Do I Need To Clean My Crux Reservoir Before First Use

You only got abode from a weekend cycle trip, and you're tired, y'all're hungry, and yous have a listing of things to do—unpack your bags, take a shower, take hold of a beer, or peradventure the last ii at one time. The very final thing on that listing is cleaning out your dirty hydration pack.

All the same, if you let it sit for a few more than days, foreign new life forms will start building habitats inside your neglected gear.

In that location are a few things you lot can practise to go along a terrarium from forming in your pack. Hydration powerhouse CamelBak has pretty articulate advice: The all-time way to care for your reservoir is to clean and dry it after every use, especially if you fill the reservoir with anything other than water. (Personal side notation: Never fill it with whiskey.)

In other words, your pack deserves some preventative intendance. It's easy to advise, only not and so easy to follow subsequently every single outdoor take a chance without neglect. CamelBak acknowledges that bladder budget sometimes gets put on the back burner—we don't all scrub our outdoor equipment religiously, allow lonely our water bottles and hydration packs.

But here's the visitor's official advice on how to clean a CamelBak or other hydration pack float.

How to clean a CamelBak

Mix a solution of hot water and ii tablespoons of baking soda or bleach inside your reservoir. Concur it upwards to a higher place your caput while you pinch the bite valve, assuasive the mixture to run through the tube. Let the reservoir and cleaning solution sit down for about 30 minutes. Yous can also utilise CamelBak Cleaning Tabs.

Launder the reservoir with hot water and mild lather. Be sure to completely rinse abroad whatsoever bleach or cleaning solution before using again. You lot can also apply CamelBak brushes from the visitor'due south cleaning kit to scrub your reservoir and tube; brushes are the best mode to ensure you are scrubbing all the areas of the reservoir make clean.

When you lot're finished cleaning, be certain to air dry out the reservoir and so no wet is trapped inside, which can cause mold to grow.

Trevor Raab

Pro tips for cleaning a hydration pack

But what if y'all can never seem to get that soapy taste out of the float? Seth Beiden, one-time marketing managing director at CamelBak, has his own tricks for keeping his reservoir from turning into an outdoor science experiment.

Outset, he stores his bladder rolled-up in the freezer after it's been emptied out—the cool air keeps anything from growing within. If he's filled the reservoir with annihilation but water, he rinses information technology out with hot water and the juice of a lemon, which breaks down any residue and washes out easier than soap; it also leaves a much nicer aftertaste. Beiden also uses a green scrubber pad—which reactivates the antimicrobial coating embedded in the bladder itself. (This is similar to the coating used in shoes to prevent mold and smells.) Lastly, hang-drying is always the way to get.

Beiden as well shared a few boosted CamelBak care tips for your worst-case scenarios:

Allow the reservoir soak overnight with hot water in it later on being cleaned.
If your valve is super muddied and you desire to dry information technology out, you can exit a toothpick in at that place while it'southward drying to increase airflow.
You can always dismantle the pieces of your bladder and put them in the dishwasher.
It'due south notoriously difficult to become the taste of tequila or whiskey out, so if you lot absolutely need to drink alcohol from a hydration pack, buy a separate bladder to dedicate solely to that purpose.

The most important matter you can do is to brand prompt hydration pack cleaning a habit after every ride. And if y'all see visible mold that can't be scrubbed out? Cut your losses and go yourself a new hydration bladder.