Watershed Innovations HydraSorber - Sandless Sandbags - Water Absorbent Flood Barrier - 4ft Long X 8in Wide - Three Pack

Purchased these in 2018, and finally needed them yesterday, January, 2024, when our apartment complex had massive water intrusion from frozen pipes thawing. Placed on both sides of our unit's exterior doors they kept out much of the flood. We only had to use a few towels to wipe up the water that came in BEFORE I got the absorbers placed.

Definitely kept water at bay, but not great to dispose of.

Bought these years ago and finally had a chance to use them for hurricane Matthew. Local city and county agencies were giving away sandbags but the lines were miles long and you could only get 5 bags. The heck with that. Get a bunch of these and put them away in your attic or garage for when you need them. Saves a lot of stress.We ended up not getting the storm surge in our area that others experienced, so I can't attest to the ability of these bags to keep out water. I did pre-wet them in order to get an idea of how many to use in a given spot. They also were rained on and when I returned from evacuating I was able to see how even (or uneven) the "inflation" was.I found that not all the bags "inflated" evenly. I followed the instructions on shaking the bags to even out the sand.My advice would be to buy more than what you think you'll need and put out more in each spot than what you'll think you'll need.They say these are a "one time" use but mine are still inflated and I've got them stacked in the garage in case I have to use them again. Looks to me they'll be fine to use again. They stink though.

I bought two of these because I experience some flooding into my house, after a very heavy rain. I live in FL so we get some interesting weather - our rain storms can be impressive. The company advises on two ways to set up - either you can presoak to make the absorbers 'puffy' and they can better stay in place or put them down as is and let the flood water fill them up. I tried both ways.... Applying with the dry method is not very efficient because if the water is not specifically hitting the absorber the water just rushes by - thank goodness for a shop vac. With this method I was eventually able to get it situated to be somewhat effective - I did not return the other one because I thought using the presoak method would have been better and we had an impending hurricane. I laid the second one down on my patio and lightly soaked it with the hose - it did not really puff up automatically but did soak in a little of the water - a bit concerning as the whole function of this is to soak up water! The real down side was alot of the internal material leeched out onto my patio - there was a gel like substance coating my entire patio which I had to hose off – not easily either. After opening and exposing both to water I did not think it would be appropriate to return but I would not buy again and would not recommend.

We’re on pretty high ground, so I wasn’t worried about getting completely flooded. However, we have one door on ground level and sometimes in a really bad thunderstorm, a little water will come in. I put this in front of that door before I evacuated for Hurricane Milton. When I got home, there wasn’t a drop of water on the floor there. This thing really did the job.

The product is a burlap "tube" with some sort of absorbent material inside. It works well as far as the absorbency is concerned. The problem is that the absorbent material is a dry sand-like material, and is very hard to distribute evenly along the length of the tube. Thus, some parts are "lumpy" (clumps of absorbent material) and absorb well, while others are "flat" (no absorbent material) and don't provide much absorption, other than the burlap material itself.Suggestion for improvement: Stitch the tubing at regular intervals, creating "pockets" along the entire tube's length, with absorbent material in each of the pockets. This will keep the absorbent material more evenly distributed, and provide much better absorption along the entire length of the tube.

Reusable burlap encased barriers begin absorbing water upon contact.Burlap is generally made from the Jute plant fibers. It is naturally biodegradable and we have now used this set for three separate flood events without any noticeable breakdown of the fibers or absorption capacity.The barriers must be dried out fully in the sun between events.Images above show partially swollen barriers post flood drying out .The barriers arrive shrink wrapped, 100% dry and ready to deploy as needed. Very easy to store.Mild burlap aroma distinct to burlap.With proper care:Please note! They are not indestructible, Jute breaks down with sun and rain.Dry them out completely between each event these barriers can last you multiple flood seasons .Drying tips: hang up on very sturdy metal railings , place in direct sun on clean concrete surfaces and turn, give it a shake every few hours.It will take up to a week to fully dry out .These barriers are not for everyone, they require patience and gentler handling.But I find using these in conjunction with reusable inflatable water bladder barriers a good mix.

False advertising. Not enough fill when wet to stop a trickle Really disappointing. The weight goes up exponentially so there’s no way to return either. Just say no.