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We’ve reviewed this guide and updated the picks as needed. Warming Mug For Coffee
A breakdown or flat tire can happen to anyone at any time. And what you have in your car can make the difference between getting back on the road quickly and enduring a long, trying, even dangerous ordeal by the side of the road.
We spent more than 60 hours researching emergency gear and common roadside problems, and we talked with safety experts and mechanics to get their advice. Whether the challenge is a flat tire, a dead battery, or traveling safely during a pandemic, here are the things you shouldn’t leave home without.
Yes, prepackaged emergency kits are out there, but we don’t think they’re the best way to go. Many kits we’ve looked at either leave out important items, include things you may never use, or just seem poorly made and likely to let you down when you need them. Others simply cost too much. It’s better to choose each item individually and create your own emergency kit. For this guide, we’ve even picked out a compact, soft-sided container, which can help keep things organized.
Of course, you may also encounter situations for which you need help, such as a roadside-assistance service or a tow truck. So, it’s good to make sure you’re covered. Most new cars come with complimentary roadside assistance that lasts a certain number of miles or a certain number of years, whichever comes first. Check your owner’s manual. Organizations such as AAA and Good Sam offer coverage to members regardless of what vehicle they drive. Many auto-insurance companies also provide vehicle-specific roadside assistance, usually for a monthly fee. Some credit card companies offer a mix of complementary and basic paid services, and even cell-phone companies are now offering basic services to customers: Verizon’s roadside-assistance plan, for example, costs $3 per month and covers any vehicle, as long as the phone is present. Most of these plans have limitations and plenty of fine print to study, so carefully review your coverage before hitting the road.
Frequently checking tire pressure and oil levels will help you anticipate and hopefully abate the typical hiccups that might sideline your road trip or daily commute. Still, when a flat tire, dead battery, or disconnected radiator hose crops up, having the basic necessities (and the occasional helpful gadget) can get you back on the road quicker than waiting for AAA to arrive. We’ve tested and selected some crucial items that will come through when you need them most.
The favorite gauge of all the tire professionals we interviewed.
The risk of underinflated tires creeps up on you, unnoticed. If you let the problem go too long, it can sideline you without warning, with a flat tire or a blowout. And in the meantime, it can hurt your fuel economy, hasten the wear on your tires, and make your car’s handling unpredictable and dangerous, particularly if you have to swerve to dodge something in the road. Ugh! You can avoid all that by checking the pressure of your tires (including the spare) regularly; we recommend doing so at least once a month. And a good tire-pressure gauge makes the task quick and easy.
We asked three tire shops which gauge they used, and all of them pointed us to the Accu-Gage RRA60X. After our testing, which included road-tripping with the tool ourselves, the Accu-Gage has emerged as our favorite tire gauge for several years running. It’s accurate and durable, and unlike a digital gauge, it has no battery to wear out. The Accu-Gage is available in several different configurations, but the performance is largely the same. We prefer a version with a hose attached and a straight chuck because that design makes it easier to hold the gauge and check the tire pressure at the same time. Our favorite version even has a removable rubber bumper in case you drop the gauge.
A sturdy and stable alternative to the jack that came with your car.
Most cars come with jacks for changing a flat tire, but typically they’re designed for occasional use at best, with an emphasis on saving space and weight instead of ensuring capability and ease of use. But if you find yourself stuck in, say, soft ground on a dark and stormy night, or on an uneven surface in the middle of nowhere, you’re better off with something more substantial. And a high-quality scissor jack is a much better bet than an inferior one that can bend or collapse and cause injury.
We looked at more than two dozen scissor jacks and found that the Torin T10152 Scissor Jack stands out as the best choice. The best-selling scissor jack available on Amazon when we did our testing, it weighs 7.7 pounds, so it’s considerably beefier than competing jacks like the Powerbuilt 640819 Mechanical Scissor Jack. Its 1.5-ton capacity is heftier than that of other models we looked at, and more than the weight of many cars, so lifting one corner of your car to change a tire will be no problem. Also important for safety is the 4.5-by-6-inch base, which is larger than the bases of many of the competitors in our comparison. That really helps to increase stability and spread the load in the soft stuff. Although this jack rises to a maximum height of 15.4 inches, it stands just 3.7 inches tall when collapsed. The Torin also includes a long handle for better leverage and ease of use.
