K KNODEL Kofferraum Organizer, klappbarer Kofferraum-Speicher, Automobilkonsolen und Organizer, Kofferraumspeicherorganizer mit verstärkten Griffe (Mittelgroß, Schwarz) (T021-A) (WHL #115)
While we’re at the somewhat non-technical side of things, let’s quickly talk about trunk (boot) organizers. My old Model S has a spacious trunk at around 750 liters, plus 900 liters with folded back seats, plus another 150 liters in the frunk. Drawbacks include a slight necking at the back seats where the wheel well protrudes; at that point, the trunk width is only 95 to 100cm, compared to up to 140cm at the very end. It’s also a hatchback, which means general access is super easy, but with the aerodynamic tear-drop shape, it’s not that tall for the most part. Putting in e.g. full size server packaging works, but the fun ends prematurely when the trunk lid doesn’t close anymore. Photo from back in 2020 (#P23) with some free “someone please take them or I’ll throw them away” servers:
And then there is the problem of not having any loops or straps or whatever, so tying down heavy stuff is actually difficult as shown above – I’m not sure how much the two struts of the subtrunk seating surface can actually hold, they’re not made for that kind of load. This problem is amplified by having smooth carpeting everywhere, which does feel nice and upper class, but nothing anchors to it. For classic needle felt trunks there’s dividers with velcro-like bottom structure that simply hold in there…that’s simply not the case for the Model S trunk.
So in the event of, let’s say, me being a stupid idiot and travelling to countries far far away for the lulz of playing Tesla Beach Buggy Racing there, and the recent learnings from my trip to the Netherlands (for the very same reason), I felt like some structured organizer thing for the trunk would be a really good idea. Bonus points for fitting somewhat precisely in there, so it won’t move around during driving. Which is why I bought two units from Amazon – not that Ali and the like wouldn’t offer them, but at pretty comparable pricing as these are large items that likely cost a penny to ship individually. Cost was 18.99€ per unit, which is pretty close to the free shipping threshold (added a bag of special konjak noodles to get past, YMMV).
Meet: The Knodel T021-A (no, not the Knödel, that would be a dumpling…)
Super basic design, I hate the stuff with dozens of small useless netting pouches and fixed subdividers up to pencil size. Advertised with “material: polyester” and Knodels slogan somehow is “Gemacht um zu halten” (made to last). Well, great!
Except that, out of the box, this thing reeks of plastic. So, with the knowledge that it is made from polyester (and only polyester, I checked! Several times! Amazon web page, Amazon rufus, even the Amazon support!) and it is made to last, I took it to the bathroom, sat it in the tub, and doused it with hot water.
Well… this is how the second units looks like.
You know, square-ish. With solid plates that can either be put into place to make a sturdy compartment, or swivelled out for easy folding.
(The velcro strips at the bottom won’t do shit here, but they’re probably useful in most other cars)
And this is how the other unit looks like, days after the incident, with around 500ml of water already removed:
Safe to say it’s not made from pure polyester, it’s also made from a lot of cardboard. And that cardboard is not protected against water (like with some resin or impenetrable polyester backing), but instead can (and will!) get soaked when fluids of literally any kind diffuse into it. That’s not totally unheard of when transporting bottles and canned products, or when using a trunk organizer to actually carry stuff from the car to the house (or back) when it rains. In that case, the dividers may look like this after swelling up to 3x their original size:
Some cardboard is exposed directly near the handles, but penetration around the seams is also a good spot. Plus polyester isn’t 100% waterproof itself, so water soaks through the fabric given enough exposure time, once again, for example when a bottle leaks.
End of story: These pieces of cardboard will never dry in a suitable manner, since they would need to be pressed down in order to dry as a flat piece, but then very little water will escape, even in the oven at literally 80°C. And I don’t have an oven large enough (56cm x 36cm x 31cm) to dry this in fully unfolded form, let alone it’s not structurally able to be in upright state when wet. That cardboard will just get moldy and smelly, and the box is done for.
I asked Amazon for a return which they granted. And, given this label that was attached to the box, I asked the seller for a statement regarding the improper declaration of materials. I am, in fact, not completely happy with this purchase in case you didn’t realize 
(even for a box that was inspected by 007 himself!)
The (Chinese) seller instead fully refunded both (!) organizers right away, did the usual we’re-terribly-sorry thing that Asian sellers like to do, and never fully answered my question, nor added important details to their material listing. Well, now I got a fully working organizer for free that must not get wet under any circumstances, plus one that I need to get rid of before it gets nasty. I tried drying this in the oven after the refund processing, but at a starting weight of 2.2kg (1.2kg dry + 1.0l of water), I was only able to remove half a liter before these photos, and that took several hours over two days (and a very plastic-y smelling kitchen – NOT recommended!). During that process, the front plates were already clearly dented, plus the center folding ones are completely ruined as shown, so that gets me nowhere.
Next stop: Two units of these organizers from “PMK Grupo” which are explicitly advertised as waterproof.
Guess what my first action will be after unboxing these…
