Camelbak cleanage!

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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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"
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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.


--
U-Turn - Mounting a Revolution

Weep in the dojo... laugh in the battlefield.

'Strongest Coker Wheel in the World'
(http://www.unicyclist.com/gallery/albup39)

-- Dave Stockton
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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.


--
UniBrier - Its Time to Ride

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


--
Mojoe - The Muni Militia

http://mojoe.unicyclist.com/
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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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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

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....


--
zod - Icey Hot Stunta(z)
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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


--
joemarshall - dumb blonde
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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.


--
tomblackwood - Registered Nurtz

My other brake is my face!

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