HydraPak Reversible Reservoir II Hydration System Review
February 23, 2009 by Carl Martens
Filed under Gear
If you are familiar with the traditional hydration reservoir like the bladder found inside of a CamelBak you are well aware of one major problem, the inability to easily clean the bladder. After a ride a year ago or so I said the following to my girlfriend, “it’d be great if there was a bladder that sealed like a Ziploc so it’d be easier to clean.” My thought was that if the opening at the top was larger it would be easy to clean the inside of the unit without using the “hanger” or “freezer” method and eliminate the need for something like the ZeroGoo unit that we previously reviewed.
HydraPak took my simple idea and made it far better with their Reversible Reservoir II Hydration System. We first became acquainted with this reservoir hydration system when we tested the Dakine AMP backpack, however the reservoir was first introduced in 2008. We quickly stopped using any other reservoir we had on hand.
The Reversible Reservoir II Hydration System features a 36″ Drink Tube, 90deg. Bite Valve, Quickdraw Tube Attachment, Plug-N-Play Connector, and Straight Bite Valve Base.
We loved everything about the HydraPak Reversible Reservoir II Hydration System
The reservoir itself is ingenious. The opening of the reservoir folds over itself and is secured in place by the easy on, easy off, Slide Seal, a sliding plastic clip which slides across the top of the reservoir. Think of the bladder as a Ziploc bag that gets folded over itself and then you slide the white little plastic piece across the top…it is very similar. When it is time to clean the bladder you simply slide the plastic clip off, unfold the reservoir, reach inside and turn it inside out. Amazing!
The wide mouth of the reservoir makes adding ice cubes and sport mixes a breeze. The reservoir is constructed of FDA approved durable polyurethane – strong enough that it can be stretched many times its original length without failing.
The Plug-N-Play Connector was very nice as it made it very easy to fill, empty, clean and repeat without the hassle of threading the drink tube through the holes, straps, and clips on the backpack. In addition the Quickdraw Tube Attachment made it easy to extract water with ease and sealed off the connection when water was not wanted eliminating water leaks common with other bladders.
For a video depicting how the reversible reservoir works, check out HydraPak’s homepage. We will try to get our own video up soon! We strongly recommend HydraPak’s reversible reservoir to everyone and have included it on our 2009 must-have products list.
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This post was written by:
Carl Martens - who has written 67 posts on Mountain bike product reviews, bike builds, trail reviews, forum, and tips – MTOBikes.com.
Carl H. Martens is founder of Made to Order Bikes, Inc. Originally from the burbs of Chicago, IL he now resides in the city of Roswell which is located just north of Atlanta. He enjoys riding Big Creek which is just down the road from where he lives.
[...] for mountain biking. DaKine makes a huge improvement by teaming up with HydraPak to include HydraPak’s Reversible Reservoir II Hydration System with the 12L Amp. The addition of the new reservoir automatically increases the stock value of [...]