Review of Magellan's Bottle Armor

As we were preparing for our 16-day trip to Chile, it was becoming obvious to us that we wanted to bring home some Chilean wine to share with our family and friends. We have traveled with wine tucked away in our checked luggage before and have always feared arriving home to find our bottle broken and our clothing covered in red wine. We contacted Magellan's Travel Supplies and they sent us a pair of their Bottle Armor to review.


Specifications

Bottle Armor can be purchased directly from Magellan's Travel Supplies for $24.85 a pair. The set includes a corkscrew, which stores away in the convenient pouch located on the back of every Bottle Armor. Bottles are protected from damage using a thin layer of bubble wrap which is secured within a durable nylon shell. The shell is designed to be puncture resistant and in the event a bottle does break it is designed with a double zipper-lock closure to prevent liquid from leaking out. Bottles are simply slid inside and the end sealed up by pressing the zippers and adjoining the Velcro.

Bottle Armor can be purchased in two sizes, standard and XXL. Our Bottle Armor was the standard size.

Our Thoughts

The Bottle Armor worked as described and protected our wine as we traveled throughout and home from Chile. We never encountered any issues during airline flights as the Bottle Armor and wine bottles were stored securely in our checked luggage. We struggled with the zip closures at first, but after some practice we were able to securely close the opening.

We were concerned with, what seemed to us to be, the relatively thin bubble wrap providing the cushion for the bottle in the event of a hard hit. After traveling with the pair, we believe that, if packed with clothing in your checked luggage, a bottle of wine would be well protected. We believe the design relies less on preventing a bottle from damage and more on preventing broken bottle from leaking. We feel confident in the material used for the shell would resist a puncture.

We feel the execution of the Bottle Armor design fell short of its potential. The lack of adequate product cushion prevents us from endorsing this product. We feel it is of utmost importance for a product like this to prevent a wine bottle from breaking. We travel with camera, fishing, and cooking gear in our packs and felt Bottle Armor wouldn’t protect a bottle from breaking if placed next to one of these hard objects. A simple change in the design to accommodate a thicker layer of bubble wrap would render ample protection. Magellan's Travel Supplies would have an exceptional product if this one area was improved.  

Our Bottle Armor in use on our Chile Trip