Platypus Hydration Bladders
June 29, 2009|
Submitted by Everett Mobley
Camelbak packs are high quality, but I hate their hydration bladder. It collapses flat and is difficult to clean and dry.
The Platypus bladders expand like an envelope, and they can be free-standing. They are easy to fill and to drain and dry. They have screw-on caps for use as water-bottles if you're not using the sipper tube.
ED -- Everett, which Platypus system do you use? In looking over the selection, it seems that the best bladder to use would be the Big Zip SL, with its slid lock closure system located at the top of the bladder, which makes for easy filling. The other bladder system, the Hoser, has a screw cap, and while the loop at the top makes a convenient hanging point for the bag, the small cap opening would appear to be a drawback (most modern Camelbak bladders have a large diameter opening which allows for you to add ice or what ever easily.) Also, at 2L. (70 Oz.) the Big Zip is still 1L. shy of the biggest Camelbak bladders.
I bought a platypus with the zip-lock opening years ago when my father and I were walking the mountains in Sweden, brilliant invention! Fills up in seconds, fits perfect in my rucksack and I can fill it from any stream.
It's also cheaper (at least here in Sweden) than any other 'stand-alone' hydration-system, much better than the Source-pack I had in the army.
Posted by: SGT Lew | June 29, 2009 at 12:37 PM
It looks like I'm behind the times. The old-style hosers folded up kind of like an expandable envelope. This gave them a flat base to stand on for filling. You could blow them up like a balloon and they'd stay open for air-drying upside down or right side up. I've got a bunch of those from my Philmont trek 5 years ago. Looks like that's old news. So, I'm operating on out-dated data. I really don't know HOW the new ones work. So, I'll shut up.
Posted by: Everett Mobley | June 30, 2009 at 05:00 PM
Everett,
Welcome to my world, boss. I can't tell you the number of times I've gone looking on-line for a piece of kit only to find out it's no longer manufactured and the only place to find it now is on e-bay or in surplus stores (and even then I need to keep updating my source lists as the items sell out.)
Posted by: Eric Daniel | July 01, 2009 at 10:54 AM