Getting rid of nasty waterpack taste. How much baking soda to how much water?

Should I just toss a whole bunch in?

Do you know how that sounds? I've never done the baking soda thing. I only run water and nothing with sugar anymore, which reduces the pack and lines from browning.

try this:

put in about 2 cups of super hot water, a few tables spoons of baking soda, a bit of vinegar and about a tablespoon of white rice.

allow it to foam up, and shake the shit out of it for a few minutes. empty it out and rinse with lots of cold water until all the rice is gone and it no longer smells like vinegar.

The rice will help scrub the gross stuff off the sides of your 'bak.

Originally posted by Zedbra
Do you know how that sounds? I've never done the baking soda thing. I only run water and nothing with sugar anymore, which reduces the pack and lines from browning.

Well yeah, but it still tastes like plastic.

I just tossed a pile in. Thanks for the suggestion jeffro. I don't have the time to do that before I ride today, but if it still tastes nasty I'll give that a whirl.

If worse comes to worse I'll just make up some gatorade or something I guess.

Run straight vinegar. That'll kill the plastic taste. Thank me later.

Go to the camelback website. they got intructions on how to clean and refresh your bladder for your waterpack

vodka. trust me it works and it makes for an interesting ride.

i do water and bleach. add a couple tablespoons of bleach to a sink, with the drain plugged. or add the bleach to a bucket.

remove the hose from the bladder (by giving it a good yank), and remove the cap to the bladder.

put both the bladder (with the 2 open ends), and the hose into the bleach-water. use something such as a wooden spoon to hold the bladder "open," so that one side isn't touching the other.

let soak for 10-15 minutes. rinse well, re-attach hose, and get back on the bike…

kevan - how'd the bleach make things worse??? i've been bleaching mine for a couple years now, and i haven't had any problems…??

I used bleach and water overnight, then baking soda and water just now. Tastes perfect now.

Woo.

i heard bleach and ammonia works too.

What type of water system do you have? I just bought a new Camelbak and was worried about the new plastic taste. However that bladder was clean tasting right out of the box.

he has hydropak. i think it just taste funny because of the fact most of the time he uses beer in it and the yeast makes it taste funny.

hhmmmmmmmm….paint-thinner!