When the Chums Vortex Utility Keychain showed up in my mailbox, I really struggled with how to use it. I’m not really a bulky keychain person. Over the years, I’ve gone from carrying bags stuffed to the brim to only going places with my wallet. Sometimes I even ditch the wallet.
The Chums Vortex Utility Keychain is a stylish carabiner, form over function. Please keep in mind that this is not designed for climbing and will not hold any load worth your weight. The lip of the gate functions as a bottle holder.
The Vortex Utility Keychain has two key rings. I actually do not prefer to keep my keys on this. Instead, I use it to hold and keep track of all my dangling camping items that have no designated place in my pack: sporks, pack-towel, whistle, and more. In this sense, I find that the keychain would be more functional with little thin carabiners so I can easily clip and unclip items as I use them. I find it to be a pain to thread them through the key rings each time I need to use an item that doesn’t have it’s own ‘biner. However, this is most likely not the way Chums intended this to be used.
If you’re a fan of neat looking, semi-functional keychains, this is for you. If you prefer to be more minimalistic, this is probably not for you.
This was sent to me for review.
Last updated on August 4, 2014.
