I use a bladder and hosed based hydration system to carry water when I’m hiking because it’s easy to drink without stopping and it helps me stay better hydrated.
However keeping your bite valve clean can be problematic on when you put on and take off your back several times a day during rest breaks or when you filter more water. It’s times like these when your bite valve is prone to drag on the ground and get yucky. This can impact your health, especially if the bite valve gets wet near a stream or puddle, because you can pick us something nasty like giardia or cysts from contaminated water. In addition, there are other plant based pathogens including microscopic mushroom spores and other fungi in the soil than can contaminate your bite valve and make you quite ill.
About a year ago, I started using a small neoprene bite valve cover manufactured by Platypus to keep my bite valve clean. When I originally purchased it, the valve cover was one component of a larger system designed to insulate hydration hoses in the wintertime. Since then I’ve discarded the hose insulation system and just have kept using the bite valve cover for sanitary reasons.
If you’re very observant, you’ll see that I’m not using a Platypus bite valve on my hoser system in the photo above, but a Camelback bite valve with a lock to prevent unwanted leakage. Platypus bite valves will leak water if compressed by a weight, such as your backpack, and can soak your gear at inopportune times, like when you are asleep in a tent or shelter. No matter: the neoprene Platypus bite valve cover works fine with my Frankenstein setup and it’s extremely effective at keeping my bite valve clean when I take off my pack.
Unfortunately, word is, that Cascade Designs, Platypus’ parent company, has stopped making neoprene covers for bite valves. Instead they now market a plastic cover that only works with the inferior Platypus bite valves. However, several retailers like Gossamer Gear and GearX.com, still have a stash of the old neoprene covers that you can stock up on. Alternatively, this is a simple DIY project that you can sew yourself with neoprene or some other easy drying fabric.
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1 user commented in " Platypus Neoprene Bite Valve Cover "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a Trackbackneat idea for a bladder system.I really am torn between getting a new pack with a camelbak in it or finding a lightweight alternative pack and adding a camelbak bladder. I think camelbak due to the hose issues you mentioned.
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