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All Gear and Buying Guides Articles
302 articles
Buyer's guides, gear reviews, the Supply Shelf, books, and the brands we trust, with honest cost ranges.
Gear and Buying Guides
Books
100 Things Every Homeowner Must Know
The Family Handyman's short-answer reference for the hundred household problems that come up first. Why we recommend it and how to buy or borrow it.
A Paradise Built in Hell
Rebecca Solnit
ARRL Ham Radio License Manual
The official Technician Class study guide from the National Association for Amateur Radio, the standard path to a first ham radio license and emergency communications. Why we recommend it and how to
Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving
The standard reference for home canning, 400 tested recipes for water-bath and pressure canning, pickles, jams, and more. Why we recommend it, what readers say, and how to buy it or borrow it.
Classic Self-Reliance Library
The foundational texts of self-reliance, books that have been earning their shelf space for decades. Carla Emery, John Seymour, Hertzberg and Greene. Buy a copy, or find it at your local library.
Community Preparedness & Civic Resilience, Recommended Books
Books about the civic institutions, mutual aid, community organizing, and shared spaces that determine how neighborhoods survive and recover. Curated for New World Survival readers.
Energy Books
The best books for household energy resilience, backup power, home systems, and keeping small gas equipment running. Buy a copy, or find it at your local library.
Fences for Pasture and Garden
Gail Damerow
Food Books
The best books for growing, cooking, and preserving food, canning, gardening, and self-reliant kitchens. Buy a copy, or find it at your local library.
Gear and Buying Guides
Buyer's Guides
72-Hour Kits, Explained Before You Spend
Aquaponics Equipment: The Definitive Buyer's Handbook
A sourced buyer's handbook for home aquaponics equipment: water pumps versus air pumps, backup air for power outages, heaters, test kits, oxygen meters, starter kits, honest price bands, and electrical safety beside water.
Backup Power for Medical Devices: The Buyer's Handbook
A calm, sourced buyer's handbook for keeping a CPAP, oxygen concentrator, or other plug-in medical device running through a power outage. What FDA, CDC, and the device makers say, how long batteries really last, and what to buy.
Battery Banks: The Complete Buyer's Handbook
Education-first handbook covering USB power banks: what mAh and watt-hours mean, USB-C Power Delivery decoded, three formats compared (standard, high-capacity, solar-integrated), air-travel rules with 2026 carrier updates, and how to size portable USB power for outages and daily life.
Bleeding Control Kits: The Buyer's Handbook
A training-first buyer's handbook for bleeding control kits. What the STOP THE BLEED program puts in its three kits, the four tourniquets it accepts, plain versus hemostatic gauze, and how to avoid counterfeit tourniquets.
Buying Guides, The Teaching Before the Buy
Buyer's handbooks that explain how each product category works before any comparison. What the certifications mean, what fails, and which type fits your household. 87 categories across 13 domains.
Camp and Emergency Stoves: The Definitive Buyer's Handbook
Carbon Monoxide Detectors: The Complete Buyer's Handbook
A sourced buyer's handbook for household carbon monoxide alarms: what UL 2034 requires, where to place an alarm under NFPA 72 and CPSC guidance, sensor technology explained, and how long an alarm really lasts.
Cast Iron Cookware: The Definitive Buyer's Handbook
A sourced buyer's handbook for cast iron cookware: bare versus enameled iron, real sizes and listed weights, what the labels mean, honest price tiers, and how to cook with cast iron safely during a power outage.
Gear and Buying Guides
Gear Reviews
14-Day Emergency Food Supply (2026): Calorie Math, Kits, and the Pantry Approach
A two-week food supply requires 28,000 calories per person. Here is the honest calorie math on commercial kits, the best pre-made options, and the pantry approach that costs less.
14-Day Emergency Hygiene Supply (2026): What to Store and How to Use It
When showers aren't available for two weeks, cleanliness matters more, not less. The supply list, the no-rinse products that replace showering, and the quantities per person.
A-iPower GXS5000D
The A-iPower GXS5000D runs on gasoline or propane and delivers 4,000 running watts of conventional power with a CO Sensor at a genuinely budget price. Reviewed for household emergency backup use.
