|
| Home | Guest - Not logged in | |||
|
» Register
» Login
Gear Reviews
Documents
Tools
» Contact
|
Reviews > Hydration Systems > Bladders > CamelBak Omega 100 > Owner Review by Michael LissnerOwner Review of CamelBak OMEGA 100 oz / 3 L Reservoir by Michael Lissner 4 April 2004 Contents of Review: 1. Tester Biographical Information 2. Backpacking Background 3. Product Information 4. Product Description 5. Comments 6. Summary 1. Tester Biographical Information: Name: Michael Jay Lissner Age: 21 Gender: Male Height: 198 cm (6' 6") Weight: 86 kg (185 lb) Email Address: yourmothership at hotmail dot com City of Current Residence: San Diego, California / Claremont, California [back to top] 2. Backpacking Background: I was first introduced to backpacking through the Boy Scouts of America, and it was my love of backpacking that made me stick all the way through and get my Eagle. After becoming too old to continue with the Boy Scouts, I had trouble motivating myself to plan my own trips, and did not go backpacking for a number of years, until I realized that I should thru-hike the PCT. I am currently in a multiyear training program, practicing techniques, studying backpacking literature, getting in shape, planning the many wee details and perhaps most importantly, converting my ultra-heavy Boy Scout techniques into ones more well suited to ultralight thru-hiking. My current style is a very minimalist one relying more predominantly on intelligence and slight discomfort and less on safety gear and toys. At this point, I feel safe saying that my 5.5 kg (12 lb) summer base load weight makes me a budding ultra-light hiker. My usual stomping grounds are the Laguna and San Bernardino Mountains and the deserts of southern California. Occasionally, when gas prices allow, I make my way up to the Sierras. [back to top] 3. Product Information: Manufacturer: CamelBak Manufacturer's URL: http://www.CamelBak.com Product Name: CamelBak OMEGA 100 oz / 3 L Reservoir Year of Manufacture: 2003 Suggested Retail Price: Unlisted Advertised Weight: 204 g (7.2 oz) Measured Weight*: 180 g (6.35 oz) Advertised Volume**: 3 L (100 fl oz) Measured Volume: 2.85 L (96 fl oz) Measured Dimensions: 46 x 18 cm (18 x 7 in) Length of Tube: 102 cm (40 in) Maximum Measured Flow Rate: 1.3 L/min (44 fl oz) *All measured weights were measured in grams on a Sunbeam 5 lb / 2.2 kg digital scale that is accurate to 1 g or .1 oz. The weight of the bag was measured after the ergonomic handle had been removed to shave off excess weight (see below). **The conversions made here by the manufacturer are not wholly correct: 100 fluid ounces converts to 2957 milliliters, and 3 liters (3000 milliliters) converts to 101 fluid ounces. [back to top] 4. Product Description: Although conceptually speaking the water bladder is a rather simple system consisting of a waterproof bag and a valved tube, in making this bladder CamelBak has taken the concept and run. This bag consists not only of a bag and a tube, but also of an ergonomic handle, an over sized fill opening and a bite valve. The bag itself is made from polyurethane and is advertised to be taste and odor free. Imprinted vertically up the front of it is a measuring scale measuring the quantity of the contents in liters and fluid ounces (this is faintly visible in the picure above). The range for liters is .5 - 2.0 liters in increments of half a liter, and the range for fluid ounces is 8 - 80 fluid ounces in increments of 8. The tube is a hard, semi-rigid, non-stretchy material and is colored opaque blue with the words, "CamelBak" and "Pureflow" written on it every 10 cm or so (4 inches). It is attached at the bottom of the bag by means of a ribbed friction fitting , and is directed upwards by its attachment, parallel to the bag toward the oversized opening which is located at the top of the bag. This opening measures 9.1 cm (3.6 in) across, is surrounded by a hard plastic handle that can be used to hold the bag while filling it, and is threaded to accept the mating top. The threaded top is made of a hard plastic, and features a thick white rubber gasket that is designed to make the seal good and tight. [back to top] 5. Comments: As a long time mountain biker, I have been using CamelBak products for quite a while. When I began using my mountain biking bladder while backpacking, it was pure novelty to all the other backpackers I knew. However as time has steadily ticked by, these bladders have slowly but surely gained significant popularity as backpacking tools. As a result, what used to be a relatively small market consisting of very few manufacturers with oligarchic power has exploded into a smorgasbord of manufacturers creating relatively highly differentiated bladders. In competing in this market, CamelBak has added several very interesting features to what was once a very simple bladder. Because of these reasons, when I purchased this bag, it was with a healthy amount of interest: would the business driven oneupmanship prove to be for the good of the customer, would it prove to be good for business or both? That, and I needed a bigger bladder to replace my 2 L (70 fl oz) bag. Upon getting it home and removing it from its packaging, I immediately made two minor modifications. After examining the ergonomic handle, and weighing its benefit of making the bag easier to fill versus its inherent weight, I decided that I should take it off, if that was possible. I grasped the handle in one hand, and the rim of the opening in the other, and twisted counterclockwise on the handle. It took a little bit of force, but without too much effort, the handle clicked a centimeter or so (1/4 in) to the left, and came cleanly off. Something that I had not realized though, was that in taking off the handle, I would make the rim slightly more flexible, making the threads on the lid slightly more difficult to get started when holding the full bag by its rim. The second modification that I made upon getting the bag home was to add the CamelBak HydroLink filter adapter to the end of the tube so that I could fill the bag through the same opening that I emptied it from. By adding this adapter, which makes filling the bag through its bigger fill hole unnecessary, I have minimized the problem that I had with threading the lid onto the full bag. Since making these modifications, I have used this bag on a couple dozen trips. The majority of them have been either day hikes in the Adirondacks, three-day trips in Joshua Tree National Park, or multiday trips to the mountains of southern California, but in general, whenever I go mountain biking, backpacking, hiking or even to work sometimes, this bag comes along for the ride. Most of the time, it