Camelbak cleanage!

[Max_Dingemans]

Ok, so I have in the past neglected this thing, and now the bladder is
getting kinda gruddy. with white spots in the tube and balck in the
bladder itself. My question is, how do I clean it? or what with. I know
if heard people mention it here and there, but what works best, what's
not going to taste like sulfur for weeks of use, and what isnt going to
cost me an arm and a leg... oh wiat, I only have an arm to give. close
enough. Ill stop wasting your time and have a nice day!


--
Max_Dingemans - Hey Look, who's that?

"And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given the gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth"
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[David Winston]

Camelbak makes special brushes to clean both the bladder and the tubing.
If your LBS doesn't have you can order online somewhere. I haven't bought
any yet so I can't comment on them.

However I do once in a while toss in a cap or two of simple Clorox bleach
and fill the bladder halftway with hot water.
Shake it up real good then let the bleach water drain out through the
tubing. Then fill up and rinse it out a
few more times with hot water only, empty it through the tubing and main cap
to get any remaining bleach out.

You only notice the bleach taste a little bit the first time riding
afterward. And that's if you only fill it with plain water.
Any sports drink or flavored stuff in the bag would cover the taste
completely.

David Winston


"Max_Dingemans" > wrote in
message . ..
>
> Ok, so I have in the past neglected this thing, and now the bladder is
> getting kinda gruddy. with white spots in the tube and balck in the
> bladder itself. My question is, how do I clean it? or what with. I know
> if heard people mention it here and there, but what works best, what's
> not going to taste like sulfur for weeks of use, and what isnt going to
> cost me an arm and a leg... oh wiat, I only have an arm to give. close
> enough. Ill stop wasting your time and have a nice day!
>
>
> --
> Max_Dingemans - Hey Look, who's that?
>
> "And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
> Who's given the gun and then pushed to the fore
> And expected to die for the land of our birth
> Though we've never owned one lousy handful of earth"
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Max_Dingemans's Profile: http://www.unicyclist.com/profile/1981
> View this thread: http://www.unicyclist.com/thread/27500
>

[U-Turn]

This is what I would do.

1. Get a Camelbak cleaning kit. This has great brushes that fit
everything very nicely.

2. Fill a sink full of hot water and submerge and scrub with the brushes
until the thing doesn't look scary any more.

3. Put everything back together and do a two-day "shock" treatment with
Clorox and water. How much Clorox? More than they say you should use.
Fill the bladder and run some through the tube and mouthpiece, then let
it all sit for a couple of days. It should be still quite
chlorine-smelling at the end of the two days.

4. Rinse the whole thing out well and then repeat steps 2 and 3.

5. Finally, do several rinses with fresh unclorinated water.

You should be ready for use after that.

This is what I do with my Dromedary bags, although I skip step 2 because
they dont usually get that bad.


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[UniBrier]

Do any of you use anything besides water for unicycling? I have had no
problems with water only in my hydration pack. I rinse it good after the
weekend and again before filling. Sometimes I even let it dry out.
Probably time for a good precautionary cleaning though.

I have thrown away several plastic cycling bottles due to firmentation
of Cytomax and other energy drinks. Yuk.


--
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Steve DeKoekkoek - I've got a one track mind.
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[Mojoe]

Max,

I do the cap full of bleach mixed with water in mine like once a year.
Even then, i only let it sit for a few minutes. I normally just drain it
when I get home from a ride. Sometimes I will rinse it out with new
water but I usually don't bother. Next I put it in the freezer with the
cap on loosely. When I'm ready to ride again, I pull it out of the
freezer and fill it up with water for the ride. My current CamelBack is
a year and a half old and looks like new. I had the spotty, moldy
problem with my first hydration pack years ago. I would just rinse it
out and hang it up after a ride. The problem was, they never seem to dry
very well and get kinda gross. I think I learned the freezer trick from
one of the mtbr.com forums.



