UKH

How long does water stay drinkable in a bladder?

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 BnB 18 Aug 2017
Or how long until it kills me?
 Timmd 18 Aug 2017
In reply to BnB:
I've had water be undrinkable in my cycling water bottle before. It may technically not have killed me, but I couldn't drink it, and called in a farm for some fresh water. You could do an experiment with one perhaps, leave it for a week and go back to it and see? Undrinkable safe water is possibly nearly as bad as none.

Post edited at 17:49
 wercat 18 Aug 2017
In reply to BnB:

probably won't be long before bacterial action makes the contents smell manky, like an old dishcloth worn by a wet dog!
 gethin_allen 18 Aug 2017
In reply to BnB:

Depends how clean the water and bottle/bladder was in the first place. Microbes need food to grow so if it's a clean bottle kept in the dark the water should stay good for ages.

Our senses are very sensitive to tastes/smells that indicate microbial contamination so even when stuff tastes/smells a bit off it isn't necessarily going to kill you.
 Robert Durran 18 Aug 2017
In reply to BnB:
Once my water is in my bladder, it's called piss and won't be drinkable without proper treatment like they do on the space station and so on.
Post edited at 18:24
 nufkin 19 Aug 2017
In reply to gethin_allen:

> even when stuff tastes/smells a bit off it isn't necessarily going to kill you.

Presumably it's also a bit of a judgement call depending on the situation - if your arm is trapped under a rock with little chance of rescue and you'd die of dehydration before you can cut yourself out, drinking manky water might be the lesser evil
 broken spectre 19 Aug 2017
In reply to nufkin:

That sounds like a familiar plot!
 Andypeak 19 Aug 2017
In reply to nufkin:
You should write a book about that
Post edited at 17:39
Jim C 20 Aug 2017
In reply to Robert Durran:

> Once my water is in my bladder, it's called piss and won't be drinkable without proper treatment like they do on the space station and so on.

You have not watched much BG then, he drinks his all the time.
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 JamButty 20 Aug 2017
In reply to BnB:

depends how desperate you are, but I would recommend you don't leave a homemade isotonic drink in a hot car for a few days and then taste it halfway round a bike ride.....
 Si_G 20 Aug 2017
In reply to gethin_allen:
If you store the bladder in the freezer and disinfect it with Milton, and use clean fresh water, then maybe a few days. Personally, I'd store it in a bottle. Bladders always get that manky black stuff in tubes if your cleaning game isn't 100% on point.
I don't trust them.
Post edited at 13:46
 Root1 20 Aug 2017
In reply to BnB:

Water lasts for ages in a filter bottle, a week easily. Even better if the filter contains some carbon, as used on the Space station thang.
 gethin_allen 20 Aug 2017
In reply to Si_G:

A good way of cleaning the crud out of the tube is to poke a lace through then drag a knot through the tube.
 Hyphin 20 Aug 2017
In reply to Jim C:

> You have not watched much BG then, he talks his all the time.


Fixed that for you.
 Toerag 21 Aug 2017
In reply to gethin_allen:

Or for longer tubes/hoses put a bit of sponge in and blast it through.
Jim C 21 Aug 2017
In reply to gethin_allen:

> A good way of cleaning the crud out of the tube is to poke a lace through then drag a knot through the tube.

A a knot may be better than a sponge , I find stiffish wire with a piece of chamois leather on the end is ideal, easy to push the wire through the tube and strong enough to drag the chamois through. Once you get the chamois size just right, you can make it a really tight fit and you get a squeaky clean tube ( it was alarming how much more dirt I got get off than when I just used a sponge)
 Fakey Rocks 22 Aug 2017
In reply to gethin_allen:

> A good way of cleaning the crud out of the tube is to poke a lace through then drag a knot through the tube.