Adventure Medical Kits .7 Review
A pre-stocked first-aid kit for two adults, sized for multi-day use. Here
Anker SOLIX PS100 100W Review
The Anker SOLIX PS100 is a 100-watt foldable solar panel with a four-position adjustable kickstand and IP67 waterproofing. Here is what it actually produces, where the kickstand matters, and who shoul
Aqua-Box Waterproof Container Review
A waterproof container for your emergency document copies. Here
Best 15 and 30-Gallon Water Storage Barrels (2026)
15-gallon and 30-gallon water storage barrels compared. Easier to move than a 55-gallon drum, easier to place than a wall of jugs. Weight math, placement, and what to buy.
Best 3-Day Emergency Food Kits (2026)
What to buy for a 3-day no-cook food supply. How to read the calorie math, which kits actually deliver, and the one number most households get wrong.
Best 55-Gallon Water Storage Barrel (2026): What to Buy, What to Skip
New, bung-top, food-grade HDPE is the only acceptable spec. The kit that includes siphon pump and bung wrench is the better first purchase. Never buy reconditioned.
Gear and Buying Guides
Supply Shelf
Aquatabs Water Purification Tablets
Aquatabs NaDCC tablets: NSF/ANSI 60 certified, kills bacteria, viruses, and Giardia in 30 minutes, does not cover Cryptosporidium, 3–5 year shelf life, and when to pair with chlorine dioxide for complete coverage.
Bacteria Water Test Kits
Field bacteria test kits for drinking water: what coliform tests detect, their sensitivity limits vs. certified labs, EPA annual testing requirements for private wells, and what to do after a positive result.
Chlorine Dioxide Water Treatment Drops
Aquamira and chlorine dioxide drops explained: 7+7 drop mixing protocol, 5-minute activation, 30-minute wait for bacteria and viruses, 4-hour wait for Cryptosporidium, and how drops compare to tablets for home storage vs. field use.
Chlorine Residual Test Strips
Chlorine residual test strips for stored water verification: target range of 2–4 ppm, how to read results, when to re-treat, and why pool strips are an adequate and cheaper alternative to drinking-water specific strips.
Lead Water Test Kits
Lead water test kits: EPA action level (15 ppb now, 10 ppb by November 2027), field kit sensitivity limits, why boiling concentrates lead rather than removing it, and when certified lab testing is essential.
Long-Term Water Storage Drops
Long-term water storage drops (Water Preserver Concentrate): stabilized sodium hypochlorite that extends stored potable water shelf life to 5 years. Storage preservative only, not a purifier for contaminated water.
pH Test Strips for Drinking Water
pH test strips for drinking water: why pH determines chlorine disinfection effectiveness, the 6.5–7.5 target range where hypochlorous acid dominates, and when to test pH before treating with bleach.
Sodium Hypochlorite Water Treatment Drops
Pre-measured sodium hypochlorite drops for emergency water treatment: what the retail market actually offers, EPA-verified dosing by concentration, Cryptosporidium limitation, and when bleach is the better answer.
Two-Part Chemical Water Treatment Kits
Two-part water treatment kits compared: chlorine dioxide (Aquamira) vs. iodine formats, chemistry differences, pathogen coverage including Cryptosporidium, iodine thyroid contraindications, and which format to buy.
Gear and Buying Guides
Trusted Brands
Berkey Water Filters, Trusted Brand Profile
New World Survival's verified profile of Berkey (New Millennium Concepts, Ltd.), 28 years of gravity filtration, strong independent lab results, and an honest account of the active EPA regulatory dispute over Black Berkey elements.
Sawyer Products | Trusted Brands
Sawyer Products has made the Squeeze and MINI portable water filters since 1984 in Safety Harbor, FL. Filter elements tested to NSF P231. BBB A+ rating. 90% of profits fund clean water in 100+ countri
Trusted Brands
Manufacturers we have verified for corporate standing, product quality, and honest claims. Every brand on this page passed a four-stage research pipeline before we listed it.