7 Useless camping products

By Jess Olson 9 Min Read

With a market as big as camping, there are bound to be some dud products out there. Whether they barely serve a purpose or you find yourself scratching your head wondering “why did I buy this?” some products are just useless. Need some examples? We’ve touched on 7 camping products we find useless to save you a purchase.

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Camp chair and tent on river bank

1. Bargain camp chairs

People always say you’ve got to invest in a good mattress and a good pillow. We’d go as far as to say you have to include a good camp chair on that list. Think about it: you spend countless hours in a camp chair sitting around the campfire, eating meals and having a yarn. Why cheap out on something you want to be both sturdy and comfortable? 

Sure it’s cost-effective in the beginning, but if you don’t invest in a proper camp chair you’ll likely find it falls apart after a couple of uses. Not so cost-effective when you’re buying a brand new one each trip. A drink in the cup holder? Don’t even think about it. The lack of sturdy structure will see your beer pouring itself straight out. Ripped material, snapped hinges and weak structure. There’s one thing that I’m certain of: bargain camp chairs are useless. Would you agree?

Tent

2. Cheap dome dents

Following the same theme as the bargain camp chairs, if you cheap out initially, you’ll pay in the long run. Sure, we love getting out in the elements and experiencing nature. That’s why we camp! What we don’t love is being exposed to the rain, wind and bugs when our cheap dome tent has a gaping hole in it. Talk about a budget skylight. You’ll find most rip and leak and the cheap plastic poles snap, which is just not ideal when you’re setting up for a weekend in the bush. You may as well sleep outside on the bare ground.

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A canvas tent is your best bet if you want a long-lasting tent that will see you go on many adventures and get years out of. What’s a sheltered night’s rest worth to you?

Swag in bush campsite

3. Swag bags that don’t fit

There’s a reason the campsite pack up takes way longer than the set up. The biggest culprit is the swag bag. The swag seems to have magically expanded over the night and now doesn’t fit back into its bag… at all. It’s practically useless now. Is it so hard to create a jumbo swag bag that can actually fit a swag back inside? We’d definitely line up for one of those bad boys!

Gas burner
roadaffair.com

4. Gas burners that blow up

For obvious reasons, this one is a major dud in our books. If you use a non-certified gas cooker please throw it in the bin and cough up $30 for a new one. Be wary of purchasing old stock from a business that’s not legitimate and stick to brand-name units. If your unit is certified there will be documentation included to prove it, so there’s to be no confusion. When portable gas bottles blow up, they do so with a huge amount of force that’s extremely dangerous to all within the vicinity. It’s just not worth it. A gas burner you can’t trust is useless.

Woman with esky
esky.com.au

5. Ice box

This is a controversial one, as many Aussies can’t go without their faithful old esky. I get it, a trip to the beach for some cricket and drinks isn’t quite the same when the beers are warm and haven’t been chilled by an Esky. However, if you’re away for days on end and you’ve only got an Esky in tow, you’re not going to have a great time. Swap out your ice box for a 12V fridge/freezer. We’ve all experienced food exploding throughout the Esky, drinks leaking and ice turning into water, creating a slush of dirty liquid.

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Sure, a fridge will cost you a little more initially, but when you add up the numbers, four bags of ice will cost you around $16. Times that by 5 years and you’ve spent a whopping $960 on frozen water. A fridge, that you’ll more than likely use every single trip away, will eventually pay itself off.

Man on mattress in tent camping
hiconsumption.com

6. Air mattress

One of the most dreaded setup tasks is blowing up an air mattress. The amount of air it takes to blow up completely will have you lying flat on your back, exhausted before the weekend adventures have even begun. Woken up in the middle of the night with your face in your partner’s armpit? You can blame air escaping, as the air mattress has likely deflated gradually as you slept. Find yourself freezing in the middle of the night? This is because they offer zero insulation. Not what you want when you’re camping in the mountains.

Swap the air mattress for a self inflating mattress. With foam inside, you won’t be able to feel the cold ground beneath you. You also won’t wake up flat on the ground with rocks decorating your back. When inflating, all you need to do is unroll it in its deflated form onto a flat surface. Open the air inlet valve and the mattress will immediately begin to inflate, saving your lungs from doing all the hard work.

Family wearing head torches while camping
getoutside.ordnancesurvey.co.uk

7. Cheap head torches

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for. If you’re in the market for a trusty head torch, but you purchase one with your loose change, you’re likely to have a lacklustre light. In terms of things to buy for a bargain, something required for you to see isn’t in that category. This product will end up being useless when you need it the most. Whether you’re caving on an adventure, or simply trying to find the drop box in the middle of the night: you need a light to shine the route. Not only will the light likely die an early death, but the material used to create the entire contraption will probably be weak. What this means is you may pull it over your noggin and find the strap snaps.

What we’re trying to say is head torches themselves aren’t useless. In fact, they’re personally a key part of my ‘to-pack’ camping list. However, a cheap head torch that won’t light the way or last the distance, is useless.

Camping becomes what you put into it. This includes the products you buy. If you cheap out, a lot of the items become useless and will result in a less-than-fun outdoor adventure experience. Do you have any items you’ve bought over the years that have turned out to be useless? Leave a comment below and let us know! 


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