Water Bladder Hygiene

[nobby]

I was sorting my kit yesterday and started wondering about my water bladder hygiene.
When I put it away last October I will have emptied it first but there are bound to have been residual water droplets left in the bag.
Is there any danger of there being unpleasant germs in the bag as a result. If so, how should I clean it, preferably without leaving an after taste.
Less this seem a bit pernickety I should explain that I am recovering from major stomach surgery and cannot aford to get a gut infection.
Thanks for any help.

 

[BOD]

I was sorting my kit yesterday and started wondering about my water bladder hygiene.
When I put it away last October I will have emptied it first but there are bound to have been residual water droplets left in the bag.
Is there any danger of there being unpleasant germs in the bag as a result. If so, how should I clean it, preferably without leaving an after taste.
Less this seem a bit pernickety I should explain that I am recovering from major stomach surgery and cannot aford to get a gut infection.
Thanks for any help.

Hello Nobby,

Hope you get well soon.

Besides using the manufacturers recommended method (expensive) you could try these:

1. a diluted bleach solution making sure that the tubes are cleaned as well. This always leaves a taste no matter how much you flush it afterward.

2. using a slightly diluted Listerine solution to swish around in the bladder and tubes (this is what the US coast guard apparently do for the divers BCDs)

That said I have left water in my Camelbaks for weeks and drunk it with no ill effect and I am tummy upset prone.

I always squeeze out the water in tubes if its been in there for a while before drinking as I believe it is where the bugs grow as that water is more likely to be contaminated by your mouth and by light especially if the protective sleeve has receded as it often does

 

[ferrol]

My water bladder (Platy) I simply give it a rinse out then bang it in the freezer, then don't need to worry about germs growing. (check with your bladder first if this is safe to do so.)

You could rinse the bladder out with a light lemon solution, if anything it leaves a pleaseant small and after taste, think you can use baking soda solution too to remove taste.

ferrol

 

[Cairodel]

Hello Nobby,

1. a diluted bleach solution making sure that the tubes are cleaned as well. This always leaves a taste no matter how much you flush it afterward.

Yes, but I rinse with clean water before filling again, and have no problem with
any "taste".
Also for cleaning, I use 'denture tablets' - basically the same thing as the proprietary cleaners, at a fraction of the cost.
Again, rinse before re-filling.

 

[spamel]

I would go with denture tablets too, I haven't used them in a camelbak but I do flasks and water bottles with them.

 

[rapidboy]

I used the Milton cleaning solution that's sold for cleaning babies bottles.
It just bleach really, it removed the black spots from my Platipus, it came up like new.

 

[saffy]

M, think you can use baking soda solution

I think that should be bicarb not baking soda

I use bleach myself and freshen the mouthpiece of my camelbaks with an aerosol anti-bac surface cleaner which then gets rinsed off.

The camelbak brush cleaners are worth getting, esp the small one to clean the tube.

I think I would prefer Military tubes as they are black and would inhibit marine growth but I have never bothered trying to source them. Don't like military camelbaks though as all the ones I have seen have the small cap openings that the first civvy used to have.

 

[oldsoldier]

Denture tabs work great. I've been using them for years. Just remember to keep the top unscrewed a little, so you dont blow it up

 

[nobby]

Thanks everyone. As usual that was a great help.

Recovering nicely thanks. Managed an hour on canoe maintenance this morning. Resting now :0)

 

[gregorach]

Well, I always have a tub of this stuff called VWP that I use to sterilise my brewing equipment - ideal for the job.

 

[Voivode]

I think that should be bicarb not baking soda

Baking soda is sodium bicarbonate.

 

[DarDar]

The first question answers this. Actually have a bag and tube i need to clean up!!!!

http://www.platypushydration.com/about_us/faqs.aspx?Inside=2

 

[tombear]

Making a brush for any length of tube is dead easy and dirt cheep.

I've made several by looping a suitable length of thin wire around a fixed point and then closing the jaws of a drill around the two ends. At first I tried super gluing bristles from a cheep sink scrubbing brush to the inside of one of the wires a few inches back from the fixed end but have found that a piece of those green scratchy pan scrub thingies is easier to use and does the job better.

Once set up you just twist the wires together with the drill and trim the bristles or pan scrub to fit the tube and cut the excess wire off, making a loop at the handle end to ease use. I've found its useful to make the same with sponge instead of the pan scrub to dry the tube out if I'm putting the Platy into storage.

ATB

Tom

 

[BOD]

Making a brush for any length of tube is dead easy and dirt cheep.

I've made several by looping a suitable length of thin wire around a fixed point and then closing the jaws of a drill around the two ends. At first I tried super gluing bristles from a cheep sink scrubbing brush to the inside of one of the wires a few inches back from the fixed end but have found that a piece of those green scratchy pan scrub thingies is easier to use and does the job better.

Once set up you just twist the wires together with the drill and trim the bristles or pan scrub to fit the tube and cut the excess wire off, making a loop at the handle end to ease use. I've found its useful to make the same with sponge instead of the pan scrub to dry the tube out if I'm putting the Platy into storage.

ATB

Tom

well done Tom. If it were possible to get rep points I'd give you some!