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Reviews > Health & Safety > Accessories > Traveling Light TPU Zip Top Pouch > Test Report by David Wyman
Sea to Summit Travelling Light™ TPU Clear ZipTop Pouch
Test Series by David Wyman  (image from website) Test Phases: Initial Report - January 3, 2012 Field Report - March 24, 2012 Long Term Report - June 27, 2012 Tester Information
While I've been camping for years, I've only been backpacking for a short time. I'm trying to find the right equipment, alternating between tent and hammock. My dog usually comes along on the longer hikes, and my wife and toddler join me on the shorter ones. I tend to carry more gear than I need resulting in a heavier pack, but I'm working on that. When I hike with my dog and/or my wife and son, we take it a bit slower, stopping frequently to enjoy the forest. I rarely hike fast unless I'm trying to make up time. Initial Report - January 3, 2012 Product Information
Initial Impressions The pouch is large to easily hold the six included bottles and still have some room to spare. The closure along the top is reinforced with a nylon-backed YKK zipper and looks fairly rugged. The seams along the ends look well-formed. The included bottles are sturdy plastic and include a removable insert that allows individual drops to be released. Trying It Out The bottles and pouch look ideal for backpacking: able to hold hold denatured alcohol for my stove, olive oil and spices for cooking, soap for cleaning and do it without making a mess. In the winter, I carry my fuel and cooking items inside my coat to keep them warm and the combination of the bottles and leak-resistant zipper will hopefully prevent any spills. Field Report - March 24, 2012 Trips Taken February 18 - 21: 4 days, 3 nights in Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania Temps ranged from 40 F (5 C) during the day to 20 F (-7 C) at night.
Thoughts and Impressions I was not as happy with the pouch or the included bottles as I had expected to be. For this trip, I filled two of the large bottles with alcohol for my stove and the third with olive oil. The small bottles were filled with hot sauce, camp soap, and a dry spice mixture. I packed the fuel bottles inside an additional freezer-strength plastic bag just in case it wasn't as leak proof as it seemed. I'm glad I did - one of the fuel bottles leaked while I was hiking as did the bottle of olive oil. The smaller bottles with hot sauce and soap fared better. But the leaking oil made a mess inside the pouch. In order to clean up the mess, I put a little soap and some water in the pouch and sealed it. I then shook it to help clean the oil off the inside of the pouch - quite a bit of water leaked out of the pouch while shaking. The bottle with oil was also a little frustrating because, not only did it leak, the removable insert that is supposed to let me control how much comes out kept falling out when I squeezed the bottle. The small bottles fared much better. The hot sauce and soap bottles did not leak and the bottle with the dry spices in it kept the oil from getting inside. I'm interested to see if these problems persist or if they were isolated incidents. Long Term Report - June 27, 2012 Trips Taken May: Two overnight trips in the Laurel Highlands/Ohiopyle area of Pennsylvania. Each trip covered about 6 to 8 miles (9.5 to 13 km) with temps ranging from the mid 40s F to upper 60s F (7 to 20 C) June: Eight days of hiking in Colorado, including one two-night trip and a single one-night trip, all around Estes Park, Colorado. Did around 40 miles (64 km) overall in temps from 50 F to 85 F (10 to 30 C) Thoughts and Impressions These bottles work well for certain uses and fail pretty badly for others. I've been using the small bottles to hold seasonings for my meals and they've worked very well - the caps have kept the moisture out and the mouths are wide enough to make it relatively easy to fill them. The larger bottles were initially used for alcohol fuel for my stove and olive oil. Two of the three bottles had leaked last time I tried that. I marked the offending bottles and tried to switch things around this time - I put the camp soap in one of the bigger bottles and put the olive oil in the bottle that hadn't previously leaked. I had the same results this time - the bottle with the oil leaked and the bottle with the soap did not. I had put the bottles inside a Ziploc bag which, fortunately, kept the mess contained. I had initially hoped that these bottles, along with the pouch, would allow me to keep my liquid cooking ingredients and my stove fuel safely contained in a way that I could keep them inside my coat during the winter. Sadly, they don't do well enough with those items for me to use them that way. I will continue to use the bottles for spices, hot sauces, and even olive oil (double bagged in Ziploc to keep the mess contained) but I will be keeping them with the rest of my food. I'll have to find a different solution for keeping my stove fuel warm in the winter. Summary Likes:
Thanks to BackpackGearTest.org and Sea to Summit for this opportunity.
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