Hello all,

I've always liked energy drinks for bike riding, but stuck to plane water for backpacking because it seems like it would be hard to keep bottles clean and sterile on a multi-day trip with an energy/electrolyte powder mixed in.

However I've seen people advocating here for Perpetuem and others for backpacking, so how do you keep your bottles clean? Do you stick to hard-sided bottles like nalgenes or can you make Platys work?

Thanks for any advice.

"However I've seen people advocating here for Perpetuem and others for backpacking, so how do you keep your bottles clean? Do you stick to hard-sided bottles like nalgenes or can you make Platys work?"

Greyson,

I'm a backcountry Perpetuem user. My technique is to mix the Perpetuem at 2-3 times normal strength in a 12 oz wide mouth Nalgene bottle, and then dilute it by drinking one mouthful from the Perpetuem bottle and 2-3 mouthfuls from a plain, much lighter water bottle. The wide mouth Nalgene bottle is very easy to clean at a weight penalty of ~2 oz over a regular water bottle. I'v had no problems during the 4 years I've been doing it this way.

Thanks Tom,

What's your technique to clean the wide-mouth bottle? Do you wipe it out, rinse, use an iodine or chlorine tablet?

I use a shaker bottle. I find that the continual process of cycling drinks through the bottle keeps it fairly clean, although running straight water through it helps.

"What's your technique to clean the wide-mouth bottle? Do you wipe it out, rinse, use an iodine or chlorine tablet?"

At the end of the day I rinse it out with clean water, then fill it about half full with clean water, screw the cap on, shake vigorously, and give it a small 3rd rinse before letting it air dry overnight. Usually I will drink the rinse water, but that is strictly personal choice.

While on a trip, I don't bother to clean it.

Once I return home, I empty it, pour in some chlorine bleach, and then fill it with boiling water. After the water has cooled, I pour it out, rinse once with cold water, and then let it dry.

--B.G.--

Camelbak makes a drink called Elixer that is an energy drink and it is supposed to clean your bladder too (water bladder:))

Haven't used it... don't know how it works on either front... just saying its out there...

Thanks everybody for your replies. I looked up Camelbak elixir, and it appears it just doesn't contain any sugars, so it doesn't give anything to microbes to eat and proliferate inside a water bladder, but doesn't do anything to actually clean it.

It sounds like frequent turnover of water is key, and an aqua-mira tablet every so often wouldn't hurt either.

This should probably be a separate thread, but for Perpetuem users, do you ever mix in something like emergen-C to add vitamins? Or does that defeat the easily-stomachable properties of the drink.