Hydration pack or water bottle?

[Tack]

Hi,
After reading the responses on here about which climbing sack to buy I went ahead and purchased a Macpac Subxero from The Outdoor Shop. The service was excellent and the pack arrived within two days.
My question relates to hydration packs. Would I be better off with a specialist pack such as Camelbak or Platypus or with Sigg type bottles? Also does anyone do a "conversion kit" with a hose, drinking tube and valve to make a bottle into an integrated hydration system.
As ever all help gratefully received.
Tack

 

[Ogri the trog]

Having never owned a hydration pack, I don't know how easy it would be to refill from a "wild" source - or even if you'd need to.
There is a place that sells a bottle top with a tube intended to go on any soft drinkd bottle but I can't find a link just now - I'll keep looking and post it when I find it.

ATB

Ogri the trog

 

[Joeri]

I have never used a hydration pack such as camelback. I have a few reasons.

Using bottles (I use 2 nalgenes which fit on the MSR waterpumps) makes it easier to keep track of the amount of water you are using and more important, how much you have left. The camelbacks I know are not transparent.

Also when you have the camelback put away in you pack and drink from a little tube I imagine I would drink a lot more without noticing it. Now I take breaks every half an hour to an hour to drink /eat something and I can keep track of how much I drink. This also gives me a good rythm when hiking. But than again, if refilling your watersupplies is not an issue during the trip it doesn't really matter.

finally I can imagine the bottles are easier to handle when you need to pour water out for instance for cooking. I could imagine with the soft hydration packs water might be harder to pour out little amounts. but being carefull will solve this last point...

 

[thedude]

I own two camelbaks, both bought for cycling, but I find them invaluable when out in the woods and hiking. Both bladders are transparent and it is easy to see how much water you have left because they sit in separate compartments to the rest of the bag and one open of a zip and the bladder is on view. This could be an issue is you dont have a specifically designed pack with a bladder compartment.

As far as filling I have never had problems even with using streams because of the large opening in the bladder, just carry a piece of cheese cloth to filter particulates and then add iodine solution. An alternative is to carry a small bottle for purification and top up the bladder with only clean water but this just means less cleaning of the bladder.

Bottles obviously have some advantages (you can let the guy sitting next to you have a drink without him having to suck on your mouthpiece ) but I love my camelbaks and wont be going back. Also, I do drink more but see this as a good thing, 'hydrate or die' is I think what they say. Certainly better in my body than on my back.

 

[JonnyP]

Hi,
After reading the responses on here about which climbing sack to buy I went ahead and purchased a Macpac Subxero from The Outdoor Shop. The service was excellent and the pack arrived within two days.
My question relates to hydration packs. Would I be better off with a specialist pack such as Camelbak or Platypus or with Sigg type bottles? Also does anyone do a "conversion kit" with a hose, drinking tube and valve to make a bottle into an integrated hydration system.
As ever all help gratefully received.
Tack

With a bladder, you have the water as you need it, you will tend to drink more water too, I always use this system on a hike. With a bottle, you have to stop and get the bottle out and undoo the lid, so you will be likely to drink less. I prefer bottles for bushcrafting. Platypus bladders can have the drinking tube or a squirty top or a screw top and are very good. A lot of people swear by camelbak too. You wont go wrong with a sigg bottle and the nalgene type of bottle seem ok too. Choice is yours mate....................Jon

 

[addyb]

I don't like Camelbaks or Platypus hydration systems for most of the reasons outlined above. I find that a person ends up drinking far too much and far too often, and that they are difficult to fill up on a glacier. But most of all I discovered that in winter, even with an insulation system for the tube, they still freeze in Canada and that makes them very difficult to drink out of. I read something once that said the US Military was considering replacing it's 1qt canteens with Camelbaks. It's a ludicrous idea.

