Can Zipper Bags For Cars Keep Flood Waters Out?

According to the Insurance Council of Texas, nearly 300,000 vehicles were affected during Hurricane Harvey. But a relatively new product on the market promises to protect your car the next time it floods.

Stephen Parven’s Toyota Avalon Hybrid technically flooded during Harvey, but lived to drive another day. Nearly five feet of water filled his garage in Meyerland. But he used something called E.V.P., otherwise known as Extreme Vehicle Protection to prevent his car from flood damage.

“Took the bag off, not a drop inside. My goodness, what a relief,” Parven explained.

The developers of E.V.P. appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank” last year and their product was funded by Daymond John. Many have described it as a Ziploc bag for your vehicle.

After Harvey, Supratik Moulik saw the need to bring it here and worked with the company to represent the product in Houston.

“It’s also water resistant, so when the water rises the car will be fine,” Moulik said.

To demonstrate, we used a BMW 3-Series luxury coupe.

“You unroll the bag and make sure the zipper side is facing out. Have one or two people hold open the bag, and then drive the car in,” Moulik explained.

Once the vehicle is inside, the driver exits and zips up the bag. Next, take the supplied rope and tie the corners toward the top of the car, with the zipper elevated as well.

“We recommend when you put it in your garage, clean off the area. Make sure there’s no nails or sharp rocks. Nothing that’s going to puncture the bag,” Moulik said.

Once our test pool was inflated, it was filled with water. When it reached two feet, the BMW was floating. We let the car float in the pool for about an hour.

“Now we drain out the water, similar to how flood water would recede, and then deflate the pool, take the car out and check and make sure it’s dry,” Moulik told us.

After we opened the bag, the car was dry. Not a drop of water was on it and started right away.

Depending on the vehicle, Moulik says the E.V.P. comes in different sizes, with the price range between $300 and $450, which is less than most insurance policy deductibles.

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Is a Ziploc Bag as Good as a Waterproof Case for Your Gadget?

We found this interesting article and video at Deal News (link below)  “We subjected an iPhone to a dunk test in our science pool (read: fish tank) to see if you need to splash out on a pricey waterproof case or if a Ziploc bag will do.

The beach. Water parks. The toilet. These are all places where your beloved iPhone can find itself taking a nasty, warranty-voiding bath. Several items on the market purport to keep your gadgets dry in these situations, but how well do they really work? And do you have to spend a lot to get acceptable water protection?

To find out, we put expensive gadgets into a cheap-o Waterproof Pouch from Meritline, a slightly less cheap-o DRY-PAK Waterproof Pouch ($14.99 with $3.99 s&h, a low by $6), an OtterBox 2000 Hard Case ($14.99 with free shipping, a low by $3), and a Ziploc Bag (free in most kitchen drawers). Then we submerged them in water for varying lengths of time. Each gadget bag took a 10-minute, 30-minute, 1-hour, and overnight dip in our science pool (read: fish tank) to see if they had what it takes to keep the evil water at bay.

So what were our results? Like we’d ever tell you! We’d show you, though! Watch the  video for all the answers.”