By the way Max, when are able to ride again???



take care... Joe


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[tomblackwood]

UniBrier wrote:
> *Do any of you use anything besides water for unicycling?*

I don't really like Gatorade "full strength", so occassionally I'll dump
a pint of my favorite flavor into the hydrobag, then fill the remainder
with a couple pints water. It gives it a nice flavor, adds some
electrolytes for replenishment, but doesn't overwhelm with the full
strength sports drink.

PS: The bleach method is the one I've used for major cleaning, although
Carol's post on the baking soda also makes sense.

PSS: By far the best accessory investment I've made for my Camel pack
is the "cylindrical ice tray" that they sell (I think it was about US
$10). It's basically a soft rubber ice tray in the shape of four
foot-long cylindrical tubes, which comes with a little rubber divider to
turn it into eight six inch tubes. The shape makes for easy inserting
through the bladder opening, and there are no sharp edges like with
standard cubes. I packed a bunch of these into my bladder yesterday,
and had ice cold water for the full 23 miles of the Iron Horse ride.


--
tomblackwood - Registered Nurtz

My other brake is my face!

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[Ken Fuchs]

I clean my Camelbak bladder once a year with disk soap and rinse it out
several times through the mouth piece after cleaning to get rid of the
soapy taste.

> UniBrier > wrote:

>Do any of you use anything besides water for unicycling? I have had no
>problems with water only in my hydration pack. I rinse it good after the
>weekend and again before filling. Sometimes I even let it dry out.
>Probably time for a good precautionary cleaning though.

I use only tap water in my Camelbak and use it almost everyday. Thus
it stays perfectly clean, so there is no need for cleaning more than
once a year (or after many days of not using it) as mentioned above.

Sincerely,

Ken Fuchs >

[zod]

Wanna never clean your camel pack again???
When you get home from a ride dump out whatever water is left and throw
the bladder in the freezer....


--
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[joemarshall]

If you clean it as well as you can and then you bung a double (50ml) of
vodka in and suck it into the tube and leave it there overnight, it
doesn't taste too bad when you fill it with water again and it probably
sterilizes it too. Works much better than bleach for me.

Joe


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[tomblackwood]

joemarshall wrote:
> *If you clean it as well as you can and then you bung a double (50ml)
> of vodka in and suck it into the tube and leave it there overnight, it
> doesn't taste too bad when you fill it with water again and it
> probably sterilizes it too. Works much better than bleach for me.*

Yup, and that ties to Unibrier's question as well. The next day, you
just toss some orange juice in it instead of water, and you're ready for
a cocktail ride. :cool:


--
tomblackwood - Registered Nurtz

My other brake is my face!

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[paco]

tomblackwood wrote:
> *
> Yup, and that ties to Unibrier's question as well. The next day, you
> just toss some orange juice in it instead of water, and you're ready
> for a cocktail ride. :cool: *

Just don't expect to stay upright for more than ten minutes or so! It
really gets confusing when the herd of pink elephants keeps running in
front of you.


--
paco - Creator of the "BUni"

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[john_childs]

Has anyone tried Efferdent tablets (denture cleaner) in the bladder to
clean and disinfect the bladder? I saw a tip in a cycling magazine that
recommended using Efferdent to clean out the bladder, but I've never
tried it myself.


--
john_childs - Guinness Mojo

john_childs (at) hotmail (dot) com
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[Danny Colyer]

rubic wrote:
> It's a myth that alcohol sterilizes anything.

Hmm, really? It's a myth that persists in university Biochemistry
departments, then, or at any rate it did when I was at university.

10 years ago a 70% ethanol solution was considered the most effective
for sterilisation. I daresay it's still the same. Of course that's
rather stronger than anything you can buy in an off licence, at least in
the UK, but I still think I might try Joe's vodka idea. Maybe I'll do
it with whisky, though, to save having to go out and buy a bottle of
vodka.

