I was one of the early adopters of the Camelbak but as the years went by I got fed up of the mouldy bladders, the dripping bite valves and the faff of filling the bladder then wrestling the thing into a rucsac and having to re-thread the hose back through the various holes and straps.

BUT, I just bought a 1.5 litre Osprey bladder and it’s great! For £20 (Blacks) I got a bladder with ‘baffles’ in it (stops it getting too bulbous when full), a detachable hose that unclips and allows the bladder to be removed and filled without liquid escaping (has a clever stop-valve), included both halves of the special magnet so I can attach it to my sternum strap and a rotating bite valve so it’s at the correct angle when I’m drinking.

I’m well impressed!

Sometimes, you come across a bit of kit that just does what it does perfectly.

Not sure how old your camelbak bladders are but for at least the last few years they have had detachable hoses with stop valves and lockable bite valves that don’t drip – not to say the Ospreys aren’t good, just pointing out that the camelbak bladders have come on a bit too!

Osprey definitely better…the hard back and ‘frame’ so they keep shape and make loading into a full pack dead easy…

It was the magnet that finally swayed me!

SS20 skate & snow on Amazon are doing a 3L Dakine (same manufacturer as the Osprey bladder) for around £20 (no magnetic bit though), wasn’t aware CB had introduced detachable hoses though. Am impressed with the Dakine though & would happily recommend one

+1 on my new Ospreymagnolockbafflerigidloader…
Still refusing to use the Camelbak with a flow valve meter the Mrs H bought just to try and make me look like a kit freak- I do a perfectly good job of that myself