 Hi I bought a CamelBak StoAway 3L Insulated Hydration System from simply outdoors. Never had a hydration pack before, but went in easily into the sleeve in my sac and the insulated pipe slipped easily through the port. All well and good. Filled up with a litre of bottled water. The bit valve works well but the water tastes yuk. Should I have washed it out first, there was nothing in the labels to suggest that one should. When I say yuk the bottled water tasted like tap water! Any ideas?
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 fill it with bottled water or filtered water. or you could fit an in-line filter which would also help to remove any plastic taste and mean you could fill it from any clear water source.
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Milton it. Wash it out several times, running water through the tube. Fill it with water and let it stand overnight. Wash it out again. Works on mine....although it never really gets rid of the red wine taste 
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 I bought the 2 litre version of this and had exactly the same problem - water from it tastes foul. It's been washed, milton'ed etc but it doesn't get any better. I've given up on it now and gone over to Source hydration systems - they produce excellent bladders, including insulated ones, that don't make things taste funny.
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 They do if you don't rinse the Milton out properly 
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 had the same thing with a Platypus,give it a good wash in washing-up liquid, took it apart first, solved it for me. water didn't have that "funny" taste. H
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 Another vote for Source bottles + hydration packs: straight out of the wrapping, fill with water and absolutely taste-free.
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Well seems I bought the wrong thing.....again! PA where do I get an in-line filter from? I like the concept of this bottle as it is insulated and shouldn't freeze up this winter. I wonder if Source do an insulated model...have to check.
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source do an insulated bladder which would be cheaper than a filter. however, being able to fill it up anywhere if you have easy to water stops you having to to carry so much in the first place. drinksafe aka aquagear i have just purchased the deluxe version but not installed it yet.
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| Edited: 19/10/08 16:38 |
I would be interested to hear how you get on with that Parky. Sound a bit like this (cheaper) Aquamira filter?
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| Edited: 19/10/08 16:57 |
could be ed. i bought the normal filter to use on holiday (and as a travel filter) to remove the awful chlorinated taste from menorca's tap water on holiday to avoid having to hump water back from the supermarket. it nearly paid for itself on holiday and will do many times over its life span. so i thought the full inline kit may be handy for more uses - gravity feed into bottles whilst on holiday or camping and not being tied to the smaller quantity of their filter bottles.
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is it just me that likes plastic water taste, i struggle to drink water at home as its tastless but from my camelbak or cycle bottles cant get enough
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Hi Parky Thanks for that link. The filter looks just what I need. I read on the testimonials soldiers saying that their camelbak water tasted foul! When I first looked at the aquagear I thought it rather slow, but with the inline filter as well I think I will give it a try. I was just about to order a steripen. I want to be able to use this at home as well, as we are on a mountain stream and have to be careful at some times of the year and end up buying lots of bottled water. The water bucket with the inline filter could be just what I am looking for. Thanks.
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Thanks for the link to drinksafe systems PA. I read their web site and looked at all the alternatives and then phoned them up and had a long chat with Giles Butler today. The outcome is that I have ordered the in-line filter for my Camelbak and bought an Aquagear for filtering water for camp! I should get these next week and will let you know how I get on. Dawn
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a quick warning. i don't know how wide the camelback tubing is. check that the tubing will fit the connectors on the filter properly before you start cutting the tube up. (the tube from an outdoordesigns boojum bladder was too wide - as well as the bladder being total sh1te for a biased opinion - but it was good installation practice for checking the gravity rate and that you can suck water through it no problem - it made my awful tasting tap water taste of nothing.)
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 Parky, do you know if DrinkSafe manufacture or just distribute? I can't figure it out from their rather basic website; looks to me as if some trumpet-blowing re-vamp of their website is in order... PayPal... grrrr...
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i would guess that they distribute as the stuff is made, i think, by seychelle from whose site i first learnt of this type of product some time ago. the american penchant for disasters and the hype didn't really convince me at the time. there is usual unsurprising dollar = pound exchange rate. there was some other mob, whose name completely escapes me, whose product could be used to drink swimming pool water if it came to a shove so probably not that useful in the uk. i like paypal.
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