Sea to Summit X-Seal & Go

I picked this up recently and thought it would be a great time to carry liquids while backpacking. I was not as impressed as I wished with the leak-proof seal in my initial test.

I found that I instantly wanted this Sea to Summit bowl when I first saw it. I like the other collapsible plates and bowls I have from Sea to Summit and thought that having a lid would give me some options with liquid items while hiking. Like when I would like to rehydrate dried items on the hike and not at the campsite.

Like with all my gear I did my research and purchased and then tested myself prior to hiking with it and experiencing a possible disaster while on the trail. Thank goodness for my pre test! I found that this item did not perform as advertised!!!

I took this for a short hike around the neighborhood and could hear the sluice of water as it rattled around inside the backpack. I stopped halfway in my hike to see how the lid was performing. Water in the bottom of the backpack—and when I took it out and looked at the lid and turned it on its side there was a class 4 leak (more than 4 drops of liquid leaking in a minute!). OMG! Not something for my type of backpacking!

I took it home and tested it further in my kitchen. Maybe it wasn't a total loss with this product. I boiled some water and then placed the lid on the bowl. Waited 15 minutes and returned to see how warm the liquid was after waiting. The outside of the bowl was warm to the touch and the liquid inside was still very hot. So in this application, I would recommend using at a campsite with hot liquids or food while cooking items on a one-burner type stove. In this application I feel it would be better than in trying to hydrate veggies while hiking or carrying liquids in the backpack.

I did think that if I double packed (with a ziplock) I might still be able to carry liquids in a backpack with this product. But, really then I would be back to my old way of two ziplocks with veggies hydrating while backpacking and isn't that cheaper than this Sea to Summit product? Yup, cheaper but maybe not as cool looking.

Background

Performed less than I expected.