Please do yourself a favor. Go get your PSK, take out your "survival" blanket (I know you have one. Don't you??).

Go out in your back/front yard (front yard if you don't mind raising all kinds of suspicions in your neighbors). Unfold your blanket, now try to wrap up in it.

Now put a little teeny tear somewhere in it, and try it again.

Excellent experiment, right?

Oh, my neighbor said "Is that your Superman outfit for Halloween?"

Smart axe.

some are junk but there must be a few good ones out there.someone with a few bucks to toss out could buy all the brands for a show and tell.i know the 99 cent i got and was going to use as a rain cover for a shelter came apart when i opened it up.in the "how we made it" CD that comes with the Lord Of The Rings video they show the guy who was the Hobbit being wrapped up in a foil blanket after he falls in a marsh.he does not look too happy but the blanket that is being wrapped around him by a stage hand and another actor looks really big and heavy.

I carry a GI poncho liner, a bit bulkier than many alternatives but a very utilitarian piece of gear. Hypothermia is the real killer where I live and I don't consider wrapping myself in aluminum foil or mylar the best strategy to avoid it.

I have had good luck with the AMK emergency bivy and thermo-lite bivy. They are durable and can stuff back into their pouch. The emergency bivy is small enough to fit in a cargo pocket. I have done some training for the boy scouts where I teach them to use some of the gear, and I have a AMK Heatsheets blanket which has taken a good bit of abuse, with no tears. It is also small enough to fit in a pocket.

I generally never travel without my poncho liner either, but it doesn't fit well in a pocket, so it is in my day pack. That and a poncho work surprisingly well. I have been in 20 degree Fahrenheit weather with only that, and didn't die. I wasn't very comfortable, but it worked. So if I am carrying a day pack or larger bag, I will have those as well. I also like the heavier Space blankets. I have used one of those with a wool blanket in very cold weather as well, and did well.

Another thing I like to have is a micro-fiber towel. They can absorb a great deal of water. I have used them to roll my wet clothes in and squeeze, to get them as dry as possible. Then I put them back on and wrap in my blanket or poncho liner to dry the rest of the way. It does make the drying and warming up process go much faster.

+1 on the Thermolite bivy, Heatsheet, wool blanket and Sportsman's blankets. I keep a bedroll of a wool blanket and sportsman's blanket in the truck year round, along with a blue foam ground pad.

I stopped carrying mylar sheets several years ago for several reasons, although I am using one to cover a set of windows this winter. *laughs* The fool things are better than nothing, particularly if used right, but their limits are pretty broad.

I decided I would do the test I mentioned in my initial post when I found, for a quarter at a garage sale, a more or less "typical" mylar survival blanket (it was the brand that says "Made in Israel"). For a moment or two, I kind of had a little fun with it in the wind. I later discovered that this was, by far, the best use of it. Then I decided to lay it out on my grass lawn and try to wrap up in it. The size of the thing was all wrong. When I tried to use it sleeping-bag style, to cover myself full length, it wouldn't go all the way around my body. When I used it the other way, it wouldn't cover my head or my feet. And neither way would work when I was sitting cross legged style on the ground. No coverage at all was possible under me. By this stage, the thing had started to tear and become completely useless. I did notice an immediate sensation of warmth, however, when I sort of got the thing semi-wrapped around me. This lasted maybe a half a minute before the wind started blowing the thing open here and there.

I'm going to get a few of those AMK Heatsheets to try, the ones sized for 2 people. I think it must sort of be like the freeze dried meals. If you buy one suitable for 2, one person might get full. At any rate, the AMK ones are definitely supposed to be re-useable, heavier, quieter, and they have survival tips printed on them to at least keep you entertained while you're freezing to death.

I have maybe ten of the cheapo emergency blankets, plus a 2 person HeatSheets blanket and the AMK HeatSheets bivy bag. So far I haven't tried the latter but I've tested the former and found them somewhat lacking. On the plus side, they do warm you up pretty effectively (although I haven't tested them yet in very cold conditions). But the kind I have (relatively sucky EverDixies I got from Amazon) really aren't sized and shaped the best. They're very noisy and extremely thin. They don't seem to tear all that easily, though. In virtually every instance I would have the blanket with me I'd also have some duct tape, so I figure I'd use tape form a bag or at least seal it up. In my Maxpedition water bottle kit I keep my Ritter/AMK PSP plus one blanket and a cheap poncho. I've tucked extra fire-making gear in the pouch and have a Mora with some paracord around the sheath. Out hiking this probably represents the least gear I would generally carry. Ideally I'll have a couple of the blankets along. I plan to stash a few of them in my vehicle for winter travel, too.

Eventually I'll try out the HeatSheets, too. Frugality has prevented me from doing so up til now as they're five times the price of the cheapo blankets, but obviously it's better to know what you're dealing with before you have to use them. If they're as good as I hear it will be money well spent. I have the Bivy style set up as a subscription on Amazon.com- every month they'll send me one and I get a discount and free shipping. This way they end up costing only $12 each, quite a savings. Well worth it if they actually save your life someday!

For sure. It's like the old motorcycle joke:

Q: How much should I spend on a motorcycle helmet?

A: I dunno. How much is your head worth?

Take one of the cheapy Mylar blankie,Unfold it,Then fold it Diagonally,Like a Diaper.Then fold like you would a Bandana,Making it aprox.A 1ft.width,After it's folded,Wrap it around your torso,just above your hips,& tuck in the last tailend,into the wrap,on the upperside,You will start to heat up,Very quickly,When you are warmed up,Unwrap it,Do the samething with your upper torso,until warmed up,When it is folded diagonally,It is quite a bit longer,but you only have 1/2 of the surface area for coverage,Next wear it like a Shawl,& Hunch down,&It will Somewhat Effectively, keep the heat in,rather than lose it out the top.The movement from doing this,Also generates heat,Hunched down you have much less,surface area for the wind to penetrate.You have just found out.how to make these Cheapies work for you!

This is an excellent point, there are so many people that have never even opened their PSK or tried out the contents. That is why I always encourage people to buy your kit, then tear it apart and use all of the elements in it.

When you are satisfied with it, either replace the elements you have used or just buy a whole new kit and keep that one for emergencies and keep the used one for practice.

Oh and by the way, I am a firm believer in the Heatsheets line of blankets, They actually fold up again, are MUCH quieter that the cheap mylar blankets and are big enough for 2 people if you buy the large size. You can also repair them if you get a tear if you have duct tape along with you (Which I always wrap around my water bottle.