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I've owned Camelbak bladders for years, and bar the odd bit of mould or puncture I've never had an issue.
Current bladder is reasonably new, had been left for approx 1 week with water in it (maybe a little zero sugar electrolyte stuff), I went to drain, wash and leave it with a litre of dilute Milton in it (as per usual) and the whole inside of the bladders surface has white stickyish stuff that rubs off into little balls, almost like PVA glue, and I think it may be the plastic/rubber bladder deteriorating. The lid, pipe, bite valve etc are all fine.
Any ideas?
Nope. But a mate once had to replace his after he complained that drinking water from it burnt the back of his throat 😯
..I think he should've cleaned it out more often 😐
Was this pre- or post-Miltoning? I had a Camelbak bite valve blister when it was in a cup of Milton mix, I put it down to the mix being too strong.
Pre Milton.
Ew 🙁
Energy tabs are like rocket fuel for camelbak mould!
yea, but this ain't mould as i know it. Sticky PVA stuff instead of black fluffy stuff & zero carbs in water, just electrolytes.
Its like the inner bladder lining is delaminating/rotting/deteriorating.
🙁
But a mate once had to replace his after he complained that drinking water from it burnt the back of his throat
I have this problem. Spitting out the first few gulps seems to help. Really must wash it one day.
Energy tabs have all sorts of stuff in them, where do you think the energy comes from !
Try another round of Milton after you've wiped out all the gunge as much as possible - obvious stuff I know. I have had some residues in mine form time to time but I do make a point of using water only, if I want other stuff I put in normal bottles inside the camel back
Ha! Same here!
First few mouthfuls go on the floor otherwise it burns!
Have Milton-ed it loads of times. Think it is inside the tube that is hard to clean. Have used a sponge and coat-hanger to try to clean it out but made no difference.
Time for a new tube I think!
Sounds like there's some reaction going on to cause some precipitation of the PVA like substance. I don't know if the bladders are coated with some form of lining or not but you say that the tube and bite-valve don't show this problem and I would have thought that all parts of the system would be treated identically.
What happens with a full clean and rinse and then leaving the bladder to dry out?
pipe cleaners work well for the tube. I keep mine in the freezer and have never have to clean it (or had it burn my throat!).
If it's delaminating then I'd not chance it. Their aftersales is pretty good so just get in touch and ask them what they can do about it.
use denture tablets instead of milton.
The most recent bladder I bought has an anti-microbial in the compound and after 2 years has never gotten gunked up, but I do drain it and hang it upside down after each use. When my older bladders got funky, I put about 1/8 cup of bleach into the bladder full of water and let it sit overnight. It cleans everything out. Just be sure to rinse thoroughly before refilling and using.
I rinse out and chuck mine in the freezer in between rides.
I brought one of the camelback cleaning kits, comes with a long pipe cleaner brush that's really handy, goes about 3/4's of the way down the tube and that's it!!!!! Wtf!! So you have to pull the entire mouth price end off to get at tube from both sides (I've got the type that u clips from the bladder)
It is handy especially if they it gets forgotten about for a week, but the pipe cleaner length does annoy me! Sort it out canelbak