The 6 Best Emergency Kits for 2024 - Emergency Kit Reviews

Give yourself peace of mind by having essential supplies on hand and ready to go.

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Emergency kits are a wide-ranging category that help prepare you for natural disasters, extended power outages, and other urgent situations. Some kits prioritize food and shelter, while others offer first aid for medical emergencies. A good emergency kit should match your situation, like a camping or sailing emergency kit if you’re out in nature or a car emergency kit in case you get stranded on the road.

Building your own emergency kit seems cost efficient and achievable, but ready-made options save you the hassle of organizing a laundry list of supplies. A pre-made emergency kit also means you won’t have to replace things like canned goods every few years, which have a much shorter shelf life than the often freeze-dried food included in kits. And, with extreme weather-related disasters on the rise, it’s a worthwhile investment if only for the peace of mind. Plus, you can always add to the kits if you have a particular brand or item you’d like to have on hand.

We did the legwork to find the highest quality emergency kits that offer the best bang for your buck, whether you’re protecting yourself from floods, earthquakes, heat waves, or all of the above.

For more, see the 8 Best Solar-Powered Generators, The 5 Best Car Emergency Kits, and The Best Emergency Weather Radios

The number of items in a kit does not directly define whether an emergency kit is high quality or not. It can, however, serve as a rough indicator of the longevity or versatility of the kit, especially if you give a close look at which items are inside with respect to how many people would need to use it in a disaster. There are basic and premium first-aid kits, along with more comprehensive kits that include first aid plus enough food, water, and other supplies to sustain one, two, or four people for 72 hours—the amount of time most experts agree is sufficient for the majority of emergency situations. Still, it’s generally a good idea to keep a two-week supply of enough emergency goods to cover every member of your household (plus pets) somewhere in your household.

If you plan on using or carrying the emergency kit during specific activities, make sure to pay attention to the types of items stocked in your kit. For instance, an emergency kit designed for boating may come with a waterproof exterior, while a kit designed for camping may include water purification tablets to clean river water.

Larger, more comprehensive kits come with food, tools, camping supplies, and toiletries, among others. Some even come packaged in a bucket that doubles as an emergency toilet.

Most emergency kits come in a box, bag, or backpack. Larger kits have more items in them and are typically designed to stay in a home or other static locations like your car. Smaller kits that come in pouches or backpacks are much easier to carry with you on a hike or keep stowed in your car in the case of emergencies.

Our selection includes preparedness kits for various emergency situations, and we aimed to feature options across multiple price points to suit all budgets. During our research, we compared the contents for quality and to determine how well each kit covers basic essentials, weighing that against cost. We also considered factors like the durability of backpacks, zippered pouches, and other storage bags and containers, and if the items inside were well organized. Lastly, we used our own experience being stranded with cars with dead batteries, stuck outside accidentally overnight, and in extended power outages to highlight what we appreciated, and what we wished we’d had on hand.

For an emergency kit that doesn’t break the bank and has the bare essentials, this kit gets the job done. While it may not come with entrees, a portable stove, or lantern, it still provides calorie-dense food bars and other basic essentials like drinking water, masks, and more to cover four people for up to three days. You won’t want to survive off of this kit for too long, but in a power outage or a week-long storm it could save you.

This 107-piece kit includes survival blankets, rain ponchos, leather work gloves, and light sticks, plus a well-organized first-aid kit housed in a bright orange zip case. Thefood and water supplies also have a five-year shelf life. The masks and goggles included provide medical protection, and handy items like the emergency whistle can help signal in on your location if you’re stranded.

Being prepared on the road is just as important as having a survival kit on hand for any outdoor adventure in the wilderness. This lightweight roadside kit includes 57 pieces for various auto-related emergencies, from breakdowns to accidents. There are jumper cables, a tow rope, and safety gloves, along with a basic first-aid kit, a mechanical flashlight, reflector triangles, and a ping hammer/belt cutter combo tool.

Everything fits inside a carrying case with handles that’s just over a foot long and weighs 5 pounds, making it portable enough to keep in a trunk or a spacious glove box. If you’d like extra supplies, there are options that come with an air compressor or a tool set. Just note that these cost a little more than the base kit.

Keeping a basic shelter-in-place emergency kit at home is a must for preparedness, in addition to having water and food with a long shelf life on hand. This one stores your emergency wares inside a neon yellow waterproof bucket, and comes with calorie-dense food bars, water purification tablets, and toilet sanitizer.

In terms of tools and gear, the kit features a key that can shut off or turn on gas and water at the source, a combo flashlight and radio, a utility knife, and a pry bar. There’s also a small 54-piece first-aid kit included, and the bucket doubles as a portable toilet (also lovingly called a honey bucket).

This portable, compact kit includes a reflective Mylar survival blanket (big enough for two people), tiny fishing and sewing kits, a compass, a signal mirror and whistle, duct tape, fire-starting tabs, and a spark rod to start fires. This is a great starter kit that has the basics, but we’d also throw in iodine tabs or AquaMira for purifying water, plus a more robust lighter in a waterproof baggie. The ferro rod is a little on the weak side when it comes to creating sparks, so it never hurts to have backup.

This set comes in its own waterproof bag, which we really like for keeping important items like fire-starting gear safe from any dampness. S.O.L makes a range of these portable, compact kits with varying items and size options. This is a mid-range offering, but if you need more (or less) you’ll likely find something that suits your needs.

Save yourself the stress of perishable food during a power outage or other long-lasting emergency with this 30-day food supply. The kit includes full meals like chicken soup, pancakes, alfredo pasta, lasagna, and more. Each meal comes in its own pouch, sealed and shelf stable for 25 years—all you need to do is just boil water to rehydrate it in 10 minutes.

This giant bucket includes five entrees, four breakfast options, and two different drink mixes, so while you might be stuck without power, at least you have a variety of food. Readywise also makes a range of other freeze-dried offerings like milk powder, freeze-dried eggs, and soup mixes so you can supplement your emergency supply.

This kit serves as a solid tactical camping set in the event you’re spending (or stuck) in the outdoors overnight. Whether you're in need of a wire saw to clear small brush, or you need to stop bleeding with a tourniquet, this kit comes with a slew of survival gear for most situations. Inside the rugged, reinforced sling bag, you’ll find a folding knife, a multi-use eating tool, an A-frame pop-up tent, a robust first-aid kit, a fishing set, emergency blanket, light sources, and more.

Thanks to its wide variety of unique and useful tools, this kit makes for a great option to keep in your car, or near a campsite. The only drawback is that it doesn’t come with any food, so we do recommend having a stash on-hand (along with water purifying tablets) in case of an emergency.

Tom Price is an Associate Editor of Reviews for Popular Mechanics, and also contributes to Runner's World, and Bicycling. He has previously covered product reviews, startup news, and even professional wrestling. In his free time, he enjoys watching pretentious TV, low-brow movies, and exercising for beauty, not health. If you are interested in exploring more of his work, check out his website.

Rachel Klein is the Deputy Editor of Popular Mechanics.

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