Advanced Elements PackLite Review

The PackLite is a 5.25-pound, single-person inflatable with a 250-pound capacity. It's made of polyurethane-coated ripstop polyester and, importantly, comes with a repair kit.

Performance Comparison

Gliding and Tracking

The PackLite is not the easiest boat to paddle, mostly due to a lack of features to keep it so portable. It is quite short and has no skeg. The cockpit is open, and the whole thing rides so low in the water that it's not ideal for anything rougher than flat, calm waters. The exterior is plasticky, helping it glide better in the water, but its unconventional shape and general propensity to sag prevent it from being a swift boat.

As one of the widest of all the single kayaks in this review at 2'11", our paddlers sat so low that they found they had to adjust their strokes to accommodate the additional girth. This further exaggerates the back-and-forth motion of every paddle stroke. Unless you're planning to take this kayak backpacking, on an international trip, or to other remote locations far from your vehicle, we much prefer the handling of just about any other kayak.

Maneuverability

The utter lack of a keel or skeg of any kind does keep the PackLite highly maneuverable and able to turn on a dime. It's so lightweight that navigating obstacles is positively a breeze and accomplished with very little effort. However, this maneuverability can be frustrating for a novice kayaker attempting to maintain a straight line, but experienced paddlers can get the hang of this vessel that handles like a playboat.

Made of rather thin material, this is not a kayak that we're excited to paddle over submerged sticks or land on rough rocky shores. We actually tore it on a dock during our testing process (and successfully repaired it), though never on an underwater obstacle.

Stability

The PackLite is fairly wide, making it more stable than we had expected. We appreciate the increased stability the wideness of this boat provides, particularly because shorter boats can often be quite tippy. Smaller testers found this vessel more comfortable to paddle in, though everyone who tried it went through a period of trial and error to find their most comfortable and effective position.

Getting in and out of this kayak is as straightforward as it looks. A wide-open cockpit with low sides is both easy to get into as an ample target and challenging to get out of with low sides. In general, the PackLite feels stable to paddle once you're in it, though it also feels quite unlike almost any other kayak we've paddled.

Ease of Transport and Set Up

With just three reasonably small chambers and a little seatback to inflate, setting up the PackLite is a relative breeze. No pump is included with this kayak (although Advanced Elements sells them), and an after-market pump is also not included with the weight or packed size of the boat. The waterproof material is simple to clean and dry when you're ready to pack up. Deflating and packing are just as quick and easy as setting up — and as a bonus, the stuff sack becomes an on-craft storage space while you paddle and is front and center when you're ready to move out to your next epic paddle spot.

The instructions for inflating the PackLite are unnecessarily in-depth and complicated. They also request a specific pressure to which you should inflate your vessel without including any instrument to measure this. We found that the valves' style is quite easy to accidentally open as we detached the pump, letting a bunch of air out that we then had to repump. And the PackLite book of instructions recommends filling the floor with a pump, but even with four separate, standard and kayak-specific pumps on hand, we didn't find that the correct adapter was readily available. We resorted to using lung power, which was rather cumbersome. Advanced Elements has several types of pumps available for purchase on their website that include many adapters, one of which is presumably the correct one for this valve.

Weighing just 5.25 pounds in its bag, the PackLite is far and away the lightest kayak we tested. It's not only the lightest, but also the smallest, both set up and packed away. At just 7.5 feet fully inflated and barely over a foot on its longest side packed up, the PackLite is just begging to be taken everywhere with you. Though it doesn't have any bow or stern handles like most of the other kayaks in this review, at such a minuscule weight, you don't even need them. Truly, if you want a kayak you can toss in your luggage and take to South America or stick in your backpack and enjoy solitude 20 miles into the backcountry, you'd be hard-pressed to find a reason the PackLite wouldn't be an excellent choice.

Comfort

While we don't hate paddling this tiny watercraft, it certainly isn't the most comfortable boat we tested. The seatback is alright but won't support a reclined paddling position. Being so wide also makes foot and leg placement a bit of a guessing game as you try to figure out the most comfortable and efficient placement for paddling what feels not too far off from a pool floatie. The PackLite also claims a capacity of 250 pounds, but when a 220-pound man used it, he had to stop it from folding in half by bracing against the bow with his legs, and even then, he rode very low and took on water with even the slightest of waves.

Having a lower capacity than most other single-person boats means less space for gear and limits the size of the person who could comfortably use this kayak. The PackLite struggled to fit someone 30 pounds below the advertised weight limit during our testing. Another less-than-optimal feature affecting comfort is how you inflate the floor. Unless you have the right adapter, which is NOT the same as the one used for the larger valves on the body of the boat, the floor is inflated using your mouth. This makes it difficult to reach the appropriate pressure. For us, this most typically resulted in a feeling similar to sitting on a floating pool mat, as we could feel every small wave we passed over. Overall, this isn't a kayak we'd feel comfortable or confident taking on long journeys or over rough waters, but we also don't think that's the major selling point of the PackLite.

Construction Quality

Advanced Elements advertises this little kayak as having ripstop, “eco-friendly” polyurethane. We're not sure about how eco-friendly it is, but we certainly tested that claim of “ripstop.” The first time we took the PackLite out on the water, it ripped a sizeable hole from contact with the side of a dock. By using the included repair kit with detailed directions, however, we had no problem patching the tear and continuing to use the kayak for many more adventures. Carrying the repair kit with this thin, lightweight kayak is a must.

We had questions about the longevity of the seams on the PackLite, as they stick out at 90-degree angles from the boat, just like those on your favorite river floating tube. We also noticed that the fabric became discolored in patches during use. While we didn't experience any direct issues with either of these oddities during our testing, it does raise certain questions about the lifespan of this boat. One problem that arose (aside from the initial tear in the hull) was that the tube for inflating the floor cracked in half after we rolled the kayak up the first time. We were able to salvage it by simply discarding the broken piece and jamming the valve onto the new, shorter end with no additional difficulties. And honestly? We thought it was a little too long to begin with. So, after a few initial snafus, we felt the PackLite stood up about as expected for what we put it through.

Should You Buy the Advanced Elements PackLite?

The PackLite is a very specific-use kayak that those hoping to walk miles to reach their paddle destination will appreciate. The value of that level of access is hard to underestimate if you're an adventure-seeker. If you just want to get out on some water you can drive to, the PackLite is not the best paddle experience or the best-value option.

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