Before using any jack, be sure to read the instructions in the car’s owner’s manual to find the recommended contact point on the vehicle for using a jack. Lifting in the wrong place can damage the car and possibly cause the jack to slip, creating a safety hazard. Also, make sure the car’s wheels can’t roll by putting an automatic transmission in Park (or shifting a manual transmission into a gear) and applying the emergency brake. Also, make sure the jack’s base is on a flat surface and that the jack stays vertical as you’re lifting the car; a jack that leans can easily slip.
A substantial wrench with an extending handle for leverage.
As if getting stuck with a flat tire weren’t bad enough, removing stubborn lug nuts with the chintzy wrench included with most cars can be nigh on impossible, particularly if they’re rusted on or if they were installed by an overzealous mechanic with an air wrench. One way to make your life easier is to use the Gorilla Automotive 1721 Telescoping Power Wrench. Made of hardened steel, the Gorilla stands apart from other aftermarket wrenches we looked at (as well as the kind that comes with a car) thanks to one key feature: a telescoping handle that extends to a whopping 22 inches long. That length gives you better leverage for loosening stubborn nuts, and it can make the difference between being stranded and getting yourself back on the road. It then shrinks to just 14 inches for storage. The Gorilla has two double-edged, ½-inch-drive sockets to fit all four common lug-nut sizes, and it comes with a handy storage bag to keep everything organized and clean. Overall, the Gorilla is likely to be a better bet in an emergency than the wrench rattling around in your trunk. Just make sure to also carry a flathead screwdriver to remove hubcaps (if your car has them).
This is an emergency quick fix for flat tires.
An aerosol can of sealant won’t fix every flat tire, but it will get you out of a jam if you run over a nail, or at least let you drive to get help or reach a safer place to put on your spare. And using sealant is easier and quicker than changing a tire, a real boon in some situations. The best product for the job is the ubiquitous Fix-A-Flat. Just screw the built-in hose onto a tire’s valve stem and pull the trigger, and Fix-a-Flat dispenses a mix of sealant and air to inflate your tire. Also note that this product won’t completely inflate the tire, so your best bet is to top it off with air from another source as soon as possible. And don’t drive more than 100 miles—the shorter distance, the better—without either getting a permanent repair or replacing the tire. The 16-ounce size is designed for most cars; a 22-ounce can is available for larger pickups and SUVs.
An aerosol can of sealant won’t fix every flat tire, but it will get you out of a jam.
This portable air compressor is quick, accurate, and well built.
All tires lose air pressure, whether quickly due to a leak or a drop in ambient air temperature or slowly due to the normal seepage of air through the tire’s rubber. Underinflated tires can be a safety risk by making your car handle poorly, making it harder for you to keep control of the car when swerving to avoid an obstacle in the road, or causing a tire to fail (and possibly blow out) due to overheating. Underinflated tires also use more energy, which hurts your car’s fuel economy. Having a small air compressor in your car to inflate the tires is the quickest and easiest way to set them right.
Though our two top picks for tire inflators from Viair have been discontinued, we continue to recommend the Viair 84P as a flexible model for both standard and large tire sizes. Similar to other models we recommend, the 84P plugs into your car’s 12-volt outlet (aka cigarette lighter) for power, so it’s convenient to use on the road. Its handy carrying case make it easy to stow in a vehicle’s trunk or cargo compartment, and the stronger motor makes it a quicker model than most (even for larger tires). During long-term testing of Viair models over the past three years, they have consistently performed well, and we’ve appreciated their quick performance, especially when a slow leak is crying for attention during a busy commute.
A portable jump starter is essentially a lightweight battery attached to two jumper cables that you use to jump-start your car. It’s easier, safer, and less intimidating than old-fashioned jumper cables that you attach to another car—and it’s something you can use if you’re alone, instead of waiting for roadside service/a kind stranger/a friend/a relative to show up and bail you out.
This jump starter has the right safety features and contains enough juice in a small package to start most cars and SUVs.
