[pct-l] Western Mountaineering

[Tortoise]

To really get an accurate weight on a calibrated scale go to a postoffice
or a market where stuff is sold by weight. Generally those scales are
calibrated and more importantly regularly checked. The scales placed around
produce areas and such are not checked and are usually labled "estimation
only".

Another way of checking the accuracy of your scale is weighing stuff on it
that has been weighed in a store such as produce or bulk food items.


That said, I'm surprised that WM doesn't do rechecks of weight when ever
they change a product, and also just do random checks both on their raw
materials and their finished products. This is just good quality control.

Colin Fletcher in his The Complete Walker series wrote of taking his own
scale when he went to shop for gear.


Tortoise

<> He who finishes last, wins! <>


Len Glassner wrote:
> I called WM today.  The guy asked me how often my scale is calibrated. 
> Hmmm...how often should one recalibrate one's kitchen scale?  Fellow 
> said they make stuff to pretty close tolerances, shouldn't  be off by 
> more than an ounce or so...maybe the down is damp?  I could send it to 
> them and if it was overfilled they'd take out the extra.  I said I'd go 
> to the San Diego A16, they have a hanging scale, if that validated my 
> kitchen scale measurement we'd figure out where to go from there.
> 
> Took the bag down to A16.  Christo, the manager, weighed the bag, came 
> up with the same weight I did.  We weighed two more Ultralites, same 
> result, three ounces over.  Christo called WM.  (WM provides neither an 
> email address nor a phone number on their website.  Christo said that 
> when they did provide that info, they couldn't turn out product because 
> of the interruptions. WM is a three-person operation.)  He was told that
>  they've made various changes to the product over the years and hadn't 
> weighed the bags in a while.  The WM dude was going to look into it 
> further.  I hope they update their product info if they find it is out 
> of date.
> 
> I wonder how accurate the listed weights are on their other products?
> 
> I still have the bag, may keep it just out of inertia.  But I probably 
> wouldn't have bitten if I'd been given the correct info.
> 
> It's a nice bag.  Full zip, my current bag has a partial, so I'd have 
> more flexibility. I can lie sideways in it and not turn the bag.  And 
> this is a narrow cut.  What I really need is a custom one that matches 
> my thin dimensions.  I might try to make one out of grommets, a trash 
> compactor bag, and duct tape.  Anyone have a pattern?
> 
> If one is trying to evaluate an item marketed as lightweight, it is 
> helpful to be given an accurate weight.  Truth in advertising is a good 
> thing, IMHO.  I thought shining a light on this situation, in a forum 
> with millions of participants, might be helpful to those considering a 
> WM bag.  And there's the fun part, where you get to hear from all those 
> who say  'HYOH...maybe...but the way you go about it is crazy wrong.'.
> 
> 
> On 2/15/08, Len Glassner <len5742 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I just bought a WM Ultralite 6' bag.  Marketed as 20 degrees, 1 pound
>>  10 ounces.  It  replaces my 6'6" 15 degree 2 pound bag.  Saving 6 
>> ounces and giving up only a slight amount of warmth looked good to me.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Thing is, the WM bag weighs one pound, 13.3 ounces. Less than half the
>>  weight savings I expected.  This pisses me off.
>> 
>> So the moral is:  Don't trust; verify.
>> 
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