Outdoor Products 3-Pack All Purpose Review

The Outdoor Products bags are a set of three dry sacks made of polyurethane-coated 60% cotton 40% rayon ripstop material with double-stitched, tape-sealed seams. They're basic bags with no extra features. The 2- and 4-liter pouches are sewn flat, while the 10-liter sack is cylindrical.

Performance Comparison

Waterproofness

Right out of the gate, the Outdoor Products 3-Pack are clearly labeled as "highly weather-resistant" and "not intended for full submersion or flotation." So what does that mean? We put it to the test. We rolled each bag to the stated minimum of three rolls and got busy.

When sprayed these bags with a pressurized hose, all three held air and didn't let any water inside — that clearly qualifies them as weather-resistant, as you're unlikely to encounter rain that's quite as intense as the powerful spray from a garden hose. In our reverse water testing, we filled the bags with water and tipped them upside down to see if they were airtight. Spoiler alert: they're not. They each drip very slightly from the inner creases of their rolled tops.

We also submerged these bags briefly and then again for an extended period. They all managed to keep their paper towel contents quite dry during a brief submersion (like if you accidentally dropped your bag and quickly retrieved it). However, they didn't do quite so well during prolonged submersion. All three bags took on enough water to wet the paper towels significantly. This isn't particularly awe-inspiring compared to many of the super intense options we tested, but for bags that clearly state they won't protect against submersion, they did alright. And for most casual uses (aka situations where you don't need to dunk your dry bag), these weather-resistant bags perform perfectly well.

Ease of Use

All three bags have the same style of roll-top closure system, which is straightforward to use. It is always worth paying extra attention as you close these to ensure you have a tight fold over the stiffened strip and at least two more solid rolls of fabric. Occasionally it took a few re-rolls to ensure we had closed this bag securely.

Once they're rolled correctly, these bags have no additional hooks, loops, D-rings, or lash points with which to carry them or attach them to anything. They're quite small, though, so we don't really find the lack of carrying options to be a big issue. The 2-liter and 4-liter bags are sewn flat, much like oversized Ziploc bags — but with roll-tops. They're rather convenient sizes to hold the very few items you might need out on a quick kayak adventure or special items that need to be kept dry inside a daypack. They would be easier to pack a more diverse array of oddly shaped gear if they had rounded or oval bottoms instead of being sewn flat. But even as they are, their small sizes make them quite easy to pack and find things in.

The 10-liter sack has a rounded bottom and is quite a tall, narrow cylinder. It's difficult to dig out bottom-dwelling contents without emptying this whole bag. But the thin yellow fabric does allow a good amount of light to enter, which helps some. Overall, there are definitely some things about these pouches that we would change if we designed them, but they're still pretty easy to use and handy to have around, especially for the price.

Quality of Construction

We want to start off this section by saying that none of our three bags broke or malfunctioned at all during our several months of testing. However, we have concerns. Made of ripstop material that's 60% cotton and 40% rayon, these bags are already at a disadvantage — and not just compared to TPU-coated, laminated, and PVC options. Even the other lightweight and ultralight bags we tested are at least made of nylon, which is intrinsically much more durable than cotton or rayon. So we're not encouraged by the make-up of the Outdoor Products bags. They are ripstop, which helps, and are coated with polyurethane to make them waterproof. You can also plainly see the seams are double-stitched and taped on the inside.

With that being said, our thorough investigation of these dry bags shows them to have much more careless and sloppy construction than just about any other model we tested. With their flat-stitched bottoms, the two smaller bags have an excess of over half an inch of the seam taping just hanging off the seam in the bottom of the bags. The stitching around the tops of the bags isn't overly inspiring, and the plastic clips used to keep them closed are some of the flimsiest we tested. We also read a plethora of other user testimonies online with complaints ranging from stitching coming undone to buckles simply falling off to the polyurethane coating literally peeling off the inside of the bags. Considering all this evidence, we're not sure these bags are going to last you through years of hard use without any damage to themselves.

Features

The Outdoor Products bags are fairly featureless. They have no D-rings, straps, loops, buckles, or fancy add-ons to note. They are impressively lightweight, though, even considering how small two of them are. The 2-liter bag weighs just 0.7 ounces, the 4-liter bag weighs 0.95 ounces, and the 10-liter bag only weighs 1.45 ounces. If you're into lightweight gear, these definitely qualify.

These sacks are also much thinner and more flexible than the ultra waterproof options we tested, which makes them easier to roll down to the exact right size for whatever you've stuffed inside of them. It makes them that much easier to be stuffed inside another bag as part of an organization system.

Probably the most notable "feature" of the Outdoor Products is that it comes in a pack of three different sized sacks. Just about every other option we tested forces you to purchase all the sizes you want individually and create your own line-up at an increased cost. We're stoked to get all three of these bags together and think they work well as a mini system to keep our things safe from inclement weather and separate wet or smelly gear from everything else.

Value

Not only is this package one of the cheapest options we tested, but it also includes three bags instead of just one. That alone makes it a worthy contender in the realm of value. However, if you need a truly waterproof bag that will keep your sensitive items dry no matter what, not one of these three bags can guarantee that level of safety. But if you only need some light protection, this 3-pack brings a good level of weather resistance to the table for a great value. And if you do end up needing to replace these less-durable bags more frequently, at least it hurts your pocketbook a little bit less than the competition.

Conclusion

This 3-pack of dry sacks isn't the most protective of options, but they do a decent job holding off light weather for an exceptionally low price. They're a great package deal for organization and keeping small items contained and a little bit more protected than they would be in a plain old plastic bag. They aren't the most durable option we tested, but they sure are handy and with a price that makes them a solid budget pick.