After reading through the reviews, it seems odd that there are so few hikers reporting consistent failures with these bags. I use them with my Sawyer Squeeze. Sometimes personal and sometimes as a gravity setup. I would not consider myself thoughtless in the field, but I can certainly appreciate user error as a variable in my experience. I by no means baby my equipment, but I'm not exceptionally hard on it either.
That being said, every CNOC bag I have purchases (4 in total) has failed on me after a certain amount of time. A few have lasted for a years worth of trips (approximately 20-30 nights) and the latest 2 have made it through only 2 multi-day trips. I have been particularly mindful since my early failures in the field.
I visited the site today to buy patches to give these bags a second life and to stash a few in my first aid kit.
When adding new gear to my kit, I do as much research as possible to make sure its the right fit. I hope this review can balance any future buyers expectations for this product. It's a versatile and useful product, but by no means perfect. I imagine many other hikers have similar experiences but don't write reviews.
I continue to purchase these water bags because there really isn't another product that is as convenient for the weight. Hoping for the best with the more robust VectoX I'm going to purchase today.
Hi Jonathan,
Thanks for your review! While pinholes can happen over the course of time and are often repaired easily, we don't expect this to happen with relatively new Vectos and are happy to replace them under our warranty. You're welcome to fill out a warranty claim via our support portal -> submit a ticket -> warranty so we can look into this further for you.
I carry two of these, one for water and the other to pee in at night in my tent. Not getting up in the cold, waiting until the last minute, and then having to put on my gear again and go outside has helped so much. The wide opening allows me to pretty safely pee in the container in my tent and the secure closure helps insure I don't wakeup in a pool of my own pee. Sounds gross I know and it is, but it really does help you get better sleep to hike stronger the next day.
Nice large mouth to collect water rather than an itsy bitsy-bottle-neck sized port that comes with the squeeze.
I bought two - blue for clean and orange for dirty. Placed the Sawyer Squeeze between the two using the coupler.
@CNOC - you should reach out to Sawyer to see if you can strike up a partnership deal where you supply all the bags that come with their filters. Win-win for everyone!
Major upgrade to my Sawyer filter. Just scoop and squeeze. And when the water is near freezing filling the CNOC vs the Sawyer bag is way more fun. I also like the option of hanging the CNOC for a gravity fee system. Great for multi-tasking during camp setup.
Got this after a frustrating backpacking trip with the Squeeze's original bags. The CNOC is super easy to fill from a stream or lake - just hold open the top, make 2-3 swipes through the water and it's full. Now the set-up lives in my daypack and gets used all the time. No leaks yet... but I do worry.