Reviews > Stuff Sacks > Dry Bags > Sea to Summit Lightweight Dry Sacks > Owner Review by Andrew Priest

Location Used:

The hiking environment of the south-west of Western Australia allows for hiking and backpacking from coastal plains to forest . Elevation ranges from 0 to 585 metres (0 to 1,920 feet). Within this region, I hike in varying conditions from forestry roads, to sandy tracks to single-purpose walking trails, to rock hopping, to beach walking to completely off-track walking through open and dense country.

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Weather Conditions:

During the summer period, daytime temperatures average 30 C (86 F), whereas from March through to December the daytime average temperatures range from 15 C to 26 C (59 F to 79 F). During the autumn (Fall), winter, and spring periods the normal weather pattern is fairly wet with frequent heavy rainstorms evident. It does not normally snow in Western Australia.

According to The Times Atlas of the World (Concise Edition - Revised 1997) our weather is described as being "Mediterranean - rainy climates with mild winters, coolest month above 0° C (32° F), but below 18°C (64.4° F); warmest month above 10°C (50° F)." The atlas depicts the coastal area north of Los Angeles as having the same climate.

Review Comments

Sea to Summit Lightweight Dry Sacks come in a range of sizes from XXS to XXL. While I make general comments in respect of the sack design, my experience is limited to XXS and XL sized sacks.

The Sea to Summit Lightweight Dry Sacks are made of what the manufacturer describes as "lightweight 70 denier nylon" with the seams heat sealed.  The closure on the sack is a roll down type claimed to be watertight when closed in accordance with the instructions.  The sacks are not designed to be submerged.  In addition Sea to Summit claim that the sacks are "super compressable (sic)", but no further explanation of what super compressible means is given.  The term "lightweight" is also used by the manufacturer, again without explanation or basis to this claim.  I will leave it up to the reader to decide for themselves if these sacks are indeed lightweight.

I have been using Sea to Summit size XL sacks since 2001 and following a rather unfortunate incident with my mobile phone, a zip-lock bag and a pack swim across a river in 2003, a size XXS sack since mid 2003.  The XXS sack is now used to protect my mobile phone on all bushwalks. I also often keep my wallet, keys etc in this sack as well.  The XL sacks that I own (three of them) are used both for bushwalking as well as trips on my deadly treadly to work and walks to work. On these trips a sack is used to protect my laptop and other important documents such as my diary from the elements.

On bushwalks, my sleeping bag and spare clothes are always stored in one XL dry sack. More recently I have gone over to using a second XL bag as my food storage bag as its keeps dry food protected from the weather and water on river crossings.  Following an unfortunate incident (seem to have to many of these) with a red wine bladder recently, a third sack has been brought into play to store the bladder and to protect my gear from any leakage.

The actual shape of the two sack sizes I have vary. The smaller, XXS sack is a rectangular shape, whereas the larger XL sack's base is circular in shape (see photo above).  I am not sure at what size in the range the circular base is added to the design.

Consistent across the range is the closure mechanism adopted by Sea to Summit.  Closure of the bags requires removing excess air, aligning the two top edges and folding over the top edge at least three times.  The buckle is then secured.  The photo on the left shows this process completed while the photo above shows the top of the bag and the closure mechanism.  With the edge folded over three times and the buckle secured, the sack should now be water tight.

I have been using these stuff sacks since 2001 and have been very happy with their performance.  I have, as indicated used the XL size extensively both to protect my laptop and my clothes on various outings. More recently I have used the XXS sized sack to protect my mobile phone and other valuables.  Whenever I have used the sacks they have been stored inside my backpack or day pack.  The sacks within the outer pack have been exposed to a range of wet conditions from light drizzle to heavy continuous downpours to floating across rivers during pack swims.  On the pack swims, water leakage into the pack is normal.  To date I have had no experience of the sacks letting water in.  

In addition, there is no evidence, particularly with the XL sacks which have been used since 2001, of internal or external damage from storing hard surfaced products within (i.e., laptop).  There is no evidence to date of the seam-sealing peeling.  The bags have got a bit grotty over time but they can be cleaned in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions - no detergent and no hot water.  I have washed mine at various times with washing powder and cold water with no determinantal effect.

Sea to Summit do make a claim that the sacks are "super compressable (sic)." Personally I have found the XL sacks relatively easy to compress to remove excess air and then seal. With the XL sack that I use to store my sleeping bag and spare clothes, I find kneeling on the bag seems to work quite effectively at removing excess air and holding the compressed state whilst sealing the sack. My experience has been that the seal is not only watertight but it is air tight as well, so getting all the air out is not as simple as it sounds and in fact I don't bother now trying to get "perfect" compression.  

Overall I am quite happy with my Sea to Summit Lightweight Dry Sacks, they have undertaken the function they are designed for without fail over the past two years of extensive use, including an end to end of the Bibbulmun Track. 

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Reviews > Stuff Sacks > Dry Bags > Sea to Summit Lightweight Dry Sacks > Owner Review by Andrew Priest