Camelback

[macdiver]

I tried running with my camelback this morning. I need to carry more water for my long runs (2 + hours) and thought my cb would work. it has a waist strap to hold it tight to my body. The problem was the noise. The sloshing sound was so loud I turned around after a 1/2 mile and took it off.

Does anyone run with a camelback? How do you keep it from sloshing?

 

[Lomad]

after filling it, turn the bladder upside down (so the hose attachment is at the top) and suck out the air through the hose. This will reduce the slosh factor considerably. It's like vacuum sealing your water

 

[DNEchris]

I only have a one litre hip-sac version but I've found that adjusting the waist strap a little, when the sounds get too much, greatly reduces the sloshing.

 

[Vampire]

after filling it, turn the bladder upside down (so the hose attachment is at the top) and suck out the air through the hose. This will reduce the slosh factor considerably. It's like vacuum sealing your water

Yup, this is the key - get all the air out and it can't slosh.

 

[rickwhitelaw]

You could fill your camelbak with ice. No sloshing noise, but then it sounds like a sack of marbles which is probably worse (on one trail run a guy asked me if I had a box of candy in my pack). I have been trying the Ultra LR vest and hope to post a review soon. I seem to get less noise with it and it has a nice feature - as you drink the level down, you can pull on two little straps that compress the bladder down. That helps quite a bit.
I tried the bladder upside down and it didn't work, I'll have to try that again. With the Ultra LR, this would not be possible with the new bladder design.

 

[Lomad]

Once you've sucked the air out, you return the bladder to normal position, otherwise you won't get water, what with the hose being at the top and all. The upside down is just a step to clear out the excess air in the bladder.

 

[rickwhitelaw]

Once you've sucked the air out, you return the bladder to normal position, otherwise you won't get water, what with the hose being at the top and all. The upside down is just a step to clear out the excess air in the bladder.

Jeez. Slap myself on the forehead. I've been using a camelbak for 10 plus years and never thought of that. Great outdoorsman right? In the winter, that wouldn't work. Backcountry skiing, I have to blow air back after drinking to keep the hose from freezing, but you don't get the sloshing problem skiing.

 

[NickW]

Backcountry skiing, I have to blow air back after drinking to keep the hose from freezing, but you don't get the sloshing problem skiing.

I do that during the summer months too because I cannot stand the bite valves leaking water on me, plus even with a sleeve over the hose the water trapped in the hose gets hotter than crap.

 

[macdiver]

Thanks
I'll have to give this a try this weekend. I have a twelve miler planned.

 

[flammee]

Initially I had a 3 liter bladder and camelbak XCT. With 3 liter bladder there wasn't much extra room for other stuff in XCT and it sloshed like hell.. I bought camelbak LR and separate 0,75 liter bladder for it, it never sloshes and I don't need more water. Camelbak doesn't have so small bladders, so I use source kangaroo canteen (just bladder, without pouch). http://www.lapolicegear.com/source-kangaroo-collapsible-pouch.html

Fits fine into camelbak LR's bladder compartment. I use camelbak's hose with it as I like bite valve more than Source's valve.. 0,75 liters seem to be enough up to about 30-40 kilometers distance. Mostly I run shorter distances and while I don't really need so much water at shorter distances, it doesn't bother me to carry it. I pretty much always run with camelbak so I can carry easily some extra stuff like clothing, wallet, cell phone, map or take shirt off and stuff it into mesh pocket. Works great. Camelbak LR has more smaller compartments at backside than Ultra, so I thought it could be better than Ultra. And LR was cheaper and more easily available. Although, ultra's bigger meshpocket would be better for stuffing vffs into it faster, with LR I need to do some binding to make sure they stay firmly on.. I probably should have bought ultra.

 

[macdiver]

Run completed this morning. Getting the air out worked great for the sloshing.

Funny story though. I run with my dog and carry a water bottle with built in bowl for her. I had this tucked in the camelback. As I was running I was thinking that the camelback pack sure made a lot of noise although there was no sloshing sound. When I stopped to give my dog water, I had to take the pack off to get her water. I realized I had never zipped the water bag compartment closed. Once that was done, everything was nice and quiet, the way I like my runs.

Total run was just under 12 miles. My lazy dog only ran 4 though. Actually, I don't think it is good for her to go more than 5 and always plan my routes to drop her off. Since today was 73 with close to 100% humidty (it was damp and foggy) when we started I kept her run to 4 miles. IT was 77 and 90% humidity when I finished. Can't wait for the cooler weather so my times improve.