Cleaning Drinking Bladders

Hi All,

I just opened my package from oceanpaddlesports. Its my first time to use a drinking bladder and I was just overwhelmed by the Tripper 3 liter. How do you clean this? The photocopied reading material says that I just need to use hot water. Is that enough? As I searched the net, this was the only info I got: forum.bikemag.com/forum/showflat.php?Cat...r=140298&Main=139348
Seems the Camelbak users have the same problems and issues too.

The rubber tube and lock just wont work for me. I just might end up replacing the bladder and tube assembly with a 15 dollar 3 liter bladder with bite valve I saw in a mountain climbing specialty shop. Oh well, thats money spent on learning what works and what doesn't.

To clean just rinse out with warm water as soon as you can after paddling making sure to run the water through the pipe and valve. Make sure to drain as much as you can from the bag and pipe, then hang to dry with the filler cap facing down for any drops to drain out, just don't leave in the sun with damp inside..

That cleaning process has served me well for a year with no visible flora.

The clear tubes are best so you can see if anything is living in your drinking tube. As for the rubber tube - ditch it, rather get a clear plastic tube with a bite-valve. Check the prices though as they seem to vary wildly irrespective of quality.

I would recommend adding 10 ml of bleach to your washout every 5th time or so...

Camelbak's tube are terated on the inside surface. Bleach will do no good for them, it will just shorten teir liferspan.
Soap is OK, rinse well.
Baking Soda is a good disinfectant. It will kill germs.
You can also buy clear plastic tube from your local hardware shop. You can find them in any diameter you want. And just change the tube when you see some deposit in it.

Hmmm, a little bit mank isn't all that bad surely... I think it adds a bit of spice and also a bit of penisillin just for kicks! And hey, if you just keep the bladder in the bag, and also the rubber tube, you won't know about any dodginess for years! Ignorance is bliss.

Anyway, jokes aside, I find the rubber tube also kills your teeth properly. After chewing onthe thing for a couple of hours you get really sensitive teeth, so a plastic tube is better.

Happy drinking