Cleaning the Camelbak
My trusty old Camelbak was in need of a serious cleaning. Usually I only carry water in it, but recently, I’ve been taking Emergen-C (It flavors my water for about the same price as those drink-to-go mixes, but without all of the weird additives, and the possibility of getting my “vitamins” is a plus. I’m not sure if I quite believe their claims. It just tastes good, in my opinion. I really like the lemon-lime one. 
) and well… let’s just say I haven’t been looking after my Camelbak very well.
When I carried water, I’d just rinse it out every night when I came home from school and filled it again the next morning. About twice a week, it gets a good wash. But I never really had to worry too much about the straw and bite valve. I’ll still disassemble the whole thing and wash it, but I just didn’t pay too much attention to it. This time, however, because I had accidentally left the Emergen-C over the weekend (I don’t take the Camelbak out on weekends), it had developed some nasty stuffs around.
To clean it, I used a pipe cleaner for the straw and connector. Worked like a charm. All of the gookies came out. It was a nasty sight. For the bite valve, I used an interdental brush from Dentek. Works perfectly for all of the nooks and crannies of the bite valve and the little rubbery thing in the lid. For good measure, I threw in a denture tablet, shook it up, and let it sit a few minutes before rinsing it out.
Good as new! 3 years strong, and I’m looking at a few more years service from this lil guy. It’ll be a while before it needs to be replaced. I wonder what people do to theirs that they sell replacement parts and whatnot. I wouldn’t mind owning the plastic insulated one though. 
Wow… my sentences are unusually short tonight. xD
