Fox 40 Classic Whistle Review
The Fox 40 Classic Whistle weighs just 0.1 oz, but it is one of the most important pieces of safety gear that I own.
Every backpack I have has a whistle attached to it. If you need to be found or alert someone, a blast on a whistle can far outpower your ability to get their attention by shouting or overcome other noises like the wind or the sound of flowing water. Plus, blowing on your whistle is also a lot less tiring.
I bushwack on trailess peaks with other people and it is remarkably easy to lose sight of them or get lost. But a blast on my whistle always gets my friends’ attention and repeated blasts help us find each other again.
If you think there are bears around. You can blow your whistle to frighten them off. It’s a lot easier than making up songs all day and shouting them every time you approach a berry patch.
Plastic whistles are definitely preferred over metal ones because they are more weatherproof and resist corrosion. Pealess whistles won’t freeze up, drain quickly, and are more reliable in mountains or winter. Finally, loud standalone whistles are preferred over the cheap ones you sometimes find built into backpacking sternum straps.
For a MSRP of $6.95, the Fox 40 is one piece of backpacking gear you can’t afford to be without.
Disclosure: The author owns this product.
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Hi – I totally agree! I have a z-packs pouch with a walkie-talkie on my pack and I keep the whistle in the front little pocket of that pouch …
The Fox 40 Classic whistle is shaped for marketing to people who recognize it as a whistle.. Better options are the 110 dB Fox 40 Micro and the 120 dB Fox 40 Sharx, both of which are flatter. Obviously, pealess whistles are much more reliable than those with peas, which can get stuck, making the whistle inoperative.
I have purchased more than 200 Fox 40 Classic whistles dating back to replacing ACME pea plastic whistles and had very few quality issues, until recently. Besides the normal cracking of the mouthpiece, related of bite force I came upon a very serious issue, cracking of the body. While most of the whistles I buy are included in referee training, I personally use the Fox 40 Classic. So, it came time to do my quarterly cleaning of all my whistles. Following the guideline from Fox 40, I used vinegar and water to soak whistles. While Fox 40 does not say what temp of water to use I use warm water from the tap.
This last cleaning left me with several unusable whistles as the body of several, not all, cracked. I contacted Fox 40 and explained my issue. I was told the have ever seen the Classic crack and asked for pictures. I sent pictures showing some had minor cracking, but others had severe cracking. Received an email saying that it appeared the whistles had been in boiling water. Curious that after never seeing a Classic body crack, they said it was due to boiling water. Strange, that they have never seen a body crack but now they have said cracking was due to boiling water. I assure you I did not boil the whistles. Again, referring back to specified cleaning with water and vinegar Fox 40 does not specify a temperature for the vinegar and water solution. For more than 25 years I have always cleaned in the same manner. All cracked whistles were from a new batch that were acquired over the last two years.
Fox 40 offered me a 25% discount on direct buy from them to solve the issue. I purchase the whistles from a second party (Dick’s, Scheels, Marine store, etc.) at a greater savings than the 25% off from Fox 40. Since then, I have ordered whistles from other manufacturers to test them out for future purchases.
I’m buying these for my family to alert people of ICE encounters if I see them. Thanks for the recommendation.