How To Clean a Camelbak

CamelBak is a trademarked product that facilitates hydration for people who wish to spend time outdoors. The brand is best known for its hydration products designed to be used by people from various fields of the society, ranging from fitness enthusiasts to the military and enforcement agencies around the world. The unique part about a CamelBak is its reservoir system. The system is designed in a manner that facilitates hiker hydration without compromising on the mobility of the user.

The components of a Camelback consist of removable parts which include: a plastic hydration tube, a water reservoir, a mouthpiece and a durable fabric pack. These components require cleaning from time to time and if kept clean would ensure an unmatched and trouble-free excursion. It is therefore important to know how to clean a CamelBak.

Steps to follow while cleaning your CamelBak

While you would generally agree that your CamelBak deserves all the care in the world. However, it is another prospect already to ensure that it’s clean on a daily basis. Contrary to popular perception scrubbing the equipment is not the best way to go about the task. Here’s a step wise process you can use to ensure that your hydration pack stays clean.

Step 1: Prepare the solution

Before you begin cleaning, it is essential to get the cleaning solution right. While you can always buy a bottle of cleaning solution from the market, they may contain a lot of unhealthy chemicals. Your best bet is to make your own cleaning solution. To start with, use warm water and subsequently add 2 tablespoons of bleach or baking soda into it.

Make sure the solution is not too concentrated or too dilute but just about optimum consistency. Pour the solution in the reservoir and hold it at a high level while pinching the bite valve. This allows the solution to completely flow through the tube. If you don’t feel like making the solution at home, you could also buy the CamelBak Cleaning Tabs.

Step 2: The eventual wait

Waiting is one of the hardest and possibly the most important part of the whole process. Allow the solution to sit inside the reservoir for about 30 minutes.

Step 3: The wash

After around 30 minutes, use moderately hot water to wash the reservoir along with some mild soap. It is essential to ensure that you completely rinse out the cleaning solution before you start using the product again. You could also invest in CamelBak brushes to ensure that all corners of your reservoir are scrubbed clean. In fact, brushes are one of the most efficient ways to ensure a thorough clean.

Step 4: The drying

Once you have ensured that the reservoir is clean and there is no bleach residue left anywhere, dry the reservoir up. Make sure, however, that there is no moisture trapped inside the reservoir. Failure to ensure this could lead to molds growing inside the reservoir.

Step 5: Life hacks to get out that soapy smell

Sometimes even the most articulate instructions can seem to overlook the most obvious of problems. So after you have followed the rules to the letter, you are bound to discover that there exists a soapy smell that percolates into the taste of the water stored in the bladder. To prevent this, follow these simple but effective steps:

1) Store the rolled-up bladder in the freezer for about an hour, after it has been dried up. This prevents anything from growing inside the reservoir.

2) Rinse the reservoir with a mixture of hot water and lemon juice. The lemon leaves a nice aftertaste and at the same time washes out any residue that may have escaped the scrubbing.

3) After the wash, hand-dry the reservoir.

Advantages of using a CamelBak hydration pack

The CamelBak is one of the most popular ways to store water, especially when embarking upon treks or trips. The unique advantage that the CamelBak product brings to the market is the fact that it features for maximum stability along with a superior performance. It has a low-profile design and stores enough water to be used for around 2 hours of hiking. Here are a few advantages of using CamelBak products:

The superior design – At the core of the product is the unique design of the CamelBak which broadly amalgamates the best in terms of performance and hygiene. This is something unique to the product and one of the reasons for its wide popularity.

Reusable – The CamelBak is essentially a reusable product and is thus more sustainable on the environment than most other competitors.

Sternum straps – CamelBaks are very easy to carry about. It comes with a sternum strap along with shoulder straps. These straps help maintain torso stability and therefore reduce shoulder pain.

Intelligent engineering – The reservoir includes innovative features like a bite valve which does not allow water to seep out and a shut-off valve to prevent leaks.

Tips

Here are a few other tips to ensure that the CamelBak has a thorough cleaning:

1) If the valve of your reservoir requires deeper cleaning then you could leave a toothpick in there to dry to increase the airflow.

2) All CamelBak components are dishwasher safe and can be easily washed along with other utensils.

3) If you use the reservoir to store sports drinks or juice, then it’d be better to store sugar-free versions. Sugar based drinks leave behind sugar particles which can in turn cause molding.

4) It is extremely hard to clean the reservoir of any sort of alcoholic smell. It is generally recommended that if you wish to use the reservoir for storing alcohol, you invest in a separate bladder solely for storing tequila or whiskey.

5) You could use hydration pack cleansing tablets to ensure an efficient removal of bacteria from the reservoir.

6) Strong cleaning agents should not be used on the CamelBak because you could end up harming the plastic lining of the product and reduce the efficiency of the reservoir.

7) As a measure of general safety, CamelBak products that reveal any sort of discoloration must be replaced with immediate effect.

Conclusion

The success of the CamelBak lies in the fact that it does not compromise with the general quality of the components. Since the reservoir is used to store water, it is imperative to know how to clean a CamelBak. Granted that it does take a lot of effort to clean out the reservoir efficiently, it is certainly worth the pains once you start reaping the benefits of the CamelBak on your trips. Just remember to clean the product between subsequent uses and if you find a persistent mold on the product, just invest in a fresh product. A CamelBak improperly washed could potentially turn into a dangerous chemical experiment.