Tents, bags and stoves, judged on their stated figures
The headline weight
is never the whole weight.
Trekking tents, sleeping bags, mats and bivy bags, hammocks and tarps, stoves and cookware, water filters and bladders, poles, headlamps and camp furniture — and the pegs, spare sections and repair kits bought a week later. Compared on what actually decides whether they work and last: the weight with what the maker counts in it, the hydrostatic head of the floor as well as the flysheet, the R-value and the standard behind it, the pole diameter you will have to match again in five years. Priced on your own country's Amazon.
- Categories covered
- 38
- Products reviewed
- 179
- Accessories & spares
- 118
Every family this site covers
Pick the job you are doing
20 families of gear, 18 of accessories and spares. Each hub below compares one of them, with a plain answer to “what should I actually buy?” at the top — and the buying mistake that category invites.
- Trekking tents Trail weight and pitched footprint matter more than the season label
- Sleeping bags The comfort rating, not the season name, describes your night
- Sleeping mats R-value carries the warmth; thickness decides whether your hip lands
- Bivy bags Rain is rarely the problem; your own moisture usually is
- Camping hammocks Length decides the lie; the suspension decides everything else
- Tarps and shelters Shape and tie-out count decide how many pitches you actually get
- Camping stoves Fuel type decides everything else: weight, cold behaviour, resupply
- Camp cookware Capacity, nesting size and material decide what actually gets packed
- Outdoor water filters Read the stated micron rating, the flow, and the cartridge life
- Hydration bladders The opening decides whether it dries; the litres only decide weight
- Insulated flasks Retention hours only compare when the stated conditions match
- Camping cool boxes Insulation thickness and lid discipline, not the litre figure
- Trekking poles Lock type and packed length matter more than the shaft material
- Headlamps Lumens sell the lamp; the regulated runtime is what you use
- Camping lanterns Maximum lumens without a runtime beside it tells you nothing
- Portable solar panels The peak watt figure is a bench value, not a field promise
- Camping chairs Seat height, not packed weight, decides who can stand up again
- Camp tables The packed length is what your boot judges, not the top
- Camping showers Gravity, hand pump or 12 V: the water has to move somehow
- Camping toilets The emptying arrangement decides the toilet, not the seat height
- Tent pegs The ground you camp on chooses the peg, not the tent
- Tent footprints It must be smaller than the floor, not larger
- Replacement tent poles and sections Outer diameter first, then section length, then everything else
- Tent repair kits The splint has to slide over the pole you actually own
- Sleeping bag liners Cut to your bag's shape, or it bunches at the feet
- Mosquito nets Mesh count, hanging points, and the shape it needs above you
- Stove gas canisters Screw thread, bayonet or pierceable — three incompatible worlds
- Stove windshields The stove type decides whether a wrap is allowed at all
- Water filter cartridges A cartridge fits one housing, and the thread says which
- Water bottles Mouth diameter decides what else screws onto it
- Camp cutlery Handle length is set by the depth of the pouch
- Dry bags The litre figure on the label is not what it holds
- Camp storage boxes Outside dimensions load the car, inside dimensions hold the kit
- Camp clotheslines A twisted line grips without pegs, a flat one does not
- Paracord and utility cord Type III, seven inner strands, and a published breaking strength
- Compasses The needle is balanced for a magnetic zone, or for all of them
- Emergency blankets Metallised film or a reusable bivvy — two different objects
- Signal whistles Pealess, a stated decibel figure, and a way to attach it
How this site works
Three lines this site does not cross
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Ordered on what the maker publishes
Nothing here is ordered by what it pays. Where a cheap alloy Y-stake holds a pitch in soft turf better than a lighter one, that is what the page says — and where the featherweight option is a false economy because its pole sections are a diameter nobody stocks, it says that instead.
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Reported, not paraphrased
A trail weight with what the maker counts in it, a hydrostatic head quoted for the floor as well as the flysheet, an R-value against the standard it was measured to, a comfort rating with the standard named beside it, a micron rating, a lumen figure with its runtime — the specifications that decide whether a thing fits and lasts, not the headline. Every figure names where it comes from, its unit is written exactly as the maker published it, and a figure we could not source is left out rather than guessed.
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Priced in your own currency
A single button reaches fourteen Amazon stores. It opens the same reference on the Amazon of the country you are browsing from, priced in the currency you actually pay in — and when a model is not sold there, the page says so rather than pointing at an address that leads nowhere.