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Owner Review: Sea To Summit 6 Litre Pack Tap Water Bag
Report Date: 17 June 2006
Personal Biographical Information:
Full Name: Karl Daniel Fuderer aka Buzz Lightyear
Age: 23 years old
Gender: Male
Height: 175 cm (5' 7")
Weight: 85 kg (187 lb)
Email: zkyf@yahoo.com
Region: Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Background:
I started backpacking about 9 months ago, after converting from cycle touring. I’ve experienced being a lightweight and middleweight backpacker, with my carried weight ranging from 25 kg (55
lb) when very remote for 2+ weeks, to 14 kg (37 lb) when food is accessible every few days. I sleep in a 2-man tent, unless shelter is provided such as on the Bibbulmun Track where I carry a mosquito head net and ground sheet. I like to hike in as wide a variety of locations and terrains as possible, from desert to forest to mountain, using an extraordinary range of equipment.
Product Specifics:
Manufacturer: Sea To Summit
Year of manufacture: 2004
URL: http://www.seatosummit.com.au/
Listed Weight: Not listed
Measured weight: 156 gm (5.5 oz)
Listed volume (model number): 6 Litres (6.34 US qt)
Measured pack dimensions: 343 mm x 321 mm (13.5 in x 12.6 in)
Measured Strap dimensions: 673 mm x 18 mm (26.5 in x 0.7 in)
Colour: Black and blue
MSRP: Not Listed
Product description (reviewer’s words): The Pack Tap is a thermal plastic/foil cooler bag, like the ones used to store wine in casks, encased in a 210 denier nylon cover. The tap mechanism is hardened plastic and can be operated with one hand the same way as a wine cask, except there is an additional security locking cap to prevent accidental flow while in the pack. The entire tap can be removed by simply puling it off, providing a wide mouth for fast refilling, and all the seals in the tap mechanism have remained airtight since purchasing it. The bag can be safely folded into a tight ball when not in use, and expands to an almost ball shape when full or air or liquid. The bag also has a strong nylon shoulder strap built into the top of the cover, so the pack tap can be hung from my neck or a tree when dispensing water. The pack tap is available in 2, 4, 6, and 10 litre volumes (2, 4, 6, and 10.5 qt)
The valve is pretty simple to use. If I want to extract water from the bag, I simply pull the nylon strap attaching the bag to the locking clip, and let it fall away. Then I pull up the plastic lever to break the seal at the valve. The more I pull the lever, the wider the opening of the valve.
Testing Environment:
My pack tap has travelled over 1500 km (932 m) of trekking on terrain including sand dunes, swamp, mountain elevations to 1095 m (3592 ft), and very dense subtropical rainforest. Most of its life has been between 100 and 600 m (328 to 1968 ft) above sea level, on a well-defined track in SW Western Australia surrounded by sparse trees and semi-dense low-lying shrub. Temperatures range from –14 C (7 F) on the coldest night to 35 C (95 F) on the hottest day, with averages ranging from 0 C (32 F) at night to 23 C (73 F) in daylight. Over that time, it has stayed in the side pocket of my pack for the entire time, except when in use. It has been subjected to the very high degrees of pressure in the pack.
Field Review:
Introduction:
I bought my pack tap before my first solo travelling expedition outside my hometown of Perth. I determined that in the event of an emergency, the ability to hold a large capacity of drinkable water could mean the difference between returning home by rescue helicopter or by foot. I knew I would have little difficulty finding relatively safe drinkable water in the environment I was travelling, but would need a minimum volume each day to maintain health and fitness for the trip, and just drinking from the occasional spring as I find them would not be enough, so storage options were essential. I found bottles to be excessively bulky when empty, and relatively small given my needs, so something that reduced in size as it gets used seemed the best option. The pack tap was the cheapest product at the time that satisfied these criteria, so I didn’t hesitate to buy it.
