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.
