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Reviews > Cook and Food Storage Gear > Cook Sets > Wildo Eating Essentials Campware Set > Test Report by Kathleen Waters

WILDO EATING ESSENTIALS CAMPWARE SET
TEST SERIES BY KATHLEEN WATERS
LONG-TERM REPORT

INITIAL REPORT - May 03, 2017
LONG TERM REPORT - September 06, 2017

TESTER INFORMATION

NAME: Kathleen Waters
EMAIL: kathy at backpackgeartest dot com
AGE: 66
LOCATION: Canon City, Colorado, USA
GENDER: F
HEIGHT: 5' 4" (1.60 m)
WEIGHT: 125 lb (56.70 kg)

Living in Colorado and being self-employed, I have ample opportunities to backpack. There are over 700,000 acres/280,000 hectares of public land bordering my 71-acre/29-hectare "backyard" in addition to all the other gorgeous locations which abound in Colorado. Over the past 15 years, my husband John and I have also had the good fortune to hike/snowshoe glaciers, rain forests, mountains and deserts in exotic locations, including New Zealand, Iceland, Costa Rica, Slovenia and Death Valley. My hiking style is comfortable, aiming for lightweight. I use a tent (rainfly if needed). Current pack averages 25 lb (11 kg) excluding food and water.


INITIAL REPORT

PRODUCT INFORMATION & SPECIFICATIONS

Manufacturer: Wildo Sweden AB
Year of Manufacture: 2017
Manufacturer's Website: http://www.wildo.se
MSRP: US $27.95
Listed Weight: N/A
Measured Weight: 12 oz (340 g)
Colors Available: Olive/Lime, Orange/Tan, Lemon/Lt Blue, Pink/Lilac
Color Tested: Lemon/Blue
Wildo Eating Essentials includes: a small Fold-A-Cup, a Kasa Bowl, a Kasa XL,
a deep Camper Plate, a flat Camper Plate and two Sporks

Also includes a durable and reusable mesh bag with a carabiner.
Made in Sweden
wildo set
Photo copywrite Wildo Sweden AB

DESCRIPTION AND INITIAL IMPRESSIONS

The Wildo Essential Eating Campware Set (hereafter called simply "Campware" when referring to the whole package) comes snugly packaged in its own mesh bag complete with a carabiner for easy safe storage and hanging. It is sold as a dish and utensil set for one to two people.

The Campware comes with two dishes - one about half as deep as the other - that nest together, two different size Kasas (bowls) and a small collapsible cup. Oh, and two sporks! The bowls and the cup have handles. The insides of the bowls are smooth and shiny and while the dishes' interiors also are smooth they are less shiny. The cup is pretty much the same inside and out - matte.

One bowl, one dish and one spork are a nice bright blue and the other dish, bowl, spork and the cup are a very, very bright yellow. They look festive and for this long-time former Michigander, well hey, GO BLUE! (University of Michigan colors)

The Camper Plate Deep is just what it sounds like - the deeper of the two plates included in the Campware. It weighs 3 oz (85 g), measures 7 x 1.7 in (17.8 x 4.3 cm) and is made from Polyproplene which is supposedly resistant to solvents, acids and bases. Let's see how it stands up to my tomato sauce!

The Camper Plate Flat is the other plate, also made from Polyproplene and measure 7 x 0.8 in (17.8 x 2 cm) and weighs 2.5 oz (71 g).

The largest bowl is called the Kasa XL and weighs 3 oz (85 g), is 2.5 in (6.4 cm) high by 6 in (15.2 cm) in diameter (not counting the handle). It will hold about 28 fl oz (0.8 L) with measuring lines that I can't for the life of me see, but can "feel". Made from Polyproplene,

The Kasa (smaller bowl) will hold 10 oz (0.3 L) and measures 4.5 in (11.4 cm) diameter by 1.7 in (4.3 cm) high. Like the Kasa XL, it has measuring lines and these I can see clearly, perhaps because of the blue color versus the Kasa XL's bright yellow. It weighs 1.5 oz (43 g) and is also made from Polyproplene with a small handle.

