Swiss 20 Liter Black Water Bag

Exactly what I was hoping for. The value here is exceptional. It seems like there are a ton of options out there in the 50$ range and some really cheap options that are reported to have only single use functionality. I think this is the gold standard. Well made and durable, I’m sure it will be accompanying me on many a trip.For this money I was expecting a limited use bag that i’d be pouring from a the nozzle. I didn’t expect a spout with a valve… the fact that it even has a valve was shocking in itself, let alone the fact that it’s a pretty good quality ball-bearing type valve made of solid and rugged feeling hard plastic.The handles are pretty decent quality nylon rope with soft rubber sleeves for painless handling.My only issues were minor. It’s made from a vinyl like rubber that you’d find in tire intertubes (but much, much thicker) so the water can sometimes taste a little plastic-y. I’m hoping that a few more uses might wash some of that issue away, but I’m not holding my breath. Sun exposure probably doesn’t help that problem at all, so stick it whatever shade you can find (who wants to drink warm water in the hot sun anyways). I suspect that eventually this bag will dry out and crack and fail. I’m not worried that this will happen anytime soon, or anytime before I’ve gotten my value’s worth ten times over, but it’s worth noting. This will definitely not be a family heirloom (despite this, if stored away from direct sunlight I could see myself adding a full one of these to my earthquake kit)I think primary use is for dry area base camps or car camping. I wouldn’t voluntarily trek this thing into the back country with me on foot as it weighs in the area of 1-2lbs dry but it’s been great for car camping.All in all, i highly recommend this bag.Update: I’ve now gotten a few uses out of this and I can say that the acrid rubber taste does dissipate significantly after a few rinses.

So the story behind these is that they are old, surplus Swiss military gear. Switzerland is neutral and afraid of all ze Tschörmäns, le Francois è Italia – so they they keep their military stocked and ready, and these are the bags that get thrown out because they are regularly replaced. They have once been sold in the “liqshops” in Switzerland for 10$, but these shops have mostly closed down. Ever since, you could get them in Europe at the usual 4×4/trekking/outdoor shops, around 20€. We bought 2 of them roughly a decade ago and used them on all our camping trips. This is definitely the best and most sturdy balck plastic bag you can buy. Ours were repeatedly forgotten on the car (2.5m) when departing, and the first Stop sign made them fly. Never any damage. And, these things NEVER leaked, even when full. You can stand on it 100% filled, nothing happens.There a 2 versions of these, the newer ones (the ones we got here on US amazon) have a metal mesh under the opening (the cone-like structure you see on the photo). Handy to keep the big dirt out…Well, it’s military equipment, so not luxury. That means: they taste like rubber, and the water in it does the same very quickly. You can try what we did over the years in Germany, dropping 2-3 packets (not at once) of Kukident (a 3rd teeth cleaner) in there – you’ll never get rid of that completely. We accepted it, it’s our shower.And, one really big downside of this is the spout, though. It’s just a mess to shower with this thing, you always need one hand to push the button, and then you’re fingers will hurt long before you’re clean. Solution 1: cut off the spout, drill a tab, screw in normal water fitting, 1/2 inch or so. That’s what I did one of our sacks, work perfectly. Now you can add a useful showerhead etc. Way better…But, be sure you’re capable when doing this. The thread size is Swiss, so forget about Metric, Imperial, Pluto, allofit. It’s not normed, you won’t find it in hardware stores. If you mess up, you have some rubber waste.So solution 2: go on German ebay and buy an adapter (“Schweizer Wassersack”). Some people make these, and they fit tightly on it, and have a good 1/2″ or whatever thread on the other side. I bought mine from “wuestentauglich” for roughly 40$ (yes, that’s 2x the price of the bag). Works perfectly.So why am I writing this on US amazon? We relocated to the US, and our bags stayed in Germany. But camping is great here, so we got some again. New rubber taste, same old thing. Brought our adapter, everything else is pretty similar.