UKC

I need a lightweight daysack and saw a Berghaus yesterday in town. It is certainly light, looks well designed, but I didn't think it had the quality of say an Osprey. Unfortunately the shop no longer stocks Osprey sacks. Has anyone an opinion? Thanks.

In reply to Phil1919:

I have a berghaus daysack that have had for years, just showing some wear at the seams of the zip but its been used daily for 6-7 years now and I will get another

In reply to Phil1919:
I'd generally say it's pretty good stuff and I've had a few items of their kit. I've got a daysack I used for years as a school/University/climbing sack that is still going strong after 25 years, which you expect to be showing it's age. The only hole in it is entirely my fault, from chucking it over a dry stone wall.

Only niggle on rucksacks would be that the Remote 25 I bought just before Christmas already has a hole in the bottom, and it's not exactly been abused - that panel should have been made of heavier material, imho. Other than that, I can't fault it for what I wanted, namely cycling to work as a replacement for my not-quite-big-enough Lowe Pax-15.

In reply to Phil1919:

I'm a bit of a fan if I'm honest. I've had a Vulcan for over 20 years that has had plenty of abuse and is still in great nick; I've got an alpine extreme which was my climbing pack for fifteen years until I realised that 50 litres is too big as I just fill it (It now does as my light backpacking bag); I've got a larger Cyclops bag which is my general backpacking bag; I have a lightweight Phantom 37 for dragging / winter and a Free flow 35 for hill walking.
The big bags are pretty bombproof and have lots of years left. The Freeflow is showing some wear after seven years but is going strong and at this rate has a good ten years left. The Phantom is made of really light fabric so I suspect will hole soon enough but has surprised me so far.
A clincher for me is the aftersales service. Both the Vulcan and the other Cyclops bag have been back under guarantee. The vulcan's hip belt started to detach after eighteen years and a pocket zip failed on my other bag. Both sorted free of charge with no quibbles.

In reply to Phil1919:
I have around 6 rucksacks, of various sizes and makes some 20- 30 years old, the only one with broken zips/clips is a fairly new( 7 years)Freeflow Berghaus and that happened in the first year.
( granted the oldest Lowe Alpine sacks don't have any zips to break)

Edit Freeflow for Airflow.

In reply to Phil1919:

I'd be very surprised if the experience of someone who has made a pack last for 20 years is going to be repeated today. Gear is made from different materials and to a different brief nowadays and I wouldn't expect Berghaus, who don't seem to lead in any category of outdoor gear, to be making anything special. On the other hand, if its cheap, buy it.

In reply to BnB:

I suppose I was wondering whether they'd done a Karrimor, and ever sold their good name on over time to a new owner who has then lowered the standards and traded on the name.

In reply to Phil1919:

Clint, they haven't done a karrimor but their packs are poor quality. I used to work in a shop that sold them and the while the workmanship is pretty standard the design of some of their packs is as poor as most modern rucksack manufactures. Too many seams, too much leight weight material. My friend bought a pack (I think called the arete) aimed at climbing and skiing, it fell to pieces wiht very light use (days not months) and more concerningly both ice axe loops broke off. Luckily this wasn't somewhere which could have been dangerous, this thing was worryingly marketed at alpine climbers.

I have a very old 40ltr berghaus rucksack which I use as a crag sack and a winter climbing sack. It is completely bomb proof, well designed, good quality materials and stitching. The trouble today with a lot of rucksack manufacturers (not just beghaus) is there is a tried and tested design for a bag, it's made of one main piece of thick fabric with a thick bottom double stitched on and one seam down the back panel. This design works perfectly, never breaks, is relatively cheap to manufacture and therefore no use for a company looking to make money. Take a modern berghaus (or osprey for that matter) sack and there's about 20 bits of fabric about as thin as your grans tights, laser cut, hundreds of man hours on the design, the most expensive light weight material etc. etc. The end result is a very expensive bag which falls to pieces very quickly and saves you about 200 grammes.

You have 3 options, buy a cheap shit bag and replace it when it falls to pieces (ironically I got a 25 ltr mountain warehouse bag which is better designed and has lasted longer than my friends berghuas - purely because instead of spending thousands of pounds on a design they've just copied the design everyone else has used successfully for decades)

Secondly splash a load of cash on an aguille, blue ice or similar style pack. (there's lots of sack info on these forums)

Third get an older pack from ebay, karrimor, berghaus, pod etc.

In reply to BnB:


I would have thought that having been around for some time is likely to give you a good idea of what people require from new materials and experience in fit and function. I've had some excellent stuff from Berghaus over the years. I've looked at some of their kit recently and it was comparable to similarly priced gear from other manufacturers.
Judge it for yourself don't just buy because of the brand.

In reply to Phil1919:

Don´t do it. I had a 40l Berghaus sack for >20y, then the replacement died on the first trip. Fortunately the shop had taken Berghaus sacks out of the program, so I got a Mammut one as a replacement which is as bombproof as I hoped the Berghaus would be. Shame really, because in terms of fit and ergonomy the Berghaus one was perfect.

No idea what I will do when the Mammut one will die (it has a few more years in it, but the wear begins to show).

CB

In reply to LastBoyScout:

Just noticed, while idly fiddling with my bag, that the stitching around the hydration hose outlet hasn't caught the material properly and is starting to unravel - I haven't even used that feature.

In reply to Sharp:

Thanks all. Yes, I liked the design of the Berghaus but the material seemed extremely lightweight to me. I'll wait and go to Ambleside where there is a lot more choice to compare with other makes.

In reply to Sharp:


My Berghaus packs are both over 20 years old so I can't comment on the news ones, but in my experience of what you are saying about Osprey packs and also Marmot, Lowe Alpine, Pod and Arcteryx packs what you are saying simply isn't true. In particular my Osprey bags have been used for 1000s of hours over numerous years (daily commute) and are still great.

If you have a bag that falls apart "in days" take it back to the shop and get it replaced. It's faulty. Of the packs I've used over the last decade, both ones sent to me for reviews and ones I've bought, there has hardly been anything wrong with any of them.

In reply to BnB:

I had a fairly durable-alike rucksack Berghaus Freeflow Pro II 40l. It didn't start to rip, but pole attachment straps started to disintegrate, chest buckle broken (customer service sent a replacement twice... both times wrong ones!), seams were put at the stress places, etc.. It didn't have that much action before I sold it, but it definitely wasn't something as durable.

I wouldn't say that Berghaus is like Osprey, Lowe Alpine, Mountain Equipment, DMM, etc. which are focused on producing great gear with great detail. Berghaus, The North Face, etc. seemed to focus on mass market and produce a lot of gear that looks great but is not meant to be used in active outdoor environment.

P.s. That's just my 2p.

In reply to PPP:

Berghaus has a large, vertically-integrated product range, spanning low, mid and moderately high end products. The design and build quality varies across this range. So it's a bit difficult to give a binary answer...

In reply to captain paranoia:


This.