Is drinking from a cambak daily bad?

If the only thing you put in is H2O, just rinse with hot but not boiling water to kill bacteria, and let it dry. I used to put juice and gatoraid in my bottles and CB's but they always get funky, so now just water. Sometimes I use mild dish soap too.

I would avoid bleach since it's an oxidizing chemical with a high pH and will degrade plastic. SIGG sells a cleaning tablet that works well.

the plastic companies abound don't want you to know this, but pretty much any plastic you use from your camelbak to your ziplock bags and tupperware comes with a fair amount of chemical leeching into your food or drink. recent studies show even bpa free plastics still have a concerning amount of chemicals getting into the food/drink. will it kill you? probably not, but it's a little startling. i usually drink out of glass or ceramics throughout the day unless outside. both have little to no leeching.

Glass leaches sodium and potassium ions unless you're using lead glass obviously. YUR GUNNA DIE!!!
Where's my tin helmet?

thomas ellis wrote:Six months of liquid poo

Might this be why she's an ex and not current gf?

Think mud wrestling...the first month was fun.

guys hate to hijack but what about using something like scope or listerine? its supposed to kill germs and all that other bad crap, would it work on something like camelbacks and nalgenes...

mouthwash makes the inside of the bladder sticky and leaves an after taste. Sigg makes tablets for cleaning them. Or use baking soda. if you have to clean it.

but the freezer trick works great

Found my camelback 8 years ago in the mountains. Still using the same one, I've fixed abrasion holes in with freesole. I rinse it out, never worry about drying it out, and I don't clean it. I even put Gatorade in it sometimes. The water tastes fine and I haven't ever gotten sick. If it doesn't taste funny why do you think bacteria that was in your mouth is growing in it and now going to cause you problems?

David Appelhans wrote:Found my camelback 8 years ago in the mountains. Still using the same one, I've fixed abrasion holes in with freesole. I rinse it out, never worry about drying it out, and I don't clean it. I even put Gatorade in it sometimes. The water tastes fine and I haven't ever gotten sick. If it doesn't taste funny why do you think bacteria that was in your mouth is growing in it and now going to cause you problems?

As surpised as I am with the number people in the never-washed-it-in-x-number-of-years crowd, I really don't have any it issue with it. It just so happens to be the same feeling I have about my cat who drinks from the toilet - if it works for you great, but please forgive me if I don't see the point or make it my habit.

Josh Janes wrote:If you're drinking daily, you probably have an alcoholism problem. If you're doing it from a CamelBack, you definitely have an alcoholism problem.

I find vodka works well for all issues discussed above.

The guidelines to clean the camelbak from the REI website I feel is excessive. Cleaning after every trip, what if you're on a month long trip.

I'm going to do a thorough inspection of it today. Taste, touch, smell and listen tests.

What you will see are little dots in the tube. Those are mold spores or something. I didn't clean it for a while and saw this and realized that I should clean it more often.

Jeff Chrisler wrote:the plastic companies abound don't want you to know this, but pretty much any plastic you use from your camelbak to your ziplock bags and tupperware comes with a fair amount of chemical leeching into your food or drink. recent studies show even bpa free plastics still have a concerning amount of chemicals getting into the food/drink. will it kill you? probably not, but it's a little startling. i usually drink out of glass or ceramics throughout the day unless outside. both have little to no leeching.

Please follow up with (legitimate) sources.

Do you doubt the claims against plastic? If so, do you also doubt the moon landing and dinosaurs?

If there are dinosaurs on the moon, there's no way I'm going to Gingrich's moon base. Scary.

But what if you got to hangout with Ashton Coocher and billy ray Cyrus?

Checked out my camelbak fairly well.

Smell - The only bad smell was when on the lid where the water hadn't splashed on it in a while, kinda musty smell but that was gone quickly and never returned.

Taste - Mmm water

Touch - the inside was slippery, I touched it a few times cuz I thought it might be slimmy but came to the conclusion there was no slime. NOTE: I have no experience with touching a "clean" camelbak on the inside when wet.

Hearing - no noise.

Visual - I didn't see anything inside the camelbak. As far as the tube, I cleaned off a part of the dirty tube and held it up to the light, didn't see anything but some scratches. No black dots or anything looking like mold.

Conclusion - The smell was the most obvious of a good environment for mold. Bacteria, could still be present.

eh, could go both ways. Maybe just clean once in a blue moon.

I cleaned my drinking tube on a whim one day, not because it was tasting funny (bladder gets filled mainly with pumped and filtered Adirondack brook water) but because I had access to a brand spanking new cambleback hose brush. I was rather surprised how much clearer the hose looked (Platypus brand, 10 yrs before the bladder finally started weeping) after swabbing with the brush . +1 on the freezer trick, I store mine in there when not in use and can't say I've ever had an issue with bladder funk.

richard magill wrote:I use my camelbak daily all summer/fall, and must confess, I have not cleaned it in about 5 years... No illness to report. But I guess that doesn't sound so sanitary...

Same here. I did have some algae growing in it last summer. I rinsed it out and continued using it. If that's not disgusting enough, I let other people drink from it if they ask.

Vinger

Baking soda with rice to scrub it...

Store it in the freezer.