The ReadyHour 72-Hour Food Kit: A Practical Home Solution
The ReadyHour 72-Hour Food Kit contains several of their popular dehydrated meal packs, bundled together in a large plastic bag. While this kit offers convenience and a decent selection of meals, it appears more suited for home use rather than an emergency go-bag.
If you’re already a fan of Ready-Hour meals, this kit could be a great addition to your emergency food storage. The meals are familiar in preparation and quality, so you know what to expect if you’ve used them before.
However, Ready-Hour meals do require a fair number of cooking utensils and equipment. To prepare these prepackaged dehydrated meals, you’ll typically need pots, pans, large serving utensils, and a reliable heat source. Due to the amount of cookware needed, this kit is best kept at home. We’ll explore more reasons why it’s not ideal for a go-bag in the next section.
One notable advantage of the kit is its compactness and flexibility. Unlike some of Ready-Hour’s other kits that come in bulky solid buckets, this kit is packed in a soft, malleable bag, making it easy to store almost anywhere in your home. It provides enough food to sustain one person for three days, making it a convenient option for home emergency preparedness.
Is It Go-Bag Friendly?
Despite its convenience for home storage, the Ready-Hour 72-hour food kit falls short as a go-bag option. One of the primary drawbacks is the amount of cookware required. In an emergency, having to carry bulky pots and pans along with your kit could be impractical and cumbersome.
Additionally, these meals are dehydrated, not freeze-dried. Freeze-dried meals are usually lighter, and when packing a go-bag, weight is critical. The heavier dehydrated meals make this kit less suitable for a go-bag where mobility is key.
Another factor to consider is the portion sizes. Each meal pack contains about four servings, which is great for home use but problematic in a go-bag scenario. In an emergency, you’re likely only preparing one meal at a time, and without a proper way to store leftovers, you risk wasting food. Since the meal bags are not resealable, if you only prepare a portion, the rest of the dry mix could spill inside your go-bag. You’d need to bring additional items like a chip clip or tape to secure the opened bags, adding even more bulk.
Summary
The Ready-Hour 72-hour food kit is a solid choice for home emergency preparedness, offering convenient storage and familiar meals if you’ve used the brand before. However, it’s less ideal for a go-bag due to the cookware required, the heavier weight of dehydrated meals, and the large portions that can’t be easily managed in a survival situation. For home use, this kit provides a practical solution, but for mobility-focused emergency kits, there are lighter and more efficient options available.
This version emphasizes practical considerations for emergency preparedness and provides a clear contrast between home use and go-bag suitability.