Wirecutter has recommended Weego gear since we first published our guide to portable jump starters in 2017. Guide writer Mark Smirniotis researched 40 lithium-ion jump starters and tested 12. Two Weego portable jump starters (both of which are now discontinued) became picks: the Weego 22s (the top pick; about $60) and the Weego 44 (the upgrade pick; about $150). Though we no longer maintain that full guide, many of us at Wirecutter still keep a Weego jump starter in our cars. But now, in many cases, it’s an updated version, namely the affordable Weego 44s, which hovers around the same price as the 22s model, its less powerful predecessor.
Measuring 5.62 by 3.44 by 1.04 inches (LWD), the Weego 44s jump starter is about the same size as a cell phone in length and width. It also weighs less than a pound (around 12 ounces, according to my kitchen scale) and has safety features that help prevent you from hurting your car or yourself: If you incorrectly attach the jump starter to your battery (which can potentially damage the battery or your car’s electrical system), the unit’s reverse-polarity protection feature activates, issuing a red light and an alarm alerting you not to proceed.
The Weego 44s is rated to work with a wide range of vehicles, including gas engines up to 7 liters and diesel engines up to 3.5 liters. It can jump-start pretty much any gas- or diesel-powered passenger-vehicle engine—anything from a Mini Cooper (2 liters or less) to a Dodge Ram (as much as 6.7 liters)—and it fits that power into a package that’s small enough for most glove boxes.
The Weego 44s comes partially charged out of the box and takes about 2.5 hours to charge from zero. A USB-A–to–Micro-USB charging cord is included, but it doesn’t come with a charging cube, so you need to plug the USB-A end into your own USB phone charger that works in regular household outlets or use an outlet with a USB-A port. According to the company, the unit can stay charged for more than a year in storage, though you should make sure to top it off every three to six months. With regular use, it’s rated to last for about three to five years or up to 1,000 recharge cycles. Plus, it can provide multiple jumps before it needs a recharge itself (five lights on the side of the unit indicate its remaining battery life).
The Weego 44s has checks and balances to ensure that you safely jump-start a car, but its lithium-ion polymer battery comes with certain caveats. Though the manufacturer indicates that the unit will operate in temps of -4 °F to 140 °F, leaving it in a car in extremely hot or cold conditions is not a great idea. “Most devices that contain a lithium-ion battery, whether it’s your smartphone or a portable jump starter, should not spend long periods of time in extreme temperatures since it can cause permanent damage to the battery,” says Wirecutter senior staff writer and battery expert Sarah Witman. “You should also keep in mind that car engines need more power to get started in freezing temperatures, so it’s especially important to keep your jump starter fully charged when driving in cold climates.”
If you’re a die-hard jumper-cable partisan, make sure that the cables you get are long enough for most scenarios and thick enough to carry sufficient current to jump most vehicles.
These are long and durable enough for any situation, with a current rating that can handle SUVs.
All it takes is leaving the headlights, or even an interior light, on when you park, and you may return to a dead battery. When that happens, typically the quickest way to get going is to have a solid set of cables that are long enough to reach a Good Samaritan’s battery and thick enough to carry sufficient current to start your car. After scrutinizing the specs of dozens of sets and having an electrical engineer analyze three top-rated models, we’d buy the Lifeline AAA Heavy Duty 16-foot 6 Gauge Booster Cables.
A thicker cable handles current more efficiently than a thin cable, and the AAA 6-gauge cables are both long enough and thick enough for most situations. Their 400-amp current rating means they can handle most vehicles (even trucks and SUVs). They also come with a sturdy and convenient mesh storage bag.
What really makes the AAA jumper cables stand out over all the others we tested is its clamps, which are especially easy to use and well designed and constructed. They attach easily to conventional, top-mount car-battery posts and include a small extension for attaching to the smaller posts found on side-terminal batteries. If you’re unfamiliar with how to use jumper cables, familiarize yourself. But lest you forget, AAA includes a handy diagram in the bag.
Super-strong and sticky, flexible enough to wrap around corners, and easy to tear in a clean, straight line.
As any MacGyver fan will tell you, duct tape is an indispensable tool. We tested the hell out of 10 rolls of duct tape and chose Duck Max Strength above the competition for its perfect blend of attributes: high material strength, a strong adhesive, and superior overall flexibility, which makes it easy to wrap around odd shapes and curved surfaces. It also tears in a nice, straight line and lends itself to short-term roadside repairs on your gear, as well as on the interior and exterior of your car.
