>>Yes, this is not the perfect material by any stretch. The ziplock I happened to be testing yesterday was a particularly tough variety. I don't have the exact product name handy (sorry).<<<br><br>If it is handy sometime, I’d appreciate knowing. There are no perfect materials…<br><br> >>I felt the ziplock was holding up better and I would have more confidence in actually using it in the field. Just my impressions and not a real field test, but both would be usable.<<<br><br>I haven’t done any real field testing either- I think my negative bias towards the abrasion resistance of polyethylene comes from all of the objects that I’ve stored in zip lock bags and thrown in a drawer over the years. After just a couple of years of encountering other objects in the drawer, they look pretty funky and beat up, I wouldn’t trust them- but then, they’re probably not the best available. The oven bags have a surface that feels harder and more slippery- seems like it should be more abrasion resistant, but it could surprise me.<br><br>I agree that both are useable, in the end it probably boils down to space more than anything. The convenience of the zipper is certainly worth something.<br><br>>>I wasn't intending to dismiss the oven bag in my post above, but I thought it would be helpful to compare it to something that most people are very familiar with and which is also a pretty good solution to this problem. <<<br><br>Not at all, I appreciate the insight.<br><br>>> The ziplock I carry is rolled up, starting at the zipper edge so the zipper is inside, making a long, thin tube. I then take the "tube" and wrap it around the bottle from top to bottom (not around the circumference like you would expect). This combination of Potable Aqua and Ziplock is then slid into a vacuum bag and sealed forming a single unit. I feel like that protects the zipper pretty well and avoids kinking it excessively, but I will be keeping an eye on it over time to make sure.<<<br><br>Sounds to me like it should work- it’s the sharp kinking that worries me, and you’ve avoided that. Different kit conditions, different solutions.<br><br>>>Thanks for the discussion!<<<br><br>Ditto- learning is why I’m here. For my larger kits I’ll probably just use the military survival bags, and in pouches I have Platypus bags, but it’s good to know what might work in different conditions.<br><br>So far, I’m pleased with the oven bags for the smallest kits. I just filled one of these and threw it around a bathtub. The closure device (a cinch-strap) that came with it was useless- almost impossible to cinch without a third hand, and it popped right off. Too bad, it’s very flat. I ended up spinning the bag and tying a half-hitch in the top, and when I slammed it around some more, the knot actually untied itself from the pressure without the bag failing first. I dropped it a few times from about 3-4 feet. Of course, by that time the outside of the bag, and thus the knot, was wet, and since it’s sort of a hard and non-stretchy material, the water acted as a lubricant on the knot. From other comments here, they may also not all be uniformly strong. <br><br>Has anyone tried any of the new bags with a slider? I’m just curious as to whether there’s always a tiny gap there to leak, as you’d expect, or whether they designed it out somehow.<br><br><br>