Good waterproof bag

[+PotatoMonster]

I was out caching with my eldest son today while hubs watched my little one for a few.  When we found the cache, I noticed the baggie used to hold the swag was a bag for pumped breast milk.  This might at first seem really weird, but these bags are made to hold liquid in the freezer for 6 months at a stretch and keep it in good condition to be given to little babies.  They have two good zippers and are nice, thick plastic.  The particular bag used in this cache was target brand.  My hubs has to take medication with every meal, so he has a large stock of sturdy medication bags, so we have some of those in our cache bag we bring with us, along with sandwich bags, I might add some milk freezing bags now too.  Just thought this might help someone looking for options.  

[+niraD]

Are the zipper seals on these bags designed to remain secure even after being opened, closed, opened, closed, open, closed, etc. many times?

[+RufusClupea]

I've been thinking about this problem (keeping logs dry) for awhile.  I'm not familiar with the particular kind of bag in the OP.  The best idea I've come up with so far is flat freezer containers.  There are different types, so they'd have to be field tested.

[+jellis]

Most I found usually rip on the sides. Also cachers sometimes put pencils or other sharp objects in them and they get holes. Depending on the container you could try something like a 35mm or test strip container  inside your cache.

[+hzoi]

I've taken to putting the logs in PET preform tubes, even when I use a larger container.  It worked swimmingly (pun intended) when we were trying out a Rubbermaid container that is advertised as "100% leakproof."  That slogan, it turns out, isn't true when it comes to keeping water out of it, but it did a great job of keeping water trapped inside once it leaked.  Thankfully the PET preform tube did its job and kept the log dry.

[+niraD]

How about the bladders from hydration packs? The ones I've seen have been designed to open and close repeatedly without leaking. You still have to seal the hole the drinking hose attaches to, but the end where it opens and closes for cleaning could work for geocaching.

[+kunarion]

2 hours ago, niraD said:

How about the bladders from hydration packs? The ones I've seen have been designed to open and close repeatedly without leaking. You still have to seal the hole the drinking hose attaches to, but the end where it opens and closes for cleaning could work for geocaching.

 

Also look for waterproof phone bags, ziplock style bags for phones.  There may be a lot of obsolete cases like that, as new phones come out.

And, there are other kinds of boat bags designed to place keys and wallets.  You'll have to keep an eye on clearance sales.  Usually, these kinds of things are more expensive than an ammo box.

This may not solve the problem of water-filled caches.  You now have a log staying as dry (or moist) as it was placed in its bag by the previous finders.  But it's floating in the smelly, gross soup in the container.

But these cigarette cases might also work, depending on log book size, and box size:

 

Edited September 21, 2017 by kunarion

[+NYPaddleCacher]

27 minutes ago, kunarion said:

And, there are other kinds of boat bags designed to place keys and wallets.  You'll have to keep an eye on clearance sales.  Usually, these kinds of things are more expensive than an ammo box.

Those boat bags are otherwise known as "dry bags" or "dry sacks".  I've got a bunch of them I've used for kayaking.  Although kayak bulkheads are *mostly" waterproof the do leak a little and for kayak camping pretty much every thing goes into a dry bag.  Amazon has quite a variety of them, including a 3-pack for $13.  Like any waterproof container, there's still the risk that whoever opens it won't necessarily know how to close it properly.  

[+cerberus1]

Thanks for the interesting option, PotatoMonster, we'll have to look into that for temp help for others sometime.   

We've seen caches with beach cases inside (the pic of kunarion's cigarette cases is exact) and the tube type as well, preforms, tupperware, match stick holders and even film cans, but most  seemed to be another gizmo added  just to fix a leaky container.

We don't use bags for water, but we do use thick freezer bags in our ammo cans just to separate stuff (swag from log & Trackables), as like jellis, whenever we meant to have a bag in something as a separate "container", it'd be ruined in no time by stuff poking through.

Our simplest hide, a matchstick holder always seems to have a cheap baggie (that we didn't add) for the Rite in Rain log inside.  Many think they're helping I guess...

Edited September 21, 2017 by cerberus1

[+cerberus1]

1 hour ago, kunarion said:

Also look for waterproof phone bags, ziplock style bags for phones.  There may be a lot of obsolete cases like that, as new phones come out.

And, there are other kinds of boat bags designed to place keys and wallets.  You'll have to keep an eye on clearance sales.  Usually, these kinds of things are more expensive than an ammo box.

I agree.  The last we saw with an internal "helper", a big Rubbermaid with a pelican case inside (the pelican shoulda been the container), they could have bought two ammo cans and used one.   

OT for this thread, but for comparison,  a Tractor Supply near us had 50cals for ten bucks on an end cap...

For years we've had micro DryPaks from old Nokias , that keeps basics dry in wet weather and snow as a survival neck carry. Then  they were the price of a 30cal.

[+hzoi]

31 minutes ago, cerberus1 said:

OT for this thread, but for comparison,  a Tractor Supply near us had 50cals for ten bucks on an end cap...

For what it's worth, it is possible to cut out the middle man --  surplus ammo cans get auctioned all the time.  If you get local cachers together, everyone can get a few for well under $10.  Or, you can do what I did and just get a half lot -- thankfully 65 ammo cans stack neatly, so they haven't taken over my garage.

Of course, not everyone lives near a DRMO yard, so I get that it's not an option for everyone.

[+cerberus1]

22 minutes ago, hzoi said:

For what it's worth, it is possible to cut out the middle man --  surplus ammo cans get auctioned all the time.  If you get local cachers together, everyone can get a few for well under $10.  Or, you can do what I did and just get a half lot -- thankfully 65 ammo cans stack neatly, so they haven't taken over my garage.

Of course, not everyone lives near a DRMO yard, so I get that it's not an option for everyone.

+1   Still OT, but our local group went to an auction for ammo cans years ago, and when split up they turned out we paid two bucks for 30s and four for 50s.  Was surprised to see the contents markings already painted with tan paint.   

[+PotatoMonster]

as far as opening the zipper over and over again (on a breastmilk bag), it is a bit more solid than a lot of sandwich bags.  I am sure it will still be vulnerable, as it is still a ziplock-style back, but it is a smaller size than your typical freezer bag and pretty sturdy, and inexpensive.  I'm sure it would last longer than a sandwich baggie, not as long as a tupperware.  I've also been thinking that the containers people use for nano and micro caches could be attached/chained to the lid of a larger cache for extra waterproofing.  

[+PotatoMonster]

On 9/21/2017 at 1:32 PM, cerberus1 said:

Thanks for the interesting option, PotatoMonster, we'll have to look into that for temp help for others sometime.   

We've seen caches with beach cases inside (the pic of kunarion's cigarette cases is exact) and the tube type as well, preforms, tupperware, match stick holders and even film cans, but most  seemed to be another gizmo added  just to fix a leaky container.

We don't use bags for water, but we do use thick freezer bags in our ammo cans just to separate stuff (swag from log & Trackables), as like jellis, whenever we meant to have a bag in something as a separate "container", it'd be ruined in no time by stuff poking through.

Our simplest hide, a matchstick holder always seems to have a cheap baggie (that we didn't add) for the Rite in Rain log inside.  Many think they're helping I guess...

Yeah, I think of the baggie as insurance.  you never know if someone might forget to close the cache or if the lid breaks, it's nice to have an extra layer of protection.