Trust isn’t something that comes easy to preppers. We have issues with trust in all aspects because of OPSEC and reliability issues.
Product guarantees though are different. We have to trust some of them in situations where we are relying on the items totally and it can be frustrating knowing that they are manufactured to tight tolerances and that a percentage are expected to fail and it is designed in to keep costs down. Reliability is sacrificed to meet costs and that is standard modern business practise.
Activating a product guarantee is easy. No questions asked and it is replaced easily. However, our scenarios put us in the situation where we can’t go back and get a replacement and it isn’t always something we can test on purchase and then put away.
So what do we do when we have something all nicely sealed and brand new that we can’t open and just test? There are not that many options open to us really.
We can;
- Simply hope the blurb is true and the item will work as advertised.
- Buy more than one and test one out.
- Do a bit of research on the statistics and feedback from other consumers.
Personally I like to do some research before I buy anything and if the item is critical and can’t be tested and stored then I’ll buy two and try one out at the very least. If it is really critical I may buy three or four and try one or two out keeping two for just in case. Obviously this can be an issue if the item is expensive.
The sad fact of life though is that in a lot of areas we have to take things on trust. We have to assume that our tins will keep our food safe, that containers will remain waterproof and that our tools will last longer than five minutes. We also need to trust that our preps are going to do what we want and the only way to ensure that is either getting feedback from a reliable source, one we trust has done their homework or testing it ourselves. Critical items demand we test them and we mitigate the risk by testing what we can when we can, so we open tins, we access containers and we use what tools we can when we can just to give ourselves a good feeling.
But in the end. We still have to put our trust in someone’s workmanship. Someone we don’t know and never will. I don’t like that so I do what I can to make myself happy that I have tested what I can. It is the best I can do.