The UCO Stormproof Survival kit comes with a few items; a Mylar Tube Tent that comes compact and can be used in all-weather conditions and is great for retaining and reflecting body heat. Additionally it can hold two adults and comes with nylon cord to string it up, but that only helps if you have two anchor points (e.g. trees, poles, two cars, etc.). The next survival item is an ESBIT Emergency Stove with ESBIT solid fuel tablets. The emergency stove comes flat and folds into cooking position and is made from galvanized steel. Each fuel tablet has been measured for 12 minutes of cooking, which is just enough to boil about 8 cups of water at sea level. The last item in the kit is stormproof matches, which burn up to 12 seconds and are windproof and waterproof.
Those are all the items that come in this kit. The pouch comes in a safety yellow, so if you are not worried about low-visibility this is a decent kit. Setting up the Mylar tent without two points for an anchor can be an issue, but the tent can still be used as a bag. Once you get the tent set up the inside is see-through, and the external is reflective. In warm weather, the tent is like a sweat-lodge, which could defeat the purpose of sheltering from the sun. The tent is totally waterproof due to the Mylar so you might feel like you inside a kid’s balloon.
The ESBIT stove is good for about 10 times of folding and unfolding and sets up like an old Tommy cooker. It is sturdy enough to hold a canteen cup and works pretty well with the fuel tabs and cools fairly quick if you need to bug out. The solid-fuel tabs start as one would expect, but any amount of water will extinguish them quickly, so ensure that you have some way to keep this stove out of the elements. Furthermore, the tabs come with some warning, such as sensitivity to skin contact and inhalation and must be disposed of properly. Be careful not to use the tablets in an enclosed space like your Mylar tent since the fuel gives off carbon monoxide emissions.
Once the kit is deployed the tent is troublesome to compact it to its original form and is difficult to put it back into the little package it came with, so this survival kit to me is a one and done piece of gear. The matches are definitely a keeper; they work as described. To find out more about this product and other UCO products visit their website.
