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Comment by nindalf | Hacker News Reader

> You don’t buy your jeans and jackets by looking for their letters on that pull. Likewise, you almost certainly wouldn’t nix a garment purchase because the zipper isn’t YKK.

This is partially true. YKK has tremendous brand loyalty among people buying expensive backpacks. If you’re spending $100 or more, it gives you a lot of peace of mind to know that the zipper won’t fail.

I ended up buying one last month. One of the reasons was that it promised YKK AquaGuard zippers for the laptop compartment.

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Non-YKK zippers are a canary: what other corners have been cut? Unless they’re RiRi, of course.

> Unless they’re RiRi, of course.

Or Lampo, or Raccagni.

By the time you are reading statements like this on HN or Reddit or wherever people in whatever industry is being discussed already know that people who don't know how to evaluate the product are looking at that signal thereby making it useless as a signal.

As in software, testing only finds failures, not successes.

At least that way you won't end up with zippers that fail after a couple of uses, rendering the whole garment or bag a total loss.

But yes, it's easier to signal than to make actual quality products.

What is a riri?

A brand of zippers - https://www.riri.com/products/riri/

Wow, I think that's the most beautiful photo of a zipper I've ever seen!

It's so beautiful, it makes me think it might be a render - after I learned how many "photos" in IKEA's catalogues are actually just using physically-based rendering extremely well, and not being to tell at all, that thought keeps popping up.

They're also really nice to use!

There is nothing that will make you appreciate the quality of a zipper more than having the zipper on your luggage break while in the airport.

And that is the day that I learned the Miami airport has a service that will basically use industrial strength cling wrap to seal your luggage.

> And that is the day that I learned the Miami airport has a service that will basically use industrial strength cling wrap to seal your luggage.

I did that once at JFK. I was afraid that the rigid suitcase would be mishandled so I anticipated. It did end up mishandled: I don’t know what they dropped on it but it had a large dent when I got it back. I was also checked at customs, where they cut the suitcase open with a knife, at which point I realised that the closing mechanisms were smashed and I could not close it again (they gave me some duct tape to keep it somewhat closed, but the following train journey was a nightmare). That was fun. But I did not regret the industrial strength cling wrap.

> I was also checked at customs, where they cut the suitcase open with a knife

My first thought is to type "WTF!", however having experienced the bully-boy antics of the US police (and how the US population appears to take this for granted) this behaviour by your Customs does not surprise me.

(Ignoring the editorialization)

I believe that the comment is referring to cutting off the cling-wrap to open the case, something that would likely be done by customs in any country.

Yes, indeed, that is poor phrasing on my part. They cut the shrink wrap, not the suitcase itself.

Or the zippers slider breaking into 2 parts on your relatively expensive Ski Jacket in a remote location at the beginning of the vacation. Happened to me, luckily I had a (cheap) fleece jacket with me with the same zipper size and I was able to fix it.

Not a broken zipper but a good trick to know for fixing a broken backpack buckle using two carabiners: https://youtu.be/iIilqYI1JNY

Those aren’t carabiners, they are small quick links and it’s very unlikely anyone is going to be randomly carrying those in the backcountry.

The simplest solution to a broken backpack buckle is another buckle. If you’re going to carry something, carry those. They’re light and cheap and should be part of the repair kit for backcountry travel.

You can also simply thread the strap through the webbing loop and tie it off. Hard to get the length exactly right but works in a pinch.

A lot of airports have them when they have flights to destinations where luggage is frequently broken into.

name and shame?

Reliable stats are hard to come by, but Delhi, Johannesburg, JFK all have bad reputations. For a long time Kuala Lumpur had a gang working with the X-ray guys to tag juicy targets, but they were busted a while back.

Problem is, cling wrap won't stop a determined thief, it'll just make the theft evident -- unless they just grab your whole bag instead.

> Problem is, cling wrap won't stop a determined thief

The point is just to make your bag more effort than the less-protected one next to it.

Is there an insurance company that will pay out if the seal is broken? Probably not, since then the customers would break them themselves to claim theft.

Every airport I've been to in Brazil had some saran wrapping booth. The salespeople can be quite pushy as well at those...

Yes. I check the zipper brand. I also look for molded plastic zippers (vislon) as opposed to coil zips because they are way more durable

Thank you!

My current everyday pouch has coil zips because I simply could not find a pouch with the other qualities that I'm looking for, that had an actual solid zipper. And I've had so many of these coil loop zippers fail over the years that I actually considered replacing the zippers before even using the pouch daily. Surely I'm not the only person so pedantic about the quality of their equipment.

Depending on the failure you can get kits to fix it.

I've sewn in new zippers in the past. My last one was such a great pouch, I've actually saved it and might replace the zipper after my current pouch is worn through.

We'll see in a few years!

I like Vislon as well, but each has its strengths:

> That said, Nylon Coil zippers are “self-healing,” meaning when the zipper accidently opens or closes incorrectly and skips a tooth, these misalignments are easily correctable by merely zipping the slider over the problematic area. On the contrary, misalignments on a Molded zipper usually indicates or results in a damaged tooth, which oftentimes renders the entire zipper inoperable and requires a full zipper replacement. (1)

Like HDD vs. SSD failure, the latter can be sudden.

1: https://perfectex.com/molded-plastic-vs-nylon-coil-zippers/

Do note that a decent waterproof rain flap is probably more important if you need actual waterproofing for persistent rain. Since AquaGuard isn't waterproof, it's water resistant, just like all zippers I've seen in the wild.

Check out TIZIP SuperSeal zipper -- it was used on some "dry suits" I wear for offshore sailboat racing in cold-water environments and is truly water-proof. It's advertised to be water-proof up to 700 millibar of pressure differential, which is equivalent to 23 feet of water depth. This zipper does require maintenance in the form of regular lubrication using, for example, a food-grade silicone grease/lubricant like the ones used for slushie/daiquiri machines.

I've looked into getting it worked into bags from Montrose Rope and Sail in Scotland when I worked in offshore industrial environments, but they don't have the equipment to do the "vinyl welding" necessary so you'd have to buy the bag without zippers and then find someone else who could do that welding.

You’re right. This isn’t going to last hours in a monsoon. But then again, neither would I. The water resistance means I can walk towards shelter instead of sprinting towards it.

If you're spending $100 on a backpack you can afford the extra $3 that's baked into the price for a nice zipper.

Peace of mind is a luxury good. People in the bottom of the market for any given class of product don't want to pay for it.

> If you're spending $100 on a backpack you can afford the extra $3 that's baked into the price for a nice zipper.

Either $100 for a nice backpack is conservative, or I'm way overpaying for backpacks.

I'll go so far as to say that lots of people do check the zipper when buying any clothes with a zipper, and usually put it back if it isn't YKK. I picked up this habit decades ago shopping with my mom and great aunt, but they acted like it was common knowledge. In years since I've met others who do the same. In my experience, most zippers that don't say YKK will break within a couple of years - backpacks or not.

My daughter is an equestrian and the quality makers of riding boots, half chaps, etc. all mention their use of YKK zippers in their product descriptions.

You made me check my backpack's zippers... YKK.. everything is ok.

By chance was it the LTT backpack?

It was Aer.

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