We’ve used duct tape for everything from an emergency short-term patch on a radiator hose to a quick reattaching of loose wires and wayward bits of trim. Although it isn’t a permanent fix, it might get you home, or at least to a mechanic or to a safer place to make repairs. Duct tape can even handle first-aid duties when the right materials for the job aren’t available.
The last thing you need when pulled by the wayside is for anything else to go wrong. These roadside safety essentials will help keep you visible and prepared to tackle most emergencies while you’re pulled over. We’ve also included cleaning necessities to make sure you don’t bring the mess of roadside repairs back into the car with you.
A bright light with the highest beam quality that stays charged for days—whether you charge it with a USB or AAA batteries—makes this perfect for backpacking trips.
It’s bad enough to get stuck with a breakdown in the dark, but attempting one-handed repairs while fumbling with a flashlight is even worse. A much better solution is to use an elastic strap-on headlamp that leaves both hands free to work. We think that the Petzl Actik Core is a good option for keeping in your car because it’s rechargeable, unlike our top pick, the Black Diamond Spot 350. This design means you won’t ever get caught with a dead battery as long as you have a USB car charger on hand. (It can also use regular AAAs.) The Actik Core’s 450-lumen light quality was the brightest of our test group, and it had the best optical quality, too. (As of early 2023, the Actik Core was updated and now has a 600-lumen beam; we’re currently testing it.) Some things we liked less were the missing flood feature (which is helpful for camping) and a lower-than-expected weatherproof rating.
Crushproof and waterproof, this set of three beacons comes with magnets for car mounting. And these are much safer than traditional flares.
When your car is stranded by the side of the road, it’s critical to give other drivers as much warning as possible so that a minor problem doesn’t become a major one. Battery-powered emergency beacons are a much safer alternative to traditional magnesium flares, both for your health and for the environment around you. We suggest making the StonePoint LED Emergency Beacon part of your roadside emergency kit.
It’s critical to give other drivers as much warning as possible.
The StonePoint set gives you three separate lights that are water-resistant, magnetic, crushproof to 6,000 pounds, and easy to set up and turn on. The magnets let you mount the beacons on your car, which helps other drivers see your vehicle more easily and mitigates any difference in intensity compared with a brighter magnesium flare. By putting one on the road (preferably elevated on something and located about 100 feet before your car), another on the trunk, and another on the hood, you’ll create a very visible early warning for drivers, with a lot less risk of fire.
Strong, disposable protection for your hands.
As important as it is to carry the right gear for roadside emergencies, protecting your hands is also a must. Ammex GWON Gloveworks Orange Nitrile Gloves are stronger and more puncture-resistant than their natural-rubber counterparts, and they’re also more resistant to oil, grease, chemicals, and other toxins you’d just as well keep off your hands. And for all their strength, they’re thin and flexible enough for handling small parts and working in close quarters under the hood. The raised diamond pattern on the surface helps to provide a good grip, and the powder-free polymer coating inside makes the gloves easier to get on and off. Available in sizes M through XXL and in boxes of 100, these disposable synthetic-rubber and latex-free gloves are a top-rated choice for Amazon reviewers, many of whom report using the same pair over and over again. Keep a couple of pairs in your car, and you’ll always arrive with clean hands.
Foul-weather protection that fits in your pocket.
Unexpected breakdowns are never any fun, but making repairs in the rain is the pits. One inexpensive accessory is the one-size-fits-all Emergency Zone Emergency Poncho. Measuring a roomy 50 by 80 inches, this poncho has high ratings on Amazon. The poncho includes a built-in hood, but it’s lightweight and thin enough to easily fit in a glove compartment, a backpack, or even your pocket. In addition, it comes with a resealable plastic bag for storage. The Emergency Zone Emergency Poncho will keep you dry while you’re changing a tire or making other repairs, and it can double as a drop cloth to kneel on. Sure, a thick plastic lawn-and-leaf bag with holes cut for your head and arms would be an even cheaper alternative, but for this product’s low price, we’ll take the full coverage of a poncho. The company also sells a Children’s Emergency Poncho that measures 40 by 33 inches.
Breakdowns are never any fun, but making repairs in the rain is the pits.
Easy to handle and effective against all types of common fires, this First Alert model exceeds the minimum recommendations for the home and is easy to find.
