Cleaning Hydration Vests on a Budget

Recently with the high temperatures (and humidity and dew points) being able to carry water on runs is an absolute necessity.  I've tried belts, bottles and I splurged on a new hydration vest.  It was expensive enough (around $65 for the vest, and another $20 for the bladder) but another $20 on a cleaning kit?  Ugh!!  Fortunately my husband has taken up brewing beer as a hobby, and you have to make sure everything in the process is absolutely clean.  Otherwise you'll find out you've ended up with a bad batch of beer after a full day's work making it and a month later after fermentation.  So finding a longer term cleaning kit is just as close as your local homebrew store!  (Or Amazon.)

Option One:
First, you can use a product called Star San to disinfect the bladder and the tubing.  (An 8oz bottle currently sells for around $11 on Amazon.)

The product is used to sanitize and is odorless and tasteless.  All you need is 1 1/4 tsp per one gallon of water.  It does bubble when you use it, but no need to worry because it's totally normal.  It doesn't take long either--everything is sanitized in SECONDS.  And since it's food grade, you don't even need to rinse it off.  Just submerge the bladder and tubing and make sure it all gets in contact with the diluted solution.  Then remove the bite valve and let the water flow through the tubing out of the bladder.  (Instructions on cleaning the bite valve are towards the bottom of this post!)

It will end up costing just 30 cents to clean your hydration bladder if you buy the 8oz bottle, and you'll end up with around 38 uses from just one small bottle.

If you live in central Maryland, I definitely recommend stopping by Maryland Homebrew for the the Star San.  For those of you outside of the area, they also charge for shipping by weight and zip code rather than using a flat rate.

Option Two:
If cleaning using a product like Star San has you nervous, there's another even less expensive option.

Efferdent.  Yes, the denture cleaner.  Fill the reservoir with warm water, drop in a tablet and let it work its magic for 15 minutes.  Be sure to swirl it around afterwards and rinse it a few times to avoid a lingering minty flavor.  Target currently sells a box of 120 tablets for $5.79, making the cost to clean your reservoir slightly less than 5 cents.

Cleaning the Tubing:
Occasionally you will need to deep clean your reservoir.  (Especially if you accidentally added an electrolyte supplements to your water like nuun, and unfortunately you will never be able to get rid of the taste completely.)  Go ahead and wash it using efferdent or soap and water.  But what about the tubing?  Home brewing supplies to the rescue!!!  Home brewing involves a lot of tubing, and you can buy a tube or diptube brush for almost (if not more than) half of what companies that manufacture hydration equipment sell them.  Most tubing will be compatible with the 1/4'' brush, but definitely measure the opening to be absolutely sure.

This is another product I recommend picking up at Maryland Homebrew if you live nearby.  (If you don't live within a reasonable driving distance they charge for shipping by weight.  For something like this, shipping should be very inexpensive!)  

Cleaning the Bite Valve:

This one comes directly from Camelbak.  Simply fill a jar with warm water and a drop of mild soap or a teaspoon of bleach, remove the bite valve and toss it into the jar.  Then close the jar and shake it up!  After shaking the jar let it sit for a few minutes, rinse thoroughly and shake it dry. 

Anyone have any other recommendations on how to clean your hydration reservoir?  Or even suggestions how to thoroughly clean other pieces of running equipment?