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hey all,
i just purchased a fox oasis camelback from jenson usa that was on blowout sale. took it out this weekend for the first time. man was it great to have something to drink on my ride! anyways, this thing came with noi instructions and I cant find documentation on the fox website. how do you guys clean the reservoir and hose? I dont want to put it in the dishwasher and chance something happening to the seals. i also dont want to be tasting soap either. what do you guys do? -
Generally all I do is flush it out as soon as possible after a ride.Just fill it with fresh warm water and let it run through the hose. Make sure that it dries out fairly well after you do. If you only fill with water for your rides your probably pretty safe. I have used Gatorade in the past and have had some mold after but only b/c it wasnt flushed out. Any LBS will have tablets which you can put in with some water and that will do the trick. Shake well and flush several times.
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i like to use these http://www.jensonusa.com/store/product/ … blets.aspx in conjuction with this http://www.jensonusa.com/store/product/ … g+Kit.aspx to clean my Camel Bak, you basicly just drop one tablet into your resivoir with some water and let it sit for 5 min. then i take the brushes with the cleaning solution still in the resivoir and scrub the inside of the bladder and then i take the small snake type brush and run it through the hose to clean it out. their can be a little bit of a after taste but if you rinse it out good you should have little to no after taste, the after taste is kinda like the taste you get when you get a new resivoir and dont rinse it out first.
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I highly recommend getting the camelbak cleaning kit. It comes with brush, a snake (for the hose), and some plastic parts to hang the bladder up and keep it open so it can dry out. Letting it dry is important, if it stays wet, you’ll get mold. If you don’t have a genuine camelbak bladder, I don’t know if the hangers would fit. One goes inside the main opening and keeps the bladder from collapsing onto itself. The other clamps around the hose and hangs the bag (it actually hangs upside down).
If I’m using just water, after the ride I empty it, rinse it with water, and hang it up to dry. If I used some soft of drink mix, I’ll actually really clean it. Empty the drink mix, do one water only rinse, then add some soap, fill it 3/4 of the way, close it, shake it up, and let it sit for a while. If the drink mix was mildly ‘chunky’ I’ll go at it with a brush. Rinse it really really well to make sure you got all the soap residue out, hang it up to dry.
DO NOT let a drink mix sit in the bladder. Clean it out as soon as possible, otherwise, it’ll get funky. So funky, you can’t get rid of the funk, and you have to get a new bladder. Been there, done that, don’t recommend it. Water isn’t as big a deal.
If you can’t get a cleaning kit, after you rinse the bladder, store it in your freezer – this will also keep mold from forming. I did this for a while, and it works, but once I got married my wife wasn’t so excited about having bladders taking up space in the freezer 😆
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thanks for the tips guys! much appreciated. i’ll only be using water but still want to get some of those tablets.
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"sevendaysoff" wrote
thanks for the tips guys! much appreciated. i’ll only be using water but still want to get some of those tablets.
Dish soap is a lot cheaper…..
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I don’t usually put anything other than water in my pack, so cleaning has been pretty easy for me. I just empty it out and open it up then hang it upside down on a coat hanger with the top open. Another thing you can do is check out the Zero Goo hydration bladder dryer ([url:1db4yv5y]http://www.zerogoo.com/hydration-bladder-dryer–north-american.html[/url:1db4yv5y]). It’s basically a fan, so you might feel like you’re getting gypped when coughing up the 25 or more bucks for a fancy piece of blue plastic. Ask for it as a gift? I did.
For rinsing out crap, I would try a combination of 1 qt water, 2 tbps baking soda and 1/4 tsp white vinegar. Most of the hydration pack cleaner tablets are some combination of water vinegar and baking soda. Stuff your pack with that, shake it up, rinse it out and dry. Works every time. And it’s cheap.
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I’ve had very little problem with mine. I use tap water in it. When I get back from my ride I put the entire pack in the bottom of my refrigerator. I keep the temp just above freezing. I usually ride twice a week or more so it gets used alot. I just dump out the older water, rince one time and refill. If I’m going to be longer between rides I take the bladder out of the pack, dump out the water and put it in the freezer. Crap can’t grow in there. Just rinse it out and fill it before the next ride. I usually just put a little bleach in it once or twice a year with slightly warm water, leave it set for an hour and then rinse very well. Have been doing this for quite a few years now with no problems. Note: I never put anything other than water in my hydration pack. If I want sport drink, etc. I use a water bottle for those.
ODN
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The hydration dryer that was mentioned does not work that well…Talking with the owner of the company however he may improve on the current design. At present the dryer is noisy and does not produce enough flow to effectively dry the bladder out in reasonable time.
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Just use water and you’ll be fine. Most problems stem from putting gatorade or whatever in the bladder.
I used to dry the bladder by emptying it (duh) then throwing in some paper towels, closing then blowing up the bladder using the bite valve and shaking around. open the bladder with the top down to gain access to teh wet paper towels and repeat a few times and the bladder is dried!
lately, I’ve gone to the leave the bladder full at all time theory. seems to work pretty well actually! -
I usually put one of propel drink mix things in my 3L just to add a little taste, but after i ride, i usually rinse mine out a couple times, dry the heck out of it (even use a hair dryer) and then stuff a couple dish towels in it just to keep it open until the next ride.
i’ve been looking at those "official" cleaning kits at pricepoint for $14 bucks… are those really worth it?
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I put only water in mine, poweraide and other non-water drinks go only in the bottle.
I bought the camelbak cleaning kit and it is awesome with some hot water and a little dish soap.
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Hey man! Don’t spend all the money to get those tools. If you are only using water in your bladder, take a clean rag and wash it out with warm water. Then hang it up in the sunlight with the top off of it with a couple of lightly crumpled up paper towels inside. Should be dry by the time you wake up the next morning.
Hope you didn’t buy anything yet. Everyone try this out before you buy one of those expensive kits. Then buy the kit if this doesn’t do it for you.
Dozzerboy
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"dozzerboy" wrote
Hey man! Don’t spend all the money to get those tools. If you are only using water in your bladder, take a clean rag and wash it out with warm water. Then hang it up in the sunlight with the top off of it with a couple of lightly crumpled up paper towels inside. Should be dry by the time you wake up the next morning.
Hope you didn’t buy anything yet. Everyone try this out before you buy one of those expensive kits. Then buy the kit if this doesn’t do it for you.
Dozzerboy
And how will that get the mold out of the tubing and valves?
I wash the bladder with soap and water and shove a bike bottle in it to dry. The brushes are for the tubing, and they were not very expensive. Well worth it in my opinion.
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Just hang the tube up from one of the ends and all the water will drip out. For the valve, I hang it upside down. That is why I use paper towels, other things will fall out. Sorry, I forgot to add that to the other post 😄
Dozzerboy
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