Grtard 1000LBS Double Sided Kit — Worth $27?

The box showed up and felt lighter than I expected. That's usually either a good sign — dense, compact magnet — or a bad one. You open it and the magnet itself is smaller than most at this claimed pull force, which, look, 1000 lbs is doing a lot of work on that product listing. I've used magnets that are honest about their numbers and magnets that are clearly just writing fiction. The Grtard lands somewhere in the middle. It's got real pull. Just... not 1000 lbs of it.

That said — I took it out to a creek off a walking bridge near my house, the kind of spot where half the bottom is probably old rebar and the other half is whatever people have been chucking off that bridge since approximately 1987. First drop got me a corroded hinge and something that might have been part of a bike frame. Second drop found a full padlock, still locked, no key anywhere in sight. So it works. It's finding stuff.

The double-sided design is genuinely useful at this price point.

Most budget kits give you a single-face magnet and call it a day. Having pull on both sides means you're not constantly flipping it and re-lowering trying to get contact. For a beginner who's still figuring out technique, that matters more than people give it credit for. You can drag it along a bottom and get hits on either face without thinking about it.

The rope is fine. Not great — I've had better rope on kits that cost twice this — but it held up across a few sessions without fraying in any alarming way. The knot situation is where I'd pay attention. Whatever knot it came tied with, I re-did mine immediately. That's just habit at this point, but especially with a budget kit, don't trust factory knots.

Gloves. There aren't any. For $27 I get it, but if you're handing this to a kid, grab a pair of cheap work gloves separately — the rope will eat their hands faster than they expect, especially once it's wet.

Here's the honest version: the coating on the magnet started showing very minor wear after a handful of outings on rocky creek bottoms. Nothing catastrophic, but it's not built for abuse over a long season. If you're going out twice a week, throwing it at bridge pylons, dragging it across gravel — you'll probably want something sturdier inside of a few months. But if you're occasional, if you're just getting started, if this is for a kid who might decide they hate it after three tries? This is exactly the right amount of money to spend.

It's also cheap enough that I keep a spare in my bag without stressing about it.

I wouldn't hand this to someone who's been doing this a while and wants to upgrade their setup. They'd be annoyed by the size and skeptical of the pull stats immediately. But for someone who just wants to see what's at the bottom of the river near their house — and doesn't want to drop $60 to find out — this gets the job done.