Vacuum Pack Your EDC – Pnuemo Dry Bags

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Just wanted to share a neat little multi-purpose item I’m adding to my EDC – a Hyalite Pnuemo Dry Bag. Depending upon size and window features, it’s $10-15, 2-3 ozs, and folds to the size of smartphone. It’s basically a lightweight dry bag with an air value on it allowing you to inflate, deflate and even vacuum/suck air out of it, which adds a ton of versatility to a normal dry bag.

It’s marketed as a compression stuff stack, and my primary use I’ll be to compress a lightweight down jacket/sweater or fleece and clip it to my messenger bag shoulder strap for indoor carry. Vacuum sealing also has a unique benefit of “solidifying” loose contents into a shapable form (eg, 1-lb ground coffee “bricks” that go to mush once you break the vacuum) – this can help utilize the vertical space in a bag and minimize the tendency for loose stuff to always clump towards the bottom center of a bag. A perfectly fitting stuff bag can do same, but I suppose a vacuum seal effectively makes a wide range of volumes perfectly fitting.

Here’re some other uses I can foresee with it:
– keeping electronics/wallets safe and dry at beach and boating
– emergency water bladder (use air valve as a spigot)
– solar shower (air valve “sprays” 3-4 controlled streams when squeezed)
– travel/camp “washing machine” for clothing (common dry bag trick)
– swim float, maybe pillow
– spacer for underloaded backpacks (keep weight closer to your back)

I’ve tested a few of them different ways overnight – filled with water, fill with air under a heavy book, and compression/vacuum packed with a down jacket. At first I just rolled them intuitively and they passed the water test but failed the air tests, even rolled 4x – they leaked air over a few hours. But then I read the instructions (duh!) – the Hyalite roll-top fold is unique to me – after that, it passed all overnight tests! I’m impressed.

Downsides are that I suppose it is not perfectly air tight (might take a day or 2 to notice inflation/deflation under pressure), will eventually start leaking at the higher fold/wear points, and the waterproof coating feels a bit sticky when stuffing nylon jackets inside…. but all-in-all, the material, waterproof coating, and welded seams seem to be all of quite good (albeit lightweight) quality with a price that borders on disposable territory. Check them out on clearance at sierratradingpost…. I just order a few more up to 50L.

Black 10L has air, Black 5L has a compressed down jacket, Orange 5L has 10 trail mix packets (illustration of a flat/tall vacuum shaping).

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