Obviously we're going to have a perfect summer with endless hot
days and nothing resembling the rain that's currently beating against
the OM editorial office window, but those of you who habitually carry
a load of electronic gizzmos with them on the hill, might be
interested in taking out some sort of insurance against wetness.
Aquapac is a company which produces waterproof protection for mobile
phones, cameras, GPS, two-way radios and pretty much anything else
you can fit into one of their cases. The basic design uses a
flexible, transparent case material sealed with a patented plastic
device called an Aquaclip.
Theis uses two rotating, camming knobs that clamp the entrance to
the bag firmly shut. The results of British Standard testing show
that that product is waterproof to a depth of at least five metres,
which means it should cope just fine with the average British deluge.
We've got a couple of Aquapacs to try out. One is a mobile phone
case - £16.99 - the other holds a GPS or similar sized gadget.
First impressions are quite positive. They're not super lightweight,
with most of the weight concentrated in the plastic Aquaclip, but the
twin knobs shut with a nice, postitive action, so you know that the
case is definitely shut tight against the elements.
The material on the standard mobile phone case is thin and
malleable enough to operate the phone controls easily and in tests
there were no problems either hearing callers voices or with them
hearing what you say, which is just as well. It passed the
sophisticated 'submersion in a bowl of water test' with flying
colours as well.
The GPS case - £29.99 - we have on test is one of the Pro
models which comes with a leg / arm strap so it can be, well,
strapped to your arm or leg in use. Unfortunately the tough, black
vinyl side panel prevented us from using the side buttons of a Garmin
etrex properly, so if you have a GPS which includes controls on the
side of the unit, we reckon you'd be better off with one of the
standard, all-transparent cases. The supplied Velcro-fastened,
Neoprene strap works well by the way.
Full details of the entire range are on the Aquapac
web site. We'll carry on using the cases we have and tell you how
we get on. And yes, a zip-lock bag is much cheaper, but then it's not
waterproof to 15 metres, you pays your money etc...
Damien ONeill