Since then it has come for the trip on every expedition, from the 3-month forest trail hike to the weekend walks in the forest. Its packed size, maximum volume, versatility, quality stitching and its water and air tight seal are not to be joked about. This product takes punishment like it was made for it, and serves more purposes than its original design was intended for. The valve is pretty simple to use, where if I want to extract water from the bag, I simply pull the nylon strap attaching the bag to the locking clip, and let it fall away. Then I pull up the plastic lever to break the seal at the valve. The more I pull the lever, the wider the opening of the valve. The entire mechanism can be pulled off at any time to add water to the bag, but I’ve found the best way is to reattach the locking clip to the valve before pulling it off, allowing me to let the whole mechanism hang from the strap and concentrate on filling the bag.
Treatment Received:
Once I have been on a long track non-stop, I start to think clearer and begin to appreciate the days just before arriving in town, when the pack is lightest. After leaving that town, my pack is comparatively heavy, so my ingenuity and improvisational skills kick in to reduce the shock of the extra weight. One of the ways I found to reduce weight is through my sleeping arrangements. The volume of clothes I carry are specifically selected to cover the expected temperature over the period, and no more. The majority of the remainder the items carried are either solid, such as food, or already in use in another aspect of my sleeping arrangements, like my tent. This is where the benefit of a pack tap comes in. When I turn in for the night, sometimes I have some water left over from cooking dinner that I want to save for making breakfast, and sometimes there is a tank of drinking water a few metres (feet) away. In either case, I simply blow air into the remaining space not used in the pack tap, and it becomes an air/water pillow, about as comfortable as the pillow on my bed at home. This also means that my head can hang well over the edge of the top of my air mattress, meaning I can get away with carrying a shorter mattress: 2 volume/weight savings in one move. Score!
I am what might be called an active sleeper, meaning I toss, turn, change position and shuffle most nights, and this action puts a great deal of stress on the airtight seals on the bag every time I go to re-rest my head. If I’m having some real trouble getting to sleep, an unconscious reflex tells me to fluff the pillow, which is impossible to achieve. Usually I place the pack tap tap side down so the valve isn’t hitting the back of my head, but this means the tap is in contact with the dirty ground, whether the boards of a hut or the tarp base of a tent. This means the valve and the front of the bag can get pretty dirty over the night, and sometimes need to be cleaned in the morning. Despite this cleaning, the plastic valve is severely discoloured from its original translucent white shade, as is some of the black nylon fabric, with brown-red soil. If I have a piece of clothing to spare I will often wrap the container valve to prevent it getting dirty.
Maintenance:
Minimal structural maintenance: Sometimes the thermal bag needs to be repositioned within the nylon cover, but this is rare, harmless and easy to fix with the zipper built into the front of the cover. In the event of a leak, the internal bag can easily be replaced without needing to replace the whole product, but I don’t recommend attempting to repair the internal bag. It has not needed to undergo either to date.
Regular cleaning maintenance: As mentioned, the bag can get pretty dirty when used as a pillow, but aside from that, sometimes the tap of the rainwater tank is pretty close to the ground, or the tap leaks attracting ants that build nests near or under the tank. This means maneuvering the bag under the tap where trying to avoid getting a bit of dirt on it is the lowest priority. Therefore running the tap over the surface of the nylon cover and brushing it down with the other hand is almost ritualistic. I have not attempted to clean the inside of the inner cooler bag as yet, resorting to adding a chlorine water treatment tablet to water and shaking the solution to destroying any unwanted bacteria, and generally being careful what water I fill the bag with.
Conclusion:
Summary:
The Pack Tap is a highly versatile, well-designed and manufactured liquid storage device that seals airtight and tolerates a great deal of torture without any observable evidence. It includes all the useful features like an access point, hanging strap, valve locking mechanism and wide refill mouth, and the dual layer design means reinforced durability and content temperature stability. I have experienced no defects or disappointments with the product, and I expect to replace it with an identical product if circumstances require replacement of gear.
Pros:
Versatile
Airtight
Durable
Easy to use
Thermal
Carry strap
Simple
Inexpensive to buy
Inexpensive to repair
Excellent capacity to weight ratio
No unnecessary features
Collapsible and foldable
Aesthetically rugged
Cons:
Nylon is stainable
Plastic valve is stainable
Difficult to clean inside inner cooler bag
Read more reviews of Sea to Summit gear
Read more gear reviews by Karl Daniel Fuderer
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