Cleaning your Camelbak

[pooks]

How do you clean your Camelbak?

How often?

I only use water in mine, but I know my mouth has germs. But sometimes I just rinse with water.

Am I going to die?

I mean, you know, from camelbak gunk disease?

If I put soap in, I feel like I have to rinse and rinse and rinse and rinse for fear of getting a mouth of soapy water next time I drink.

[jobob]

Oy, I've been hanging around here waaay too long.

Here are some old threads on that topic. The general consensus is, denture cleaner tablets. (I kids u not.)

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=1378

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showthread.php?t=948 --> scroll down to post #23 onward.
Hee hee, this was the thread where I said I wouldn't use a CamelBak. Well, three years later I finally got one and I really like it.

hth, - Jo.

[HillSlugger]

I ride with 1/2 strength cranberry juice + electrolytes. I drain out everything I can, rinse out the reservoir and then drain it through the tube until it runs clear. Then, I add one drop of dishwasher liquid, shake it up, and drain it through the tube. Then I rinse the reservoir clear of soap and then drain, again, through the tube. Then, I do a preliminary drying inside with a paper towel, then stuff it with a clean, dry paper towel and hang it to dry. Every so often I'll clean out the tube with a special tube brush. It sounds like a lot of work, but it really only takes a few minutes. Of course, I'm sometimes so tired from my ride that I need to leave it til later in the day.

[singletrackmind]

I use a few drops of bleach, soak a little, rinse really well. I use gatorade so it'd get pretty icky in there otherwise. I've got a brush for both the 'back and the tube.

[Running Mommy]

All I know is I once poisoned myself by not cleaning out my flashflow bladder well enough. It was my running one- so a waistpack, and the bladder didn't come all the way out, so I guess I was bad about getting the gunk out. I went for a week getting ill after every run before I figured out that I was poisoning myself!
Now I'm diligent about it. I soak the entire thing in a bleach/water solution once a week and clean in out with soap and water in between .
Kind of a pain, but getting the revenge is worse!

[pooks]

You can dry the inside of the reservoir with a paper towel?

I need to investigate my camelbak more closely, because I had no idea you could "get in" it!

I guess even though it has had nothing but water in it, I need to go to more trouble.

[emily_in_nc]

I guess even though it has had nothing but water in it, I need to go to more trouble.

You're not alone, pooks -- I normally just rinse my bladder with hot water, squirt out the tube, wash the mouthpiece with a little dishwashing liquid and hang it dry. I only use water in mine too. So far no problems in a year of use, but I guess I should be a bit more careful!

Emily

[Dianyla]

I have a lot more experience than I wish I had with the dreaded funk.

I always rinse with plain water, only on rare occasions will I add a few drops of bleach to the rinse water or hot water with denture cleaner tablets. A few times I've used a long bristle brush (available in a hydration bladder cleaning kit) to scrub the tube out if it's looking suspiciously cloudy.

As for drying, first I drain the tube and try to shake out most of the water. Then I use a paper towel to sponge off as much of the inside that I can reach. Some of my hydration bladders have a big opening that I can stick my whole arm down - those I dry completely with paper towels. Others have a small filler cap - what I do in that case is stick some paper towels just inside the filler neck and use it to sop up little trickles of water as much as I can.

As long as I rinse and dry the bladders within 12 hours of using them, I rarely have a problem. Forgetting to do this, or storing a damp bladder, or leaving a bladder half-full forgotten in a backpack for a week (oh, I've done it!) usually results in the Black Plague. Note: I only use water in my hydration packs.

[7rider]

Clean it???

You're supposed to clean it???