The Fold-A-Cup holds a full 8 oz (0.24 L) is only 1 in (2.5 cm) high when folded, double that when opened fully. It weighs 1 oz (28 g) and is made from Thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) which is a bit more "rubbery" and can handle heat well. At least that's what I got from "Googling" and I would think from the "thermo" part.
Closed cup
Fold-A-Cup Folded!
opened cup
Fold-A-Cup Unfolded!

Lastly, the Sporks have the usual, spoon, fork and knife configuration, weigh 0.5 oz (14 g), and are 6.5 x 1.9 in (16.5 x 4.8 cm). It is made of Polyamide 6 (PA6) which is used in products for high impact resistance. (I looked it up!)

Whew! It took me more time than I would like to admit to do all that measuring! One note: All the liquid measurements were calculated by pouring water to the very tippy, tippy top of each Kasa/bowl and the cup. Surely, I will never be filling anything up that full and once in the field, I'll report "reasonable" volume.

READING THE INSTRUCTIONS

Uh-oh, there are no instructions included with the campware set explaining how to use it. Oh my! What will I do? Okay, kidding aside, while I can easily discern the use of a plate, bowl, spork, etc. I would really like to have had some clarification on the care of the campware included with the product. For instance, is it dishwasher-safe? I did find on the US distributor's website a one-liner that helps a bit - "All Wildo Products are BPA Free, Dishwasher Safe and Microwavable." So now I know that at least at home I will be able to throw the dirty campware in the dishwasher for a thorough cleaning after the cursory swish-and-wipe treatment it will get in the field.

SUMMARY

Campware in bag
Campware Bagged and Ready to Go!
All items in campware
All the Pieces in Campware

On first glance, the Wildo Eating Essentials Set looks to be of good quality and thoughtfully constructed. I'm excited to be getting out in the field with it. Since my most frequent trail mates are (my son) a professional chef and his equally-talented foodie wife, food is a very important part of my backpacking experiences and anything that makes it more pleasant will be much appreciated!


LONG-TERM REPORT

LONG-TERM TEST LOCATIONS AND CONDITIONS

I used the Wildo Essential Eating Campware Set on several different occasions during the field report period of May through August. Three of those occasions were multi-day car trips when I used the Kasa Bowl and Camp Plates at roadside rest stops. Four other trials were two day-long mountain trail hikes and two day-long beach "strolls". Twice more, I used the products on dayhikes in the mountains near my home. Alas, I did not take the Campware Set on any overnights.

The locations and the conditions of the car trips were as follows:

June 28 - July 1, 2017: traveled from White Lake, Michigan to Canon City, Colorado with stops in Indiana, Missouri and Kansas. Temperatures (outside) were in the high 80s to low 90s F (30 - 34 C) though we kept the car cooled down to about 67 F (19 C). Humidity was high throughout the trip.

July 23-24 and July 29-31: traveled from Canon City, Colorado via Colorado I-70 to Salt Lake City and then back to Canon City, Colorado through Wyoming with a couple nights in Wyoming. Temperatures (outside) were again in the high 80s F (30 C). Humidity was down in the lower double digits, thankfully.

All but two of the day hikes took place while I was visiting the Leelanau Peninsula in western Michigan. Twice, my husband John and I took day-long hikes along the sand dunes along Lake Michigan in Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. Very humid weather with mid-80s F (29 C) temperatures to make it rather miserable. The other two hikes were in what are called "mountains" in the lower peninsula and were much cooler - I estimate in the high 70s F (25 C) though I didn't have my weather gauge.

Lastly, here in Canon City, I used the Camper Plates and Kasa Bowl in the Cooper mountain range Bureau of Land Management (BLM) uncharted space which abuts my property. The landscape is a wild high desert of juniper and pinon pine, lots of boulders and unmarked trails. It's been rather hot - never below the mid-80s F (29 C), mostly above 90 F (34 C) and dry.
Yummy Oatmeal
Yummy Oatmeal on the Trail

PERFORMANCE IN THE FIELD

After almost four months of use, below are my conclusions regarding the Wildo Eating Essentials Campware Set.

Utility:

The whole kit and caboodle takes up a lot of room in my backpack. That's not a big negative when I'm out on a day hike, but on a multi-night outing when space in my pack is at a premium, the whole Wildo Campware Set just is not my most suitable option even if it is meant for two people.

