Keeping water bladders clean & tidy

[ninjapuppet]

Water bladders: if you dont clean them and dry them properly, they get mouldy and go black! Ive had to replace mine before, after i thought i'd dried it and stored it away, only to find it mouldy a year later.
with winter comming upon us, drying our water bladders is going to take more time than in summer.

In the past after washing them, I had always just shoved something into the bladder to prevent them from sticking together, and hung to dry.
now this was ok, tho a took a tad long. I had tried using this method here with the paper towel on my platypus. But after using my MSR dromedary, i realised that i could NOT see inside and know which parts to dry, so there had to be a better solution.

This method was good to dry the drinking tube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7KZlSuc0t0


I bought a fish tank air pump with thin tube, and found this to be a really really excellent way of getting rid of all the excess moisture. maybe people's air mattresses can be dried up this way? just blow into a dry platypus, and you can see all the moisture that collects in it!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0S7XOyX1zyo

I think Jason Klass's method of attaching an elastic band around the platypus neck also very convenient to store it, as in the past, the empty bottles just flopped all over the place.
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=jasonklass#p/u/77/jnOipYArsf0

[Franco]

To clean water container you can just use a few drops of household bleach (the non scented type) . At worst you will get a bit of bleach smell if you do not rinse it well but it won't kill you...
To prevent unwanted growth you can store the bladder in the freezer.
Franco

[ninjapuppet]

I only got a small fridge, and i think icecream takes priority over empty unused water bladders
YUP! even in winter.

but i'll keep the bleach in mind in case it does go black again.

[corvus]

Milton Anti-bacterial tablets designed to sterilize baby's bottles may be safer than household bleach as you can actually use it to disinfect drinking water (1 tab to 30 litres of water not practicable for bush-walking ) but assuring as to its safe use
corvus

[nickL]

hi NJ

i like the idea with the tongs for drying
in the past i have bent up a coat hanger and put inside and then hung htem up in a window but i think next time i will try the tongs
cheers for that
nick

[Franco]

Bleach
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_hypochlorite
See under disinfection and water treatment.

Franco

[ninjapuppet]

Back in my army days as an engineer that was exactly what we used to make water water drinkable. except instead of using a few litres, we would treat enough to fill up a spa. our water pump was the size of a caravan.

cant say it tasted great, but great tasting water is not very high up on the army's agenda unfortunately.

[manhands]

I haven't tried it yet, but one idea might be to rinse it with a sanitising solution such as those used by homebrewers, like iodophor or starsan. These sanitisers are designed to be used diluted, without drying or rinsing, and are tasteless even if the container is filled while sanitiser residue remains.

[abowen]

I have a Camelbak and after every use I would normally wash it and hang it outside to dry . A bent wire clothes hanger does the trick inside the bladder - this keeps the sides apart and allows air to circulate. I have, however, managed to get black mouldy spots in the tube which I can't get out. Anyone got any tips on removing this? Would a piece of fishing line with a small wad of cotten soaked in some disinfecting or bleaching solution work? I don't necesarily want to pay a small fortune for a camlebak cleaning kit!
Cheers
Andrew

[corvus]

I have a Camelbak and after every use I would normally wash it and hang it outside to dry . A bent wire clothes hanger does the trick inside the bladder - this keeps the sides apart and allows air to circulate. I have, however, managed to get black mouldy spots in the tube which I can't get out. Anyone got any tips on removing this? Would a piece of fishing line with a small wad of cotten soaked in some disinfecting or bleaching solution work? I don't necesarily want to pay a small fortune for a camlebak cleaning kit!
Cheers
Andrew

Andrew,
You could soak the tube in a solution made up with a Milton tablet that should clean out the mould, household bleach should also work but I have no idea as to the ratio required .
corvus

[north-north-west]

Surely a bit of alcohol would clean them effectively?

[abowen]

I'll go with the bleach idea from Corvus first as I have some at home. nnw, I am assuming that you mean an alcohol based product like metho on a small swab and drag that through. I could try the real stuff though. I guess I wouldn't need much.

[kramster]

I have, however, managed to get black mouldy spots in the tube which I can't get out. Anyone got any tips on removing this?

Haven't tried this, but how about pumping air through the tube to clear out moisture after washing it (maybe an air compressor, or even a bike-pump?)

[ninjapuppet]

ive tried this, but it only gets rid of moisture from the pump end, and not the free end of the tube.

[Liamy77]

just spend two dollars or so at kmart and get a tub of home brew sterilising agent... cheap and really effective!
if you leave some solution in it you dont have to dry it out... just rinse it out before using it - much safer than bleach and at least as cheap!

[vagrom]

To dry out the bladder simply hang it up inside over a few days with the hole corner lowest and puff the bag out. After a day or two, poke a cotton hanky into the hole to soak up the water that's gathered in the lowest corner and it'll be dry enough in no time to fold up, put a lacky on and drop back in your gear box.