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First Aid Kit Review |
By PEG FISK
For THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
A home first-aid kit is like a fire-insurance policy: You buy one and hope you never use it.
But odds are good that you will, given all those accidents that happen at home -- scrapes, splinters, slices, burns and myriad other boo-boos. Then there are the neighborhood mishaps, from scooter wrecks (which sent 30,000 people to emergency rooms in 2000, according to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta) and bicycle accidents (accounting for almost 600,000 emergency-room visits yearly).
Numbers like that made us take a long look at our emergency kit -- a medicine cabinet containing a box of Band-Aids and a dark bottle filled with something that smells vaguely like spearmint.
So we went looking for a reasonably priced kit that would prepare us to face the most-common home accidents. Our first discovery: There's no such thing as the "right" first-aid kit. The American Medical Association suggests one set of kit components. The Red Cross offers a more general list on its Web site (www.redcross.org) and gave us yet another by phone. Even the contents of kits sold by the Red Cross vary from chapter to chapter. The bottom line: Get a kit that includes, at the very least, a good assortment of bandages, gauze pads and tape, pain relievers, antiseptics, a thermometer, scissors and tweezers. Beyond that, make sure it can address any unusual local contingency, such as tick bites.
And by all means, make sure you order before emergency strikes. We could have bled to death over our keyboard before we found five sites that could sell us kits. A couple sites we tried couldn't process our order; another went out of business shortly after we took delivery of its kit.
But the kits we ordered came quickly. Each had components packed inside a durable plastic box, except for the kit from REI, which came in a nylon case. Either way, they were built to survive being dropped by nervous aid-givers.
Our favorite model turned out to be among the cheapest, the $16.99 all-purpose kit from Drugstore.com. This one had the most pieces -- 144 -- of any we ordered. Granted, 25 of those were bandages and 24 were cleansing pads, but it also came with useful stuff such as a reusable hot-cold compress and burn-relief gel. Unlike some other kits, all the pieces could be easily re-packed in the five-compartment case. Another bonus: It had an illustrated first-aid guide simple enough for harried caregivers to follow.
In fact, it wasn't the only time we saw this kit. Made by a company called First Aid Only, it is available from a number of vendors, including First Aid Only itself. But prices vary, and the First Aid Only site charges $27.99. It pays to shop around.
Another standout, we thought, was REI's Day-Tripper Adventure Medical Kit. This kit is good for day-hiking, biking or the car, but has enough pieces to address most home-emergency contingencies. Though small, it managed to fit sturdy scissors and forceps (to pull out ticks, which can carry Lyme disease). We were surprised to find included "The Illustrated Guide to Life-Threatening Emergencies,"" which was so detailed you would need to read up in advance before trying any of the moves described (such as how to deal with venomous-lizard bites). We were even more surprised to pull out goodies such as examination gloves and a bag for biohazardous waste. Would we need it all? We weren't sure. But we felt like we were ready for anything.
Drugstore.com
First Aid Only All-Purpose
First-Aid Kit, $16.99
800-378-4786
www.drugstore.com
Quality: Best overall. Best value. This mountable, AMA-approved kit had more items (144) than the others, and five sections to keep it all organized. An easy-to-follow first-aid guide is included.
Shipping Costs/Time: $3.95 for shipping in three to five days. Ours arrived in one.
Return Policy: Satisfaction guaranteed. Return for full refund or replacement within 30 days. This is the only kit that included a prepaid return-postage label.
Phone/web experience: Easy Web site, quick confirmation on order.
Comments: All the right stuff for all the wrong moves. Includes reusable hot-cold compress, burn-relief gel and a variety of bandages. Inflation alert: Kit cost $13.99 when we ordered.
CVS.com
Johnson & Johnson
First-Aid Kit, $11.99
888-607-4287
www.cvs.com
Quality: This basic first-aid kit, in a plastic case, came with a limited 40 items. One-use packs of aspirin and antiseptics are good in a pinch but would need replacing.
Shipping Costs/Time: $3.50 for standard shipping; order arrived in two days.
Return Policy: Return any nonprescription item at any time for full credit.
Phone/web experience: Straightforward ordering experience -- no hassles.
Comments: The smallest kit, good for the car but missing items such as tweezers and bandages for sprains. We thought the plastic scissors were a throwaway. Site carries an assortment of kits.
PracticalTrauma.com
Home First-Aid Kit
$29.95
800-587-2313
www.practicaltrauma.com
Quality: More than 100 items were neatly packed -- but a nightmare to repack -- in a dividerless red tackle box. More than 85 of the pieces were different bandages, but the kit also includes useful stuff such as vomit-inducing syrup of ipecac.
Shipping Costs/Time: UPS second-day, $7.15; our order arrived in two days.
Return Policy: 100% guarantee; buyer pays shipping unless the item is defective.
Phone/web experience: Personable owner and emergency volunteer e-mailed us to speed order and explain his personal interest in first aid.
Comments: Kit has a few directions for dressing wounds, but no first-aid manual. It does, oddly, include an ink pen. Site also includes refill items, trauma kits and even first-aid kits for pets.
First Aid Only
All Purpose First-Aid Kit
$27.99
800-886-6659
www.firstaidonly.com
Quality: This sleek, well-appointed 144-item kit (it's the same one we got from Drugstore.com, although it's made by this company) is easy to mount on a wall.
Shipping Costs/Time: Received in three days via UPS ground shipping.
Return Policy: First Aid Only has an official warranty against defects in materials and workmanship for the life of their products.
Phone/web experience: We had problems finding an order form on the Web site, but a cooperative operator called us back and got the order going.
Comments: This company sells everything from a home-workshop first-aid kit to a $3.99 kit for the golf bag.
REI.com
Adventure Medical
Kit Day-Tripper, $35.95
800-426-4840
www.rei.com
Quality: This nylon kit is the lightest, at 14 ounces, but packs in 65 items. Especially good for wound management, with antiseptics, ointments and tincture of benzoin, which makes bandages stick better.
Shipping Costs/Time: $4.99 for shipping in two business days. We received ours in three days.
Return Policy: Any item can be returned for replacement or refund by mail or at any REI store.
Phone/web experience: Easy to track order from Web site. Site has a range of other first-aid kits.
Comments: Kit lived up to the claim of "hospital quality" instruments, such as scissors and forceps. First-aid book is so detailed, you would want to read up before an emergency struck.