I have two bottles, a 1qt army canteen and a 1 litre widemouth Nalgene lexan. I like my canteen better because it's easier to grip, more flexible than lexan and easier to drink out of. It's my summertime bottle. For winter I take the Nalgene because I can add snow to the contents on the move for my body heat to melt into water. Also, lexan doesn't go stiff like a board in the snow like HDPE does. (I only hope I don't die from carcenogenics in the Nalgene. Nah, that post was probably urban myth)

Just my $0.02!

Adam

Edit after drinking more coffee: Here's a URL for a canteen/camelbak conversion. http://shop.sayreinc.com/proddet.php?IDArt=763

 

[steven andrews]

I use Nalgene bottles, both Lexan and High Density Polyurethane.

I only use my Lexan bottles for cold drinking water and wash them by hand, so I don't have any concerns about nasties leeching into the water.

 

[-Switch-]

I personally don't like the hydration packs, mainly because I don't trust them! They all seem a bit too flimsy for my liking and when I look at them I can't help thinking ''it'd only take a strong thorn caught up in the wrong place...''. Not particularly good for bushcraft where we have sharp objects knocking about left right and centre!
I use 4 strong plastic 1L water bottles for each day (2 american military type and 2 nato type - I couldn't decide which I prefered so got 2 of each).

For hiking or rock-cimbing only, where there aren't too many sharps or fires involved, you may be better off with a hydration bladder.

It really depends what you're planning on doing

 

[hollowdweller]

I have a Camelbak pack but I mainly use it for short trips on hot days where you have to drink a lot.

I find that the hydration pack thingie gives me a lot more stamina if I am doing a lot of sweating and can take a swig every now and then versus stopping and drinking a lot at once which kind of slows me down.

HOWEVER- For backpacking where I really don't want a lot of extra weight I think the Camelbak bladder thing with the big plastic lid is too heavy. I like to use the very light platypus bottles with the hoser attachment. These look a lot cheaper and thinner than the Camelbak but I've used them a lot with no leaks and they are much lighter and you can roll them up really small if not using.

Also- if I am hiking along where water is available very frequently along the trail I totally abandon the hydration stuff and just hang my water filter off my pack, stopp and fill up a bottle and drink some whenever I hit a source. I usually still bring at least one of the Platypus 2.5 litre bladders in case I camp somewhere where I have to haul water but a lot of times don't use it.

 

[Carpe_Diem]

hi...

i've only ever used bladders over the last 3 years and find that it definately keeps me more hydrated than using bottles as i drink more frequently. It also leaves my hands free while i'm drinking.

I also find that i can carry more water on me in general ie i use 2 x 3L bladders which sit both sit in the bladder pocket of my pack. If anyone here's done bushwalking in Aus in summer then they'll understand why i need as much water as i can carry. If i was to store 6L - 8L of water in bottles, i'd be looking at atleast 3-4 bottles if not more. When the bladder(s) are empty they take up no room at all.

RE bladder leaking, the welding process used in making these bladders is incredible and despite all the testing we've done with them in the ADF, we have yet to cause one to leak in any manner of situations you might put them through. When bladders were first issued to us, Camelbak was running ad's showing a truck driving over a full bladder without bursting it, and the material's have only gotten better since. In all the use i've put my water bladders through, i've only ever had one leak and that was because an O ring gave out on the Camelbak. I cant recall the last time i saw water bottles in use as CB's (and other brands of bladders) seem to have replaced them.

Incidently, CB bladders ARE transparent and so are the other brands i've been familiar with ie platypus and Source vagabond. CB's are made from Latex whereas Source make theirs from a Polyethelyne which feels a lot tougher.

RE water bottles with conversion kits, SIGG make a conversion kit that fits their water bottles, should most of the other brands that make similar style aluminium bottles as well.

i'm not familiar with Nalgene bottles as i've never used them.

cheers
Jeelan

 

[sandbender]

They all seem a bit too flimsy for my liking and when I look at them I can't help thinking ''it'd only take a strong thorn caught up in the wrong place...''.

I used to think so however a few years back I fell off a mountain and Turkey, happily my fall was slowed down by the rocks, boulders and thorn bushes I ploughed through on the way down. I had a couple of three litre Camlebaks attached to the outside of the pack, both survived, as did my rucksack which was made from a kevlar / cordura weave.

