy from GoTime Gear. You can pick these up on Amazon
6:24
Now, here's the first big difference between this and this. This costs a dollar. This costs
6:30
$20. I paid $1999 plus tax for this. But as I sat in it, when I first pulled it up over me
6:38
I immediately noticed a difference. I was immediately substantially warmer. The temperature as I
6:46
warmed up over the next few minutes, raised up to 74 degrees on my front and 67 on my back
6:53
At 74 degrees, I mean, this is like comfortable room temperature in the winter, right
6:58
And so it's a safe temperature for me to sit at for a longer period of time
7:03
My back was only at 67 degrees, but still, I mean, that's the temperature I like to keep my
7:08
house in the summertime is about 67 to 68 degrees. It's a nice, fairly comfortable temperature
7:13
everywhere again except my behind where it was still really cold. You can see here in this footage from when I actually did this testing
7:23
You can see that, I mean, this one was bright orange. It does come in all sorts of different colors
7:27
For an emergency blanket, I love the orange. It's going to make me stand out
7:31
And in most cases, that's what I'm going to want. I'm going to want to be found maybe in a search and rescue kind of situation
7:38
Maybe there's other situations where I wouldn't want to be found where maybe a green one would have been better
7:41
protector. You can see that all of the seams here have this black kind of tape material over them
7:47
They sealed together in a way that it seems pretty strong But this tape helps ensure that even where it connected that they good and waterproof Another thing I noticed when I climbed in I climbed in with
7:59
my hiking boots still on, in part because I wanted to see how it would hold up if, you know
8:03
if I was just freezing and I just opened this thing up and crawled right into it
8:07
how well would it hold up? Would I just tear right through it? But no, the material held up quite well
8:12
Now, around like sharp objects and stuff, if I was sitting like on twigs and stuff, it scratched up and
8:18
it would easily puncture holes in this thing. But it held up remarkably well
8:23
considering that my giant size 12.5 feet with my big boots on
8:27
slid right in there and didn't really have any trouble. A couple other things of note
8:31
This is pretty good size. It covered me from feet all the way up past my shoulders
8:36
It wasn't long enough to go up all the way over my head to completely enclose me
8:40
which is a little bit funny because in their advertising, they say it's a complete survival shelter
8:45
which it's only really a shelter if it can completely, enclose you and this one couldn't. But pretty close. It keeps the wind off of you. It's
8:55
exactly the same material on the inside as these myler blankets. It just seems to have maybe a
9:00
little bit of a coating on the outside. I'm not sure. Maybe it's just colored. But it's also
9:05
very thin, very lightweight. In fact, that whole thing just fits in this little tiny
9:09
container. I actually took this one. Once I dried it out, I rolled it back up and fit it
9:14
right back in the bag. And I think you could use it multiple times. Would I use it as like my backpacking sleeping bag and maybe in the spring and summer
9:23
Probably not. I would be concerned that for multiple days it wouldn't hold up very well
9:28
That at some point it would probably tear and then now you've got air blowing through it
9:35
and it's not going to keep you as warm. But in a pinch, I mean, it certainly does the job
9:39
And for an emergency, I think it's an absolutely good thing to have on hand. But there is that issue
9:44
There's the issue of the price. Again, I can have 20 of these for the price of this
9:49
I don't want to carry 20 of these in my 72 hour kit. And this is super cool
9:54
I actually think that this would be much better help in most emergency situations
10:00
And, I mean, this does come with this cheap plastic whistle. So there's that too
10:05
But I thought there's got to be another option. So, of course, I had to test another option
10:11
I tested this one. This is from eSky. It's an emergency bivvy
10:15
On the website, they called it an emergency sleeping bag, but emergency divvy for outdoor survival use
10:21
And when I opened it up, this one was green, and I think this one maybe comes in multiple colors too
10:27
But when I opened it up and actually like got into it, I discovered that basically these are the exact same thing
10:36
The seams are taped in the exact same way. I mean, honestly, the thought that came to my mind was I would not be surprised if these are manufactured in the exact
10:45
same factory by the exact same people. The only difference was I thought as I put them on that
10:51
maybe this one was slightly longer. It might have been an extra two inches long. But this one still
10:57
covered me from toes all the way past my shoulders without any trouble. And when it came to the
