Platinum 1320LB Double Sided Kit — Worth the Step Up?

The case got my attention first. I know that sounds like a weird thing to lead with, but hear me out — most kits at this price just throw everything in a drawstring bag or, worse, a cardboard box you're definitely throwing away. Opening this up and seeing an actual hard-ish case with molded cutouts for the magnet and rope felt like a small but real vote of confidence from whoever designed it.

The double-sided magnet is the actual reason you'd buy this over a single-sided kit. I switched to double-sided a while back and I won't go back. You drop it off a bridge and it's pulling from both faces — stuff that's sitting flat on the bottom, stuff that's wedged sideways — you're just covering more surface. My first few outings on the Delaware I'd drag a single-sided rig back and forth for twenty minutes and pull maybe two or three rusty bolts. Switched to double-sided and the same stretch started giving up a lot more. Not suggesting this magnet specifically made that difference, but the geometry of it just works better.

The 1320LB rating is the combined pull force across both faces, which is worth keeping in mind.

I took this kit out to a spot I've been working near an old railroad bridge — the kind of place where every third drop brings up something that's been sitting in the silt since before anyone alive was born, or at least that's what I tell myself. The rope that came with the kit handled fine. Not exceptional, but fine. I've used worse rope from more expensive kits. It's not going to be the thing that fails you.

Okay, the honest part. The case is good but it's not bombproof. I dropped mine getting out of the car and the latch popped open. Nothing spilled, but it's not a Pelican situation. If you're rough with gear — and magnet fishing does not reward being delicate with your gear — you'll want to know that going in. I added a small carabiner through the latch just as insurance and haven't thought about it since.

The gloves are whatever. Use your own gloves.

Where this kit makes the most sense is somewhere between your second and fifth outing. You've been out enough to know you actually enjoy this, you've probably already snapped the cheap rope that came with your starter kit, and you're tired of hauling your magnet around wrapped in an old towel in a backpack. This solves all of that without asking you to spend Magnetar money. It's a real kit. It fits in a case. You can throw it in your trunk and forget it's there until you drive past somewhere that looks interesting.

The double-sided setup is genuinely the feature that earns the price difference over cheaper single-sided options. Everything else is solid but unremarkable. Which, honestly, is fine — I don't need remarkable, I need reliable and easy to transport.