Vehicle fires account for 10 percent of all reported blazes in the US, according to the National Fire Protection Association, and 6 percent of all fire-related deaths. Because cars are filled with volatile liquids, fabrics, plastics, and other materials, a spark can turn into an inferno in minutes. That makes having a fire extinguisher onboard critical, because a car can be completely engulfed by the time help arrives. We recommend the First Alert PRO5 for your car. It exceeds the minimum size recommendations of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), yet weighs a manageable 10 pounds. We prefer its type over a disposable model because it has a sturdy and reliable metal (not plastic) valve. And, if you do use it, you can refill it for about half the cost of a new extinguisher.
When dealing with a car fire, of course, use your judgment. The best time to extinguish one is as soon as you notice it. If a fire grows, you’re probably better off getting far away from the vehicle. Here’s some advice from Autoblog on what to do if your car catches fire. It’s worth reading.
Fast and easy cleanup on the go.
Odds are, if your car breaks down, you’re going to get dirty; it’s just a question of how dirty. Microfiber towels or rags are an essential part of a roadside repair kit, not only for cleaning things up but also for protecting your hands from cuts and burns and helping you get a better grip on slippery parts. A 24-pack of Quickie Microfiber Towels is a civilized option that’s available for only a few bucks. More than just a bargain-bin choice, these towels are a favorite among Amazon reviewers, who currently give them a high rating for offering superior durability, great washability, and a substantial feel without being as hard to get into crevices and tight spots as some thicker competitors. The Quickie towels also come nicely folded and packaged for storage. All of that makes them a better choice than a greasy old rag for washing windows and cleaning up juice-box spills, and you can toss them into the washing machine and use them again.
If your car breaks down, you’re going to get dirty; it’s just a question of how dirty.
Microfiber towels are priced right, but they’re still not as cheap as an old T-shirt or towel, which is what most people have in the trunk. The choice is yours. Either way, keeping a tube of hand cleaner on board is also a good idea. We like Goop Multi Purpose Hand Cleaner - Orange Power. Available in a 5-ounce tube, Goop cuts through dirt, grease, oil, and paint, yet it’s nontoxic and biodegradable. Just squeeze a little onto your hands, rub them together, and wipe off the residue with a clean cloth.
Keep your emergency gear organized and ready.
Once you’ve put together the pieces for your roadside emergency kit, you’ll need a container to keep everything handy and organized. A soft-sided tool box will conform better than a metal box to the contours of your trunk and will be easier to pack around; its contents are less likely to rattle, too. Measuring 21 by 5 by 8½ inches, the Black+Decker MATRIX Wide-Mouth Storage Bag is big enough for all the items in our basic kit. Unlike some other tool bags, it opens wide to accommodate large items and to allow you to see inside more easily. That’s important, especially when you’re retrieving objects of various sizes in the dark. It has pockets inside and out for smaller gear, and it comes with two removable dividers secured with Velcro. Sporting both a carry handle and a shoulder strap, this bag also has a rigid bottom for easier transport.
A well-equipped glove compartment or console should hold whatever you need to address a backseat boo-boo or on-the-road emergency, without having to get out and rummage through your trunk to find a band-aid. We think these items are useful to have easily accessible, for both everyday care and more extreme circumstances.
Effective, EPA-approved, and (usually) easy to find, these pre-soaked wipes need only four minutes of contact time to neutralize the coronavirus—and they’ll kill other nasty bugs you might come across in your travels, too.
Most disinfecting wipes are the same. Although we recommend Clorox Disinfecting Wipes, we advise getting any pack of wipes you can find that contains a disinfectant on the EPA’s List N (most have a bleach or quaternary ammonium base). Clorox’s bleach-free wipes are usually sold in single canisters or in four-packs at a range of retailers. These wipes can eliminate the coronavirus and other pathogens on hard surfaces—countertops, door handles, and bathroom fixtures—in your home, vehicle, or motel room, but not on fabric or other soft materials.
This aerosol works in 10 minutes and is fabric-safe, but it’s guaranteed to eliminate the coronavirus and other pathogens only on hard surfaces.
