Price: $129.95

Weight: 1.84 lbs (836 g)

Components: 2.8L X-Pot; 8″ X-Pan; 1.3L X-Kettle; two lids

Materials: Hard-anodized aluminum base, silicone sides

Cooking Surface: Hard-anodized aluminum

Packed Size: 9″ x 9″ x 1.8″

Boil Time: 2:15

Best Use: Backpacking, Camping

What We Like: Highly collapsible, Fast boil time, Includes a skillet

What We Don’t: Expensive, Slightly heavy for backpacking, Potential durability concerns

Sea to Summit has put a new spin on packable cookware with the super collapsible X Set 32. This $129.95 set includes their 2.8L X-Pot, the 1.3L X-Kettle and the 8″ X-Pan, along with translucent lids for the pot and kettle. Both the X-Pot and X-Kettle utilize silicone walls designed for cooking but also capable of flattening down to less than 2” in height. Both uniquely designed and versatile, the X Set 32 is more than capable of accompanying you on an overnight backpacking trip or even casual car camping, but its high price tag may drive some campers to seek out more economical alternatives that are also more specifically designed for only one of these two activities.

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See Our Best Camp Cookware Review HERE!

Cooking & Cleaning

The cooking performance for the Sea to Summit X Set 32 is a mixed bag. On the one hand, the kettle boils water incredibly fast (roughly 2 minutes 15 seconds for 2 liters), and this as well as the pot will prove more than capable for preparing ready-made meals. We also loved that the set included a skillet, however the 8” X-Pan is not nearly as capable as the pan you’ll find in your kitchen. Due to the metal being quite thin, the X-Pan does not distribute heat very evenly and food will have a tendency to burn if not watched over carefully; we would also not recommend cooking at a high heat. Needless to say, scrambling eggs can prove to be a grueling endeavor, and cleanup can be a bit of a chore.

Sea to Summit recommends that the X-Pot and X-Kettle only be used for water-based cooking; we’d recommend only boiling water in the kettle, and using the pot for preparing food like pasta and rice (the lid’s integrated strainer is a big help here). Much like with the X-Pan, the hard-anodized aluminum base does not cook quite as evenly as we would have liked, so any food that has a tendency to stick will inevitably become an issue if not tended to carefully. Thankfully, the silicone walls can at least be wiped out with ease.

While we can appreciate that Sea to Summit used thin metal to reduce weight, we simply felt that it compromised the cooking performance just a bit too much. Though it actually proves helpful for fast boils, we would have preferred if the base was just a bit thicker at least for the X-Pan and X-Pot, so that it could compete with the performance we saw from MSR’s Quick 2 System Cook Set, which utilizes the same material (and costs $30 less).

Weight & Packability

All five components of the X Set 32 have a total weight of 1.84 lbs (836 g), making this the second heaviest backpacking cook set of the 7 in our review (the Primus PrimeTech 2.3L Pot Set is 2.2 lbs). It also has more cooking components than the Primus, which only has two pots. If you’re looking to lighten your load a bit, you could easily leave behind the X-Kettle and cut just under half a pound.

What makes the X Set a truly impressive piece of backpacking gear is its packability. The silicone walls on the X-Pot and X-Kettle enable them to collapse down to less than 2” tall, and the total packed size for the full set is only 9″ x 9″ x 1.8″. This gives it just a slightly wider circumference than our other backpacking cookware sets, but a significantly smaller height; all of the other sets are two to three times taller. However, it’s also important to keep in mind that there is very little extra space inside the packed X Set, so unlike other sets, it cannot be used to hold fuel canisters, stoves, cutlery and the like.

Durability

Features

Sea to Summit made some unique choices when it came to the handles for the X-Pot and X-Pan. Rather than using one long handle or a pliers-style pot grabber, they opted for short silicone handles on either side; these are integrated into the silicone walls on the X-Pot and and flip out from the sides of the X-Pan. While this is a great way to reduce weight, they’re also not the most ideal handle when cooking, since a traditional handle makes it much easier to keep your pot stable while cooking on a narrow camp stove. The silicone is not nearly rigid enough and may even require an extra hand when cooking any items that require regular stirring (which will more than likely be the case with this set given its tendency to burn food). We did, however, appreciate that the X-Pot’s handles can flip over the top of the lid to assist in straining out water.

The Bottom Line

While we were highly impressed by the creative approach made by Sea to Summit in order to maximize this set’s packability, we found that its durability and cooking performance were far less than impressive. The X-Kettle on its own is a great piece of lightweight gear when you just need to boil water for MREs, but more complicated meals may prove to be, well, complicated, when using the X-Pot and X-Pan due to the thin aluminum base. The X Set 32 is an ambitious approach to backcountry cookware, but still has some room for improvement.

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