Sea to Summit The Kitchen Sink

Summary

Stable, high capacity, high compressibility. I recommend two of these for an extended trip.

This sink is a great addition to an extended trip pack. It's not really a fast and light item, but if you backpack in comfort then definitely bring it. It holds enough water to take a bath, do dishes, filter lots of water, or make LOTS of dinner.  

I like how it bows out at the bottom, this greatly increases stability. Large top makes it easy to scoop water in and out of it, but watch out for fire embers and pine needles.  

I have had this for a few years, and take it car camping and on all backpacking trips where my wife is present.

Summary

Excellent choice for the backpacker, replace large tub you used when car camping. Folds up into small size. Neat rubberized lining really does hold water!

Sea to Summit brand kitchen sink is an excellent choice for your backpacking experience. There are multiple sizes available. I used the five liter version. This was plenty when I cooked meals that required multiple pans. However it might be a bit small if you wanted to do dishes for several people.

The storage has loops for carabiner in case you want to move out while it is still wet, also a belt loop as mentioned under cons in this review. The loops make this item very accessible. The design features are quite excellent as the sink folds out and pops up to maintain its shape while you wash.

I have not had a better sink with me while camping.

This is a sweet little sink. I love this thing. It's great for washing dishes, washing hair, carrying water, soaking your feet, whatever. I have used the sink a few times now and I love it more and more each time.

It stows very small for its capacity and it makes washing dishes a breeze. It doesn't have to be full to function as intended. Since buying this sink, I no longer dread washing dishes, I look forward to it. Another great product from Sea To Summit.

Great item. It has completely changed my attitude to cooking and cleanup when backpacking. I used to avoid cooking entirely because I didn't want to deal with the cleanup. 

Now I cook whatever I want without worry about cleaning.

Great little outdoors kitchen sink. Used it to wash my Primus EtaExpress pot and pan, as well as my My-Ti Brunton folding spork in a test run. Holds water at any level (does NOT have to be full to hold water, does NOT have to be completely full to stand up on its own). Handles make carrying that much water easy - they're nice on the hands.

Two Cons, perhaps three:
- Handles take about 10 times as long to dry as the rest of the material. Long after the sink had been sun/air dried the handles remained damp.

- The nylon on the outside of the sink is not coated like the inside water-holding portion. This means the outside actually partially accepts water (gets wet) while the inside is impervious to water or repels it. This makes the outside take longer to dry than the inside. If the entire sink was coated like the inside dry time would probably be around 3 minutes on a warm, sunny, windy day.

Nevertheless, aside from the handles, having shaken most of the excess water off, dry time in the sun with a bit of wind is around 10-15 minutes, with respect to giving turns to both the inside and outside to dry.

- Oil and odors do not remove so easily from the inside coating. I cooked a Backcountry Kathmandu Curry and washed the dishes afterwards in this. I'd say it took a good 9 cups of water and 1 1/2 tablespoons of CampSoap to wash it out after dumping the wash water. After cleaning the sink with soap twice and rinsing it, it still retained traces of oil and a slight smell of the curry.

Pros:
- Holds a full 10 liters (2.6 gallons)

- Stands on its own easily with any amount of water (doesn't tip over)

- Has a very compact packed size (a flat cylinder about 5.25" across x 1.75 high)

So many different uses. It is great to take down to water source and fill it up (10 Liters) and than bring it back to camp to filter and fill up your other water containers. It is also great to fill with water and add boiling water and use it as a washing sink (for dishes or hair or whatever). I have used it on every trip.