--
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Recumbent cycle page: http://www.speedy5.freeserve.co.uk/recumbents/
"He who dares not offend cannot be honest." - Thomas Paine

[U-Turn]

Max_Dingemans wrote:
> *Yeah.. I dont plan to buy anything. specially not brushes. although,
> since im still not going to be using it for awhile, I might wait a
> bit. and since we have plenty of bleech in the basement, that's what's
> going to happen. Thanks for the info.
>
> on the riding thing however... I have surgury on the 19th to take the
> screws out. hey, the 18th is the four month aniversary! 4 months since
> I'v put any weight on this thing at all! anyways, then I get to start
> walking with a booty thing. then a whiles after that I get to start
> not using the booty-thing. right now however, I dont have a cast or
> anything on it, so I'v managed to regain nearly full ankle movement.
> happy! still no wieght on it though. so I might be riding like middle
> of november/decemberish maybe? I dont really know. but if Im up to it,
> Im hopping to make it to moab next spring! that'd be grand indeed...
> anyways, yeah. thanks again. and... no vodka for me. *
That's great Max. Based on my last month or so off the uni with the
sprained ankle, it's a bit frustrating to start all over again. One
thing that you might consider is to start swimming as soon as you can
put your leg into water. That will help the rest of your body get into
shape again while your foot is learning how to support weight once more.
I wish I had done that instead of moping around. I did, though, get in
some good Starcraft games...


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[rubic]

I wrote:
<< It's a myth that alcohol sterilizes anything. >>

Danny responded:
<< Hmm, really? It's a myth that persists in university
Biochemistry departments, then, or at any rate it did
when I was at university. >>

I not an authority on the subject, merely repeating
(probably in error) what I've been told by physicians
and nurses I come into contact as part of my work.
Perhaps my blanket generalization should be retracted.

I believe one concern is that alcohol is ineffective
against bacterial spores.

-Jeff


--
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[Max_Dingemans]

mmm... starcraft... but Im really not into the swimming thing. thanks
for the idea though.


--
Max_Dingemans - Hey Look, who's that?

"And when the sky darkens and the prospect is war
Who's given the gun and then pushed to the fore
And expected to die for the land of our birth
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[Danny Colyer]

rubic wrote:
> I believe one concern is that alcohol is ineffective
> against bacterial spores.

Fair enough, that sounds reasonable. None of my old text books would
confirm it, but a quick Google found this:
http://www-bprc.mps.ohio-state.edu/Icecore/ Abstracts/BCC00-01.pdf (note
the frustrating space in the url), which confirms that not all spores
are destroyed by 95% ethanol, and this:
www.ijpc.com/_pdf/qasterile.pdf
which has an interesting table on the characteristics of cleaning
agents.

Still, if you always leave an ethanol solution in the Camelbak bladder
while it's not in use, at least you can be reasonably sure that nothing
will grow.

--
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[tomcopeland]

I have heard that vinegar is a good disinfectant. I have been using it
occasionally and haven’t noticed any problems. I pour a little vinegar
in the bladder, run it through the tube and then rinse a few times. I
hang mine up to dry or fill them half way with water and put them in the
freezer. I don’t use bleach anymore because I always get some on my
clothes and end up with bleach spots.


--
tomcopeland
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[rhysling]

I only fill my blader with S. Pellegrino.

-C


--
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"He tries to come off as sarcastic and cruel, but his nice side
sometimes shows through." -NickyFrog on Lord Vuldemort


There is no substitute for falling down, and no instructor quite as
thorough as pain.


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[tomblackwood]

zod wrote:
> *Wanna never clean your camel pack again???
> When you get home from a ride dump out whatever water is left and
> throw the bladder in the freezer.... *

Two schools of thought on this one. I know some people claim to have had
no problems. I left mine in the freezer for a couple weeks, and the
next load of water tasted like freezer burn. That would have been
tolerable if it wasn't also accompanied by a micro-leak from a crack in
the bladder.

My reco: wash the thing out, and use the well-designed Camelbak drying
rack. It is elegant, collapsable, and functional.

Freeze at your own risk! :(


--
tomblackwood - Registered Nurtz

The epitome of Just-Too-Muchery....

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[zod]

Tom, if you dump all the water out before putting it in the freezer you
should never get a crack or end up with freezer burn taste....
I've been doing this with bladders a long time now with zero issues....


--
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