Does anyone have an effective means to drying out a Camelbak resevoir? I dont want mine to get al gunky and gross.
-Phil
ddrying out a camelback reservoir
Don’t worry about drying it out. Store it with Potassium metabisulfite solution in it. Potasium metabisulfite is a sterilizer available in wine making shops under the name of Camden tablets. To make a solution for storage crush one Camden tablet and add to a couple of liters of warm water and put in camelback. When you get ready to use it again, pour it out and rinse thououghlu with hot water.
Add the water you are going to use and go on your way.
I am a hobby winemaker and I store plastic drums for months at a time with this solution. It is a strong fungicide as well as being bacteriacidal----No Gunk.
Umm…I was looking for osomething a little simpler than that. not that i dont appreciate the thought.
Don’t bother drying it… it’s just going to get wet the next time you use it! Just pour out the remaining water when you’re done with your ride, and throw the reservoir in the freezer. Icky nasties have a very hard time growing whilst in the freezer, so you’ll only have to clean your reservoir once a year if you adhere to this method.
Wont freezing it eventually wreck, maybe crack the plastic its made from?
And One on One, that looks identicle to my resevoir…i think ill try that
Not in a common household freezer. The plastic doesn’t freeze… just the water inside.
Ok maybe ill try that!
When i throw the bladder in the freezer sould i throw in the whole thing, drinking tube and bite valve aswell or do i have to remove manything?
grab a few paper towels… and wipe it out
I get my hydration bladders fitted for dentures then use denture cleaning tablets (like Efferdent) to freshen up the bladder and keep it clean. Then every once and a while I’ll run bleach water through the bladder to make sure no nasty gunk grows in there, then use denture tablets to get rid of the bleach taste.
For drying them out I stuff an old paper towel tube in the opening and hang it somewhere to dry.
I also just toss the whole thing in the Freezer. I’ve had my bladder for a couple years now and it hasn’t had any problems with cracking. Once in a while I get lazy and forget to freeze it after a ride. If I feel like something may have started to grow, I’ll rinse it with bleach.
I put a set of open tongs in the bladder to hold it open then hang it in the sun until dry. Direct sunlight also kills bugs and germs. I don’t leave it out in the sun after it has dried as UV can break down plastics.
Well i chucked it in the freezer last night under the influence of maestro. Its lookin pretty good today…After i get home from work im gonna hit the trials…Thats the real test!
No need to FREEZE it. I’ve got 3 camelbak bladders that I store (full of water) in the refrigerator. I don’t have any problem with yucky stuff growing in them.
The complicated plan that seems to be working for me at the moment is when getting back from a ride, chuck the whole bag in a corner and leave until the next ride. At that point empty out the old water, re-fill and ride.
My theory is that having no air in the bladder means that manky things cannot grow. It’s also a platypus bladder, and I have this vague feeling that it has some exotic coating that stops things growing on it, but that could be wrong. Maybe it only works if you ride frequently enough to change the water regularly.
Alternatively, maybe it’s just going manky without me noticing. When I die, I’ll post on here to tell everyone not to use my method.
Hydrated desiccation paste, available from any good chemist (US = drugstore).
Take some of the paste from the jar, carefully dehydrate it over a low heat, and then sift to remove the lumps. Place the resultant powder in the Camelbak and wait for it to absorb the moisture. The rehydrated powder forms a paste that can easily be removed from the Camelbak using a spatula or butter knife. (It can be resued several times.)
Then just rinse the any residue of the desiccation powder out of the bladder using luke warm running water.
Job done.
I’ve just bought a camelbak flash flo and was reading the instructions (study avoidance). It said that the reservoir can be machine washed. I was wondering - dish washer or washing machine? Does anyone do this?
Cathy
Most likely dishwasher…