Instead of bleach, which can damage car interiors, Lysol Disinfectant Spray uses quaternary ammonium. It’s safe on hard surfaces and most fabrics, and it’s gentler on skin than bleach. It also produces fewer harsh fumes—which is good if you’re disinfecting the same space frequently. The spray eliminates the coronavirus, for instance, on hard surfaces in 10 minutes, but on soft surfaces it only sanitizes (kills most but not all pathogens). The mist’s wide coverage should work well in cars and small spaces.
One thing we’ve learned in the past few years is that face masks can be useful whenever you’re sick (with COVID-19, a cold, the flu, whatever) and don’t want to share your misery with fellow passengers, people at rest stops, or anyone else. Fortunately, compared with the situation in early 2020, medical-style N95 and KN95 masks (which many experts recommend as the best protection) are widely available these days. They’re easy to tuck into a bag, which we do now whenever we travel.
This kit is chock-full of bandages and cleaning supplies suitable for minor incidents.
A good first-aid kit should have everything you need to take care of minor cuts and scrapes while on the road, and it should also be helpful for treating more seriously injured people until they can get expert medical assistance. We like the First Aid Only First Aid Essentials Kit. Although it lacks some of the higher-quality tools that we recommend for a wilderness first aid kit, it comes with plenty of bandages, alcohol prep pads, pain relievers, and equipment to treat up to four people’s minor cuts and scrapes. For a full list of included products and a chart comparing all the kits we like, see our full guide.
All of the essentials you need in a pocket tool, in a well-built body that’s easy to carry and use.
No roadside emergency kit is complete without a multi-tool. Small enough to carry in a jeans pocket or to attach to a belt, a multi-tool allows you to have a set of useful tools almost anywhere. Our choice is the Leatherman Skeletool CX, which offered the best mix of functionality, ergonomics, and solid construction of the 22 multi-tools we tested. With a high-quality 2.6-inch blade made of 154CM carbon-fiber stainless steel, as well as pliers, a bit driver, a pocket clip, and a carabiner/bottle opener, the Skeletool comes with all essentials and none of the extra bells and whistles that make other multi-tools bulky and difficult to use. Short of a socket set and a hammer, it has just about everything you would normally need to tighten stray parts, replace bulbs and loose wires, make minor adjustments, cut or pull out stuck debris from under your car, and perform other emergency repairs on the road.
A simple and inexpensive way to escape a sinking car.
A floating car will submerge and sink within two minutes on average, leaving little time for you to escape after a watery crash. Water pressure makes doors and windows difficult or impossible to open, and electric windows will likely short out once the wiring gets wet. Those conditions could leave breaking a window as the only way out, and it can be difficult to do without tools. That’s where the elegantly simple resqme comes in. Designed to fit on a keychain, the compact resqme includes a sharp knife blade for slicing through jammed seatbelts and a spring-loaded hardened-steel plunger for breaking a side window. Rescue professionals we spoke with told us that, for most people in a submerged car, handling the resqme would be easier than attempting an underwater swing with one of the many hammer-type self-rescue tools available. Available in a variety of colors, the resqme also gets very good user reviews on Amazon.
A floating car will submerge and sink within two minutes on average.
A bit of extra preparation for multi-day and far-afield trips–keeping spare water, food, and navigational tools close at hand– can ensure you’re not stranded without basic necessities in areas with limited connectivity and fewer service facilities.
Best-in-class directions, driver alerts, points of interest, and free map updates—combined with the best screen we’ve seen on any GPS unit—set the DriveSmart 55 apart from the pack.
For shorter trips, a smartphone can provide all the navigation assistance you need. But for longer drives or for journeys to remote locations without cellular service, consider bringing along a dedicated GPS unit. The Garmin DriveSmart 55 can connect to a smartphone via Bluetooth, which lets you send destinations to the device, get incoming messages on screen, and receive extra trip and traffic info. The DriveSmart 55 also provides helpful traffic info in many metro areas, responds to voice commands as effectively as the best GPS units do, and (like other top models) includes free lifetime map updates—in contrast with the pricey updates you need to buy for many cars’ built-in nav systems.
Not only can a GPS unit help you avoid draining your phone battery and data plan, but it can also provide help that your phone cannot. Wirecutter staffers learned this firsthand on a road trip, when their low-fuel light came on in a remote area well outside cell phone coverage. Unsure of how much fuel they had or whether to turn back or press on, they pulled over and switched on their Garmin. Seemingly from nowhere, the device identified a gas station less than 20 miles down the road.
