Just how do you get it out?????
I’ve tried as someone suggested before, filling the silicon rubber bit with water and freezing it ” it’ll come out with the ice….” mine didn’t!
I’m reduced to poking around with a cotton wool bud…..
any other tips?
cheers
Q

I never get it. I only ever use water and the whole thing is stored in the freezer when not in use.

Milton’s Sterilising Tablets (from any chemists), leave to soak then use a thin bottle brush and it’ll all come out leaving the bladder spotless. 🙂

druidh:
Yep only use water, though leave it hanging to dry instead of freezing – our freezer seems to be always full!.

Crazylegs: the bladder’s fine, I always dry it and use Sainbury’s Sterident type tablets very so often – it’s just the bite valve that’s gunky.

Q

Don’t try to remove it. Just add apple juice to the bladder and that black stuff will turn it into cider 🙂

drop a string down the tube (twice as long + a bit more as the tube, tie a knot in the middle, and pull it back and forth to clear it out?

Ive wrapped my tube in black tape to prevent the light getting in.
the genius in this plan being, if it doesnt work, i wont know 😀

get some sterrilising powder from wilkinsons (in the home brew section)

make it up with about 1tsp in a litre of boiling water.

pour into cammeback

hold the bite valve just open so it dribbles out slowly. Then wai for it to be about half empty, leave it a few hours, and rinse it out. Most of the black gunk wil flake of, and whats left will be fairy sterrile.

The only other way ive found is to hook it up to some steam, only realy posisble if you work in a lab, or a coffee shop

I thought that UV helped to kill bad germs?

I leave the black stuff alone. It leaves me alone.

Why can’t we all just get along?

I use the thin end of a teaspoon to scrape any gunk out of the bite valve, and clean whole bladder every month-six weeks with milton stuff. Leave over night and I put the bite valve in the bladder.
I like johnners answer tho!

johnners he right. The black stuff in my bladder is nearly as old as me.

just buy a new one every ride cheapskate!

oh and bury the old ones in the garden!

yeah yeah….. sorry TM not into cider!
I think the spoon technique sounds about where I’m at – as i said, the bladder’s ok, the tube’s fine and I can get a lab brush down it to clean, tis just that annoying end bit in yer gob!!!!
…. and to a certain extent, Jonners is right.
I’ve had it for ages and it hasn’t doen me any harm….. just looks ‘orrible!
cheers
Q

I used to ignore it, until I ignored it long enough to get ill. I assume it was the state of my camelbak that made me sick, but I might have been wrong I suppose.

Eww?

Thats not black fungi?

Bleach or just buy another one.

Gross.

Stop chewing tobacco boy!

Go down the pub and ask the landlord for some beerline cleaner.Soak it in that for a couple of hours,flush with fresh water.Job done.

If it is just the bite valve, I take mine off after each use and put in the cutlery basket in the dishwasher and it comes out fresh every time. I dry the bladder each time using the new drying kit that holds it upside down which allows any water in the tube to run out( provided that you remember to open the valve). Had the system 18 months and no black stuff anywhere

I have a similar effect to Olly’s without the tape, blackened from end to end, trying to get it to spread to the bladder to stop the leak that has appeared

drink up, it’s not killing me

Seriously Christowkid, don’t bother trying to scrape it out – you won’t get it all. Wash the whole bladder in hot soapy water, rinse, use brushes to scrub, wash again and soak in Miltons type stuff. If you can’t sterilise it clean buy a new bite valve. It won’t kill you, but if you are riding regularly you’ll find you getting runny poo, feeling a bit crap, etc. Not really that good for you, not so expensive to sort that its worth ignoring.

ok….. I’ll try jimw’s trick and put it in the dishwasher.
If that doesn’t work I’ll get new.
thanks people
Q

Don’t try sticking it in a pan of boiling water like I did – it **** the seals.

I found soaking in neat draincleaner worked 🙂

PLENTY of rinsing afterwards however 😉

Chlorine based shower cleaner should move it. Will need a good rinse though.
I’m with Johnners though, never bothered me.