Kmart and Aldi carry-on suitcases named as some of the best on the Aussie market

There’s nothing worse than spending your hard-earned cash on a pricey carry-on suitcase only to bring it on your long-haul flight and within hours the zip has broken or the front wheel falls off just when you’re trying to manoeuvre your way between the aisles.

But now CHOICE has put some of the biggest brands to the test and interestingly, it wasn’t just the expensive labels that came out on top, with Aldi and Kmart both selling carry-on cases which scored an expert rating above 86%.

CHOICE tests the bags by putting them through comprehensive rounds of assessments, which includes a lift and drop tests, a puncture test, a rain test and a stability test.

While the winner of the best carry-on case on the Aussie market was the $259 American Tourister High Rock 55cm Spinner, which got 89% in the expert rating, Aldi’s $40 Skylite 56cm Spinner Carry On, Kmart’s $49 Active & Co 45.4cm case and Kmart’s Hard Case 45.5cm were all given an 86% rating.

All of the cases scored a commendable 100% in the lift and drop test, which sees CHOICE testers load the case with 4kg of clothes. They then use a rig to drop the suitcases from a height of 90cm, wheels-first, onto a concrete floor 300 times.

The puncture test reaped a few different results, after testers dropped a heavy pointed cylinder on to the surface of the cases to see if it would do any damage.

Aldi’s case received a score of 86%, while the Kmart Active & Co case got 80% and the Kmart Hard Case scored 94%.

While American Tourister’s case came out top in the whole list, it was the rain test that let it down.

Described as an ‘unforgiving test’ on the CHOICE website, testers fill all the cases with newspapers, close them up and put them under a hose which simulates heavy rain for 10 minutes.

Then they open the case and see how drenched the newspaper got during the downpour.

The American Tourister case scored 60% during this test, while the Aldi case scored 65%, the Kmart Active & Co case scored 65% and the Kmart Hard Case came out on top, scoring 70%.

It’s worth noting that 33 cases were tested and all of them scored scoring between 81% and 89% in the ranking.

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