Unfortunately both body and clothing were shredded.

 

[Laurence Dell]

Hi,
Also does anyone do a "conversion kit" with a hose, drinking tube and valve to make a bottle into an integrated hydration system.
Tack

Here is a link to a conversion kit for an ordinary mineral water bottle

http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/Cat/109899?Ref=

They also do a good range of various hydration packs for your perusal

 

[Bardster]

sadly sigg no longer make the tube conversion kit but there is still a kit available for external threaded bottles - as in the above link i believe.

 

[-Switch-]

I used to think so however a few years back I fell off a mountain and Turkey, happily my fall was slowed down by the rocks, boulders and thorn bushes I ploughed through on the way down. I had a couple of three litre Camlebaks attached to the outside of the pack, both survived, as did my rucksack which was made from a kevlar / cordura weave.

Sadly my both body and clothing were shredded.

Ouch!

The only bladders I've seen are flimsy plastic 'packets' that tuck in the back of a pack and need a firm plate in front to stop them getting squashed by kit and bursting. So if you managed to fall off a mountain ( ouch again! ) with yours outside the pack and they survived then you must be using something I'm unaware of?

 

[cossack]

Argos £9.99 cat No 019/4624, www.argos.co.uk or most high streets

 

[sandbender]

Ouch!
you must be using something I'm unaware of?

The Camelbak site doesn't permit a direct link, the most similar in their current range is the 'UnBottle 100oz (3L)

It is wrapped in a very tough insulated fabric.

As much as I like my Camelbacks I do think that it is easier to keep tabs on how much your drinking if you use a bottle, or bottle and cup.

Additionally if you have to empty half your pack to refill your Camelback in some dodgy bus station in a far away land then you will attract a great deal of unwanted attention, a Nalgene or 58 pattern bottle slips in and out of your pack with much less effort.

Also if you happen to stop of at some remote Greek farmhouse to beg for water, its much easier to explain to the hundred year old and quite deaf grandmother what you need if you can hand her something that is recognizably bottle shaped.

 

[Les Marshall]

I'm not a great lover of any type water bladder that feeds from a tube. There has been some experience in Iraq where people have not cleaned the mouth peice properly and have tiny bits of food in them, even though they were told not to use the system when eating and have suffered the hukes and pukes as a result (life threatening in the conditions met in Iraq). Yes, I know that it is down to personal cleanliness when it comes to ensuring everything is clean, but we are only human.

 

[neo_wales2000]

What did we ever do before hydration packs came along?

Well, I for one did, and still do, stop, mybe sit down, take a slow drink, and let my body soak up some water while my head soaks up the view.

Why look like robocop sucking up an oil refill, when you can sit back and take in the surrounding view

 

[Roy's Badger]

Guys, this was comprehensively discussed about 6 pages ago. However, for what it's worth, here is my response again:

Having used Platypus and Camelbaks for some years now, in arctic, temperate and desert conditions, I would ALWAYS choose the Platypus over the Camelbak. The camelbak carrying system is handy if you don't wear a rucksack, but I've had one burst (think the heat affected the seals) and I find the water tastes grim. They do make a very handy bitevalve cover, however, cos I find that I am forever trailing mine through the dirt, which kind of screws things. Also, for backwoods travelling, they now sell an in-line filter that clips into the system for insto pure water.

Final thoughts on hydration bags: if you're not on the move, don't bother with them- a clear plastic bottle does just fine, and promotes better hydration. I always find that I drink less than I should when using a bladder system.

Hope that helps.

 

[strideredc]

my Camlebak tastes of S**T and i only use it when in really hot places

they also freeze (even with the insulating cover) if you are mountaineering/hiking in cold conditions. even when you start with boiling water in it in the morning! the boiling water really brings out the lovely plastic flavor!

i have tried most things to remove the taste but to no avail! i am surprised Camlebak had the cheek to even sell them! i dont know if things have changed with them and they are using one of the 1000000 plastics that dont taste foul!