Why do bladders + their tubes do this? I was thinking of getting one. Is it because there's some backflow from your mouth with bacteria / saliva etc?
Plastic bottles don't do this when rinsed out a little, so why do bladders + their tubes etc? if they've been thoroughly flushed /rinsed? I've seen all the bladder cleaning kits and thought it seemed a bit ott, but have yet to try using a bladder.
 gethin_allen 22 Aug 2017
In reply to Rock to Fakey:

Its probably just that it's very difficult to completely dry one out after use. If you put it in the freezer between uses it stays nice and clean.
 Jenny C 22 Aug 2017
In reply to Rock to Fakey:

>........ Is it because there's some backflow from your mouth with bacteria / saliva etc?

I suspect that is the answer. I only ever have water in mine and the bottle itself is clean, but the tube is a disgusting black mess.

As for how long it stays fresh. In the bottle a fair while, certainly several days and in some cases I've left it weeks with no ill effects. The tube does need flushing daily or tastes vile and I think I have had a poorly tummy after forgetting.

 Yanis Nayu 22 Aug 2017
In reply to BnB:

I'd say it would be pretty manky by now.
 Billhook 22 Aug 2017
In reply to BnB:

Reading this convinces me even more that bladders (apart from the one I keep my piss in), are gross. I mean - who would suck liquid out of a tube thats in your rucksack?....Yuk!
 flaneur 22 Aug 2017
In reply to gethin_allen:

> Depends how clean the water and bottle/bladder was in the first place. Microbes need food to grow so if it's a clean bottle kept in the dark the water should stay good for ages.

Leave water in a clear PET bottle in a sunlit spot: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_water_disinfection


 gethin_allen 22 Aug 2017
In reply to flaneur:

I'm sceptical of this technique for a few reasons;
In the UK we rarely get sufficiently intense or long enough periods of sun and not all PET is equal as some types are modified to block UV that would otherwise discolour or spoil the product. Without sufficient heat and irradiation early on you have a nice warm environment for bacteria to grow and any algae or photosynthetic bacteria can thrive in the light.
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 Jenny C 22 Aug 2017
In reply to gethin_allen: a friend got ill when using a UV pen to sterilse water. Used it in the eve to prepare drinking water for next day, but after 12hrs in a warm hotel room the nasties had multiplied back to image levels. Other members of the group using treatment tablets had safe drinking water.
 gethin_allen 22 Aug 2017
In reply to Jenny C:

Another potential issue with solar or uv sterilisation of drinking water is the issue of contaminating the surfaces of the bottles when filling. The cap and the threads of the bottle will not receive any irradiation and when you pour or drink from the bottle you contaminate the water.
In reply to Jim C:
> You have not watched much BG then, he drinks his all the time.

Drinking piss is absolutely fine but it is dangerous to drink manky water: what you have to do is pump it up your a*se.

youtube.com/watch?v=TtIG4TuVnvg&
Post edited at 00:05
Jim C 23 Aug 2017
In reply to tom_in_edinburgh:

I gave that a like, but in reality I disliked it, but not the fact that you posted it, as I appreciated that, but I disliked the image itself.

So now I have liked a post that I disliked and have explained why I liked it ( whilst disliking it)

I'm not so sure this idea that has been suggested of being expected to explain likes or dislikes is going to work
 jonnie3430 23 Aug 2017
In reply to Jenny C:

You've got me thinking now. Water pipes (the ones under the roads,) get manky after a while, manganese and iron deposits build up in a black layer on the inside of the pipe that can come off and out through your tap as a black mess. The pipes are usually flushed to control this. I would be surprised if this was happening on a camelback tube though, and assume it's bacteria growing in stuff that's been used in the camelback. I only use water in mine and it stays fairly clean and the water is drinkable for weeks.
 Matt Vigg 23 Aug 2017
In reply to Jim C:

I've only ever rinsed my bladders with water once or twice after using them and there's zero black mank in them, maybe there's lots of invisible skank but I can't remember the last time I got ill.
 Trangia 23 Aug 2017
In reply to BnB:

About once a month I fill mine up, pop in a bit of Milton tablet - it gives you the dosage on the packet, leave it working over night, and then rinse it through in the morning.
In reply to Jim C:

> I gave that a like, but in reality I disliked it, but not the fact that you posted it, as I appreciated that, but I disliked the image itself.

Don't blame you, I posted it and if I could I'd give that image a dislike too

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