Table of Contents
Water supply is a crucial part of any outdoor recreation or overnight trips. Over time, a foul smell and filthy taste can start formulating in the bladder of your hydration pack. This nasty water can lead to the quick breakdown of mold, which can impose negative health impacts. It often happens when bladder bags are stored poorly or cleaned rarely. Moreover, it can also occur when stored in wet areas or sealed for long periods with the liquid left over.
Therefore, it’s significant to know how to clean a Camelbak or any other hydration reservoir. The best way to keep your Camelbak bag clean is to wash it out after every use and leave it to dry completely before storing it. This article focuses on the proper method to wash and store your Camelbak backpack.
Why You Should Clean Your Hydration Pack
Even if you only fill water in your hydration bladder, also known as a water bladder or reservoir, it can create breeding conditions for mold and mildew. Soft plastic bottles, bottle caps, spout caps, bite valves, encircled drink tubes, and drinking nozzles can sometimes trap water. These reservoir accessories of a hydration pack are tough to dry.
Bacteria can start growing in this water, which can make you sick or most probably will taste bad. To keep your water fresh and prevent mold growth and illness, it’s significant to properly wash and dry your water bladder when it’s not in use. Moreover, you should regularly deep-clean it to avoid harmful mold growth.
Aside from personal health, cleaning your hydration pack is crucial for increasing the life of the pack. Mold growth can lead to plastic or fabric degradation, forcing you to replace nozzles more often or mandate you to replace your hydration pack.
Cleaning Essentials For Better Wash
To clean your Camelbak backpack, you must have the proper tools and supplies to clean the dirt appropriately. It signifies you should have the appropriate cleaning ingredients to make it easier to clean. There are a lot of easily accessible cleaning products to choose from.
Cleaning Solutions
For cleaning solutions, there are abundant options aside from mild soap. The eco-friendly cleaning tablets can be used to remove any kind of buildup inside the pack. You can also use items readily available in the kitchen, like baking soda and bleach per liter solution. You can create an effective solution by combining the right quantity of bleach with water in a clean glass jar. It’s quite effective to use a straw for cleaning reservoir parts, like drinking tubes, series bottles, and bottle handles.
Cleaning Tools
The use of a hydration bladder cleaning supply with clean water will help you clean your Camelback pack, including your backpack, hydration tube, link adapter and some other parts of the hydration pack, like the bladder. The kit includes brushes that are exclusively designed to clean a hydration pack. They can fit the smallest areas, like the tube and bladder of a hydration pack.
A scrubbing brush is also an option, as it can efficiently clean open spaces in the backpack, which is better than a washing machine. In case, you do not have a cleaning kit, a twisted cord can help clean inside a hose.
Drying Equipment
After proper cleaning, you must dry each part as well. Therefore, you need equipment to do it properly. You can use a cloth hanger to make the backpack and water bladder dry quickly. You can also use a paper towel in the hydration packs to help it dry faster.
How to clean a Camelbak hydration reservoir
A high-end backpack comes with a breathable mesh. It is made from the best material to wick away sweat from your body. But after time, it starts to smell bad. Regular visual inspection is significant to check and clean your bag to get rid of odors, leftover crumbs, puddle splash, dirt, or stubborn muddy paw stains.
If you seriously want to clean your water bladder, then getting yourself a Camelbak cleaning kit or simple cleaning brushes will be worth the investment. These will help during deep cleaning and mold disposal process. Here are some steps to follow while cleaning your backpack:
Check Instructions
It’s best to first check the washing care instructions on your backpack. These guidelines for material to use differ from pack to pack because of different manufacturers and brands.
Therefore, before using any cleaning solutions or tools, you should consider washing additional instructions from the bag to prevent any damage.
Empty The Contents
You can easily open the backpack and remove the bladder for better cleaning. It’s best to remove all BPA-free material, like Fcy, stem collars, bite valve slits, insulated drinking tubes, and extra elastic from the pack. Grab the pull tab on the bite valve to remove it and use soapy water to clean the contents. Give a good shake to empty the pockets for better cleaning. Try not to remove the rubber gasket for cleaning purposes from the bottles.
Deep Clean
After a few uses, it’s a fair idea to thoroughly clean your Camelbak backpack. You can use different methods for deeper cleaning. The best way is to get a bowl of clean Camelbak water and laundry detergent or non-detergent disclosure soaps. You can let your backpack soak in this soapy water solution for a few minutes.
Instead of a washing machine, it’s best to wash the backpack by hand with soap. Using gentle cycle movement will help prevent any damage to the bag fabric’s weatherproof coating. While, for the additional product contents like bladder and tube, you can use cleaning tabs or hot water instead of lemon juice and baking soda solution, because baking soda residue is quite visible even after constant washing.
Move the bladder up high and compress the valve to allow warm water to pass through the hose. Close the lid and let the solution soak for some time. Empty and rinse the bladder thoroughly with hot water, Camelbak cleaning tabs, or the mild soap solution used for the backpack. Avoid using extra-hot or boiling water, as it can damage the actual pack integrity.
Disinfect and Scrub
If in any way you become lazy with your Camelbak dry reservoir cleanliness, then you may be going to have a mold problem. It is essential to remove the contents and scrub them occasionally before using them again. Use a damp cloth to remove any gunk or dirt left on the bag.
Scrub the bag and hydration pack bladder with a soft brush if stubborn stains are left after the wash. It would help if you used small circular movements for the best results. Plus, pay extra attention to each part of your dark pack, like straps, pockets, and mesh, not only the visibly muddy parts. With many concerns over product and dishwasher safe, it’s best to use high-end cleaning materials for extra cleaning care and to protect technical sporting fabrics.
Hang Dry
It’s crucial to clean your Camelbak after every single use. After washing and scrubbing the bag with lukewarm water, you can hang it for a few days with the lid open to dry off an extra gallon of water.
Place it in direct sunlight for a faster drying process. As it is tricky to dry the reservoir hose of a Camelbak and it’s been hanging out for a few days, you can stick the bladder in the freezer. It will prevent mold and mild growth in the damp tube.
Store The Bag
When not using your hydration pack and it’s dry, you should consider storing it in a ventilated and dry room to retain the actual pack’s integrity. Try keeping it away from UV rays and heat from a boiler, radiator, or fireplace. A reservoir with a water hanger is useful for storing. You can also use a metal coat hanger by bending it into the proper shape.
Conclusion
People usually consider backpack cleaning a hassle and must be done dozen times. Making a dirty hydration pack clean takes time if you use a mild detergent or a bit of soap But if you know the right way how to clean a Camelbak and follow the basic process, it’s quite easy to keep your Camelbak clean. We have discussed the right cleaning process and solutions you can use when cleaning your backpack or bladder. It will help you understand the cleaning solutions and tools that are most effective for removing dirt found in the Camelbak bag.