Even on dayhikes, I found that I was leaving the Kasa XL Bowl with the handle at home to save space - usually for more food! While I was able to use the Kasa XL Bowl for mixing during meal prep, since it can't be used over a stove to heat food in, I would have to transfer the food to a pot and that became a redundant food prep step.

The small Fold-a-Cup which even when filled up to the very tippy-top is really too little for me to be useful as a tea cup. I like a BIG cup of tea and 6 fl oz (177 ml ) is not worth the effort. Besides, it's not the easiest - for me - cup to "unfold". I've broken a nail or two doing so. I also leave that behind when heading out into the wilds.

Which leaves me with the two Camper (deep and flat) Plates, the medium-size Kasa Bowl and the sporks. This is a much more manageable kit which is also a lot easier to jam into the included mesh bag.

The deep and flat Camper Plates are of a good size and I can ladle on two cups of oatmeal in each plate without any overflow. The Kasa Bowl which I use as a drinking cup holds 10 fl oz (296 ml) filled to the top and at a reasonable level (maybe a 0.5 in/1.3 cm) I use as an approximate 8 fl oz (237 ml) measure for water when rehydrating food. The handle on the Kasa Bowl is a good size for holding securely as well.

I was pleased with how well the Wildo Campware Set handled even boiling water. I was able to comfortably hold the cup and plates without burning my fingers as I sometimes do with metal cups. I didn't notice any undue cooling of my hot food either. The material held the heat well.

The sporks - well, the sporks are sporks! Decent to use when shoveling in solid food and spearing pasta and such. Not so great with liquids. Since the bowl of the spork is so shallow, it takes forever to eat a bowl of soup for instance. But that's not a problem for me as I usually "drink" soups/liquids from the Kasa Bowl anyway!

I will say I was surprised at how well the serrated "knife" portion of the spork worked. During a first-night base camp dinner where we grilled steak, the spork actually cut through a sirloin steak albeit, tiny piece at a time!

Care and Current Condition:

The Wildo Campware Set has held up quite well so far. I haven't cared for it particularly delicately either. The set is transported in my backpack in its mesh bag. Generally after my meal, I wash the items in hot water or cold depending on where I am, when I'm going to get home, fuel availability and degree of laziness. Even starchy foods which cling to the dishware wash off easily.

Using the attached carabiner, I'll usually hang the kit up to dry. Once home, I toss all the dishes in the sink and wash with other dishes in hot soapy water, rinse, dry and put back in the mesh bag until the next time.

I'm happy to say the Wildo Campware Set has not stained even when exposed to food with tomatoes in it. My daughter-in-law and I make all our own dehydrated dinners and many of them have tomatoes in it, so this is a very good thing!

Despite rough treatment, the Camper Plates and the Kasa Bowls have not become warped, bowed or misshapen in any way.
I will say though, I have messed up the bottom surfaces of the Camper plates from using "real" knives. I need to be careful not to cut into the plates causing scratches/cuts into the material. I worry about degradation of the product from these cuts.

The mesh bag has remained in good shape with no snags, pulls or tears.

SUMMARY

Anyone who knows me knows that food plays an important part in my enjoyment of the outdoors. I sacrifice a good portion of my backpack's capacity to food and food prep items. While others might prefer to fill precious pack space with electronic gadgets like a solar charger, I'll take a nice cutting board and a wheel of sharp cheddar instead! That said, I still try to maximize what cubic inch/centimeter space I have. Unfortunately, for me, this Campware just takes up too much space for what utility is provides. It HAS earned a spot in our truck's "camp" gear compartment for ready access when we are on the road and stop at a roadside rest stop for a quick meal. The Campware is so much nicer than paper towels and plastic baggies! Yay for "fine" dining! :

I am so glad I had the opportunity to try out the Wildo Eating Essentials Campware Set. It's a good option for dayhikes, base camps and car camping, I think, even if it's not backpacking-suitable for me. The individual items are all very well made and stand up well in the outdoor environment.

Thank you to Wildo Sweden AB and BackpackGearTest for the opportunity to try this dishware out!

Kathleen (Kathy) Waters

This report was created with the BackpackGearTest.org Report Writer Version 1.5 Copyright 2017. All rights reserved.

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