11:03
actual temperature once again, the heat on those temperature probes, once that sort of settled down
11:09
and the temperature in there rose and then sort of leveled off. The temperature probe on the front
11:14
in both cases was 74 degrees. Exactly the same. This one on the back, I only got a reading of 64
11:23
or this one I got a reading actually of 67. I might have misspoke earlier. And I don't think
11:27
that was because there's any difference at all in the materials in these things. I think it has
11:32
more to do with the fact that I tried out a little bit sort of laying back on my back for a
11:36
little bit to see again sort of how well it would trap in my heat because I know it's not
11:43
going to insulate So I was curious to see well will it keep my back reasonably warm because it reflect my heat back to me Will that be enough And of course I already kind of knew the answer Again back to the keister But I decided to test that out and the answer was no
11:57
And then I sat there for a little while and the probe on my back never got back up above 64
12:03
So that's the best reading I got on this one. But I also didn't want to sit there all day
12:07
And this one did get up to 67. But both of them were 74 on the front. I couldn't tell any distinguishable difference between them
12:14
again, except maybe the length. And here's the other cool things. First of all, this one also comes with an ultra-cheap compass
12:23
but it is a compass, so it's something. I don't know if you'll keep it on there or not
12:28
The bag, I mean, the little cordage on the bag, this one is like real paracord
12:32
and this one's a lot thinner string. But other than that, even the bags are basically the same
12:39
Like, the material is almost identical. They both have kind of a grid pattern
12:44
pattern stitched onto them that looks slightly different. This one does have the cool skull and stuff though
12:49
And this one doesn't. It's a little bit more plain. But I'm not paying a lot extra for that
12:55
And then it also comes with a whistle. This one's an even cheaper little whistle
13:01
Maybe it doesn't work quite as well as that one, but it still has a whistle. So there's that
13:05
So how do they actually compare in price? Well, I told you this one cost me 1999
13:09
This only cost me 1489. So you're like, okay, well that's cool
13:14
like 25% cheaper. It cost me 1489 for two of them. And they're the same thing as this
13:22
So I think with this one, what you're getting is better marketing, better packaging. It looks more
13:28
reputable. But in the end, I think they're the exact same product. So here's my point. When it
13:34
comes to emergency blankets, I think you absolutely should have at a minimum, at least one of
13:39
these emergency blankets in every 72 hour kit or every emergency kit that you're going to have
13:44
It is actually a really, really good product. And these are super cheap, so don't let money stop you
13:50
However, these were able to raise the temperature around my body by at least five degrees
13:57
Yeah, five degrees warmer with this on than this. And it covered me all the way from my toes up past my shoulders, whereas this, I was only able to wrap it around my torso
14:09
Another thing to consider is if you're going to have to sleep in one of these things
14:13
you're never going to stay wrapped up in this once you fall asleep, right
14:17
Unless you're one of those people who just like does not move during the night, this is going to come off and you're going to get cold again
14:23
This is a sleeping bag. You're just going to stay inside of it. It's going to keep you warmer
14:29
And as long as you can get off the cold ground. So if you can elevate yourself at all, this is going to be able to keep you alive
14:38
But as far as not freezing to death, these are going to do a much better job than this
14:41
However, there is a much higher price tag. These costs about a dollar
14:47
These ones cost $20 and these cost about $7.5. So what am I doing in my emergency kit
14:54
I'm having one of these in every one of my emergency kits
14:58
And depending on how much space I have, I might throw an extra one of these in mine and maybe my wife's just to have in case there's an extra need
15:06
There's also some really cool uses for these emergency blankets that I'm excited to try
15:10
out and to tell you a little bit more about in future videos. I also love testing cool things
15:16
So if there's anything else that you would like me to test out because you're curious
15:20
how well did these work or which products are better? These are that for emergency preparedness
15:24
Please let me know in the comments below. I would love to do the testing to save you the time
15:28
and the money and help you make sure that you have the right stuff in your emergency preparedness
15:32
gear. Until then, stay safe and I hope to see you in our next video