When you travel the world and you are carrying valuables you want to ensure that they are safe when they are unattended. We travelled for a year without a Pacsafe and we were constantly having to hide our belonging across multiple bags when we left our room.
The Pacsafe pouch
We recently purchased a Pacsafe and Megan from On My Way RTW was kind enough to buy it from LA and bring it all the way to Guatemala for us. We absolutely love the Pacsafe although there are some features that we are a little disappointed with that we will discuss within this review.
What Is A Pacsafe?
Pacsafe originally patented a specific design that is a metal mesh bag-like cover that is slipped over your luggage and fasten securely with a lock to an un moveable object. It was this technology and original design that made Pacsafe a house hold name for the world traveller. The metal is slash proof and deters thieves from stealing your belongs. Pacsafe has now grown as a company and has 50 plus products in their line including slash proof bags. Pacsafe’s main mission is to keep your valuables safe and secure through their patented technology and materials.
The pouch unfolded
Why Get A Pacsafe?
Depending on your needs you may or may not have the need for a pacsafe, but when you are carrying a large amount of electrical equipment like us, it is peace of mind when you leave your belonging in your room.
Key Features
Some of the key features of the pacsafe 55L is that it can be folded down to the size of your palm it only weights 700g which is great for a little added security. When fastening the pacsafe to our bag it can be done relatively fast and attached to an obect in no time.
The pacsafe 55L can be used for bags from 35L-55L and we are currently using it on our daypack which is a 35L bag. There is a long cable which allows you to be able to fasten your bag to almost any structure that is hard to get to.
Our 35L day pack
How To Use The Pacsafe?
Using the pacsafe is relatively simple and easy once you get the hang of it. It took us a couple of times until we mastered it with any speed.
Firstly you unpack the pacsafe from the carry pouch and the metal mesh bag will fling into shape. You then need to open the opening as much as possible and try and drag the mesh over the top of your bag. This can be a little tricky when straps and other things get caught in the mesh. Once you have the opening at the back of your bag you need to then simple pull the cable to tighten the mesh until it is secure & fastened. Then find somewhere in your room where you can attach your bag to and feed the cable around and back to the back of your bag. Then securely lock the bag with the padlock. It is that easy!
The locking system
What We Would Change
Although we do love our Pacsafe and it does serve a great purpose for us, there are some features of the design that we believe that could be improved on.
The size of the mesh holes seems to be way to large. We feel that the holes should be much smaller as at the moment it would be quite easy for a theif to get their hands through the holes and into your bag and belongings. We understand that the pacsafe is more to deter people for taking the entire bag, but we can’t understand why the hole would be made so large. We would make the hole small enough so that an adults hand wouldn’t be able to fit through the hole.
Secure it to anywhere
We currently have the Pacsafe 55L and it is the only model that fits our bag. When we securely fit the Pacsafe there are some gapping sections which allow for quite a bit of movement which make it easy for a thief to get their hands under the mesh and able to un zip the bag. We would suggest that they make a variety of size specific Pacsafes that fit each bag individually and tightly.
Outcome
We now love that we can leave our belongings in our room and not worry whether they will be safe or not. We love our Pacsafe and we to believe that we are now less stressed when we leave our room and we can concentrate on sight-seeing rather than thinking if house keeping or another traveller is getting into our belongings.
We would highly recommend this Pacsafe to any traveler that is travelling to countries where security may be a concern. There are some flaws in the design, but we believe that the Pacsafe itself is enough of a deterent for would be criminals.
If you would like more information you can check out out online travel gear store.
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I agree the holes should be smaller. Good range of travel items for sale in your travel gear store.
Not really sure why they make them so big to be honest. I would of thought it would be obvious they need to be smaller. Glad you like the travel store too
Before we left on our trip we debated whether we should get a pacsafe mesh lock or just a smaller retractable lock. After speaking to a salesperson (who convinced us people use the pacsafe for a while and then it becomes a hassle) we opted for the retractable lock. It serves us well, we are able to lock all our bags together when taking the train or leaving stuff in our room and it’s tiny and light. When it comes to thieves we believe it’s more about the grab and dash, not many will be coming with tools and the time to saw through a lock and try cutting through a bag. That is our own experience. Whatever works for your situation is what we would recommend.
This is exactly right. We got this pacsafe to deter the theft that grabs and runs. It really does the job and we didn’t feel like it was a hassle to pack up every time we left the room. It was more of one fo those things you just need to do. Like brushing your teeth. We just started to get used to it and then it wasn’t a chore. We did lose one thing in 2 years of travelling. I would like to check out the retractable lock though. Sounds good.
This is the lock I’m talking about http://www.travelgearblog.com/archive/masterlock-retractable-cable-lock.html takes up no space at all and does the job. Happy New Year!
I’ve had my 85L Pacsafe since January 2008 and won’t travel without it. I’ve even lent it to friends too! It gives me peace of mind when I leave my belongings and sight-see for the day. One trick that I’ve found helps with the “holes” issue, is by covering my pack with my rain jacket first and then placing the pacsafe over top. That way it’s more “sealed” and much more difficult for hands to make their way to zippers and into smaller pockets on the front of my bag. I recommend this product to all my friends.
We recommend it to to everyone that asks about safety. It is funny because we were covering our bag with a rain jacket as well before placing the pacsafe over the top. I still think there are some improvements to be made, but still a good product none the less.
Nice review! The only problem with these other than the extra weight and space they take up is that, its like putting a sign up saying, “hey, we got valuables, rob us!”. However, I use to carry around the ones with the black covering around them so its non-descript and temping. But in the end it does the job for what its made to do: deterring the quick and opportunist thief.
At first I was worried that people would know that there were valuable in there from the cage netting around. But since we travel with thousands of dollars worth of equipment we really wanted peace of mind that it was protected when we leave it in the room. The 55L that we have is relatively light and easy to pack away. Only wish the holes were smaller.