This water jug holds enough water for two people for two days, and it has a spill-proof, screw-on vent cap.
The general rule for water in any emergency is that one person needs one gallon of water for one day, and more is better if your travel plans include a trip through the desert or the middle of nowhere. After researching 16 types of water jugs, we’d recommend the Reliance 7-Gallon Aqua-Tainer. The Reliance has two standout features—a screw-on vent cap and a spigot that reverses in on itself when not in use—that work together to prevent major spills. The screw-on vent cap won’t come undone, unlike the pull-top vents on some competitors, which tend to loosen and leak when you’re driving on anything but the smoothest roadways. Spigot caps can be a weakness for some jugs, too. When you aren’t using the Reliance’s spigot, you can unscrew it and drop it into the jug, sealing the canister nice and tight.
Widely available, these bars taste good, last a year, and cost about a dollar each.
Energy bars are a compact and nutritious food item that you can keep in your car for snack time—or for an unexpected stop in a ditch far from civilization. After comparing 10 popular bars, we like CLIF Bars for their balance of nutrition, taste, and value. Readily available online and at grocery and outdoor stores across North America, they typically have an expiration date about a year from the date of purchase (though, yes, we’ve eaten three-year-old bars with no ill effects). Fortified with 23 vitamins and minerals, CLIF Bars can help replace the nutrients you miss when you don’t eat full meals. On average, each bar contains roughly 250 calories, 10 grams of protein, 5 to 7 grams of fat, up to 5 grams of fiber, and around 40 grams of carbs.
Hypothermia occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat. That can happen quickly in a stalled car, and it can be deadly. One way to protect yourself is to use a lightweight, compact, and inexpensive emergency Mylar thermal blanket. Often called “space blankets,” Mylar blankets are windproof, waterproof, and capable of reflecting more than 90 percent of your body heat. A package of four blankets costs a few bucks, and because each comes in its own plastic pouch that’s compact enough to fit in a glove compartment, you can keep a few in your car or put them in different vehicles. At 84 by 52 inches, they’re plenty big enough to wrap yourself up, and they’re reusable. Good luck getting one back into that snug pouch once you’ve pulled it out—if it does the job, though, that’s a small price to pay.
Mylar blankets are windproof, waterproof, and capable of reflecting more than 90 percent of your body heat.
If you’ll be traveling through remote areas during the winter, another good idea is to take along extra clothes and other items that can provide heat in an emergency, such as air-activated hand warmers or small candles.
This article was edited by Ria Misra and Christine Ryan.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Emergency Water Supplies, February 10, 2014
Brett & Kate McKay, How To Jump Start a Car, The Art of Manliness, September 11, 2008
Josh Max, What To Do If Your Car Catches Fire, Autoblog
Jennifer Abel, Buried in a blizzard? Here's a five-dollar emergency heat source for your car, Consumer Affairs, November 26, 2014
Convenient tire sealants to fix a flat tire, Consumer Reports
Maureen Callahan, MS, RD, Zeroing In On the Best Energy Bars, Cooking Light
Anatomy of a First Aid Kit, American Red Cross
Carl A. McMillan, The ABCs, Ds, and Ks of Fire Extinguishers, Occupational Health & Safety, August 1, 2004
Kit Dillon is a senior staff writer at Wirecutter. He was previously an app developer, oil derrick inspector, public-radio archivist, and sandwich shop owner. He has written for Popular Science, The Awl, and the New York Observer, among others. When called on, he can still make a mean sandwich.
Eleanor Ford is an updates writer covering home goods, cycling, travel, and outdoors gear.
Here are the essential—and nonessential—items to carry in your car during winter driving to ensure you get to your destination.
by Kit Dillon and Wirecutter Staff
After 120 hours of research and 1,500 miles behind the wheel, we’ve singled out the gear that’s absolutely essential for your next journey on the open road.
by Doug Mahoney and Joshua Lyon
These items will meet your needs for water, nourishment, comfort, and more while you evacuate to a safe location.
We interviewed four Airbnb Superhosts and over a dozen frequent rental guests to determine the top items to invest in for an overnight rental.
Emergency Hammer Car Escape Tool Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).