resides in the hydration sleeve of my Granite Gear Vapor Trail, between me and all of my gear, where it fits nicely. Through these varied uses, I have used this bladder in altitudes ranging from 0 - 3050 m (0-10,000 feet) and in temperatures ranging from roughly -7 to 35 deg C (20 to 95 deg F). My observations during these trips have been varied. There are some features of the bag that I am particularly fond of, but in other places I have found it to be quite lacking. Probably the best thing I like about this bag is the size. In the entirety of my backpacking career, I have almost always carried enough bladders and bottles to hold a sum of approximately 3 L (101 fl oz) of water, and as I mentioned before, this is a size that fits nicely in my backpack. When I do not need to carry three liters, the unused space easily collapses, taking up less space in my pack. Something else that I appreciate about the bag is the incremented measurements that are imprinted vertically up it. On earlier models, these increments were not present, and, with such a flexible and strangely shaped sack, I was often confused as to how much fluid was actually in it. However, with this model, the increments are consistently handy. I regularly pull it out to see how much water I have, and it is always very handy to be able to know, rather than estimate, just how much is in there. I have not tested out the accuracy of these imprints, but I am confident that they are plenty close for a fair hydro-estimation.  With that having been said, there
are a couple of things that have
bothered me about this sack. Probably my biggest gripe is the fact that
the lid leaks if it is not tightened down with a fairly extreme amount
of
force. As a rock climber and a woodworker, I have very strong hands,
but even for me, this lid has been quite a hassle. Because of the
position of this sack in my backpack, on more than one occasion, I have
been hiking along to notice that my bum was a bit cold and (crapola!)
wet. Because the sack only leaks when it is under some pressure, it
usually takes about five to ten minutes for me to notice that the lid
is leaking, by which point I have usually put away my filter and hiked
down the trail a fair distance. I am one of those hikers that just
keeps going and does not like taking breaks, so when I do take the time
to break and refill my water, and then I find that my water has been
leaking down my backside, I get rather frustrated. This has happened
several times, and I am fairly convinced that this is not so much a
manufacturing defect as it is a design defect. The reason I feel this
way is because of the way the lid fits into the sack. Rather than
squish the rubber gasket between the sack and the lid in such a way
that would get more and more waterproof the more you tightened it down,
in this design the entirety of the gasket fits inside the threaded
opening of the sack in such a way that if the lid is ever so slightly
too small, or if the opening of the sack is ever so slightly too big,
the result will be a leak. This can be obvserved in the picture at
left. This picture is a side view of the lid when it is mostly
unthreaded. The white ring seen in the picture is the gasket, and you
should be able to see the way it fits into the semi-transparent sack in
such a way that its outside diameter has to be exactly right for it to
work. Although this lid does have an excellent
feel when threading down, this design is definitely prone to leakage
(in my opinion anyway). It has been suggested to me that the
possibility exists that my removal of the ergonomic handle has brought
this leak into the world. I admit that this is a possibility, but in my
estimation, it is the design that is most likely at fault. One final thing that has been annoying about this lid is that it is designed to be tightened, not loosened. I'm not sure exactly how to best describe it (perhaps a glance at the picture at the top of this review is in order), but the lid has these finger holes that are shaped somewhat like a yin yang. They twist in a clockwise direction and make tightening the top easier than loosening it. This wouldn't be a problem, except that I have to tighten the lid so hard to keep it from leaking that I have a heck of a time loosening it again. An element of the sack that has changed between my last one and this is the size of the opening itself. On my old sack, the opening was much smaller, and not nearly as easy to fill or clean. Because I fear that the powders will taint the sack, I do not ever use this sack for anything other than water, but the size of the opening would clearly make putting powders and such into the sack an easy endeavor, and I appreciate that greatly. On a few occasions, I have put ice cubes in the bladder and found that the opening is more than amply sized for that purpose. The bite valve on the end of this sack has pretty much been up to par. It has not done anything to amaze me, but neither has it disappointed me in any way. Sometimes when the bladder is full and in my backpack, the valve has done some minor leaking under the pressure, but it has not been anything more than a drop every few minutes, and I do not believe that CamelBak could improve on this design without completely revamping it, so that does not bother me in the least. For me, the flow of the valve has been fine, but I would appreciate some way to hold the valve completely open so that I could more easily fill pots with cook water. I've tried two different approaches to doing this, and both work fairly well. Until recently, I have just set down my pot, and then held the bite valve in one hand and squeezed the sack with the other, but recently, I tried filling my mouth with a mouthful of water and then spitting it into the pot as many times as needed to fill the pot to the desired level. Both of these worked about as well as each other, but I think there is some degree of dignity in not cooking with water that has been spat from your mouth moments before. Also, in regards to other functions this bite valve has served, I have found that this valve is rather handy as a field eye washer. On my last trip, as I was hiking hard uphill, my sunscreen flowed into my eye. I grabbed the tube, arched my back to put pressure on the sack in my pack, and pinched the bite valve while pointing the tube at my eye. Some water squirted my eye with a fair amount of intensity, and, without stopping to wash my eye, or rubbing or anything, I had cleaned it out in a fun and cooling manner. As far as the taste department goes, I am still undecided. There is a definite CamelBak taste that I have come to know from use of this and other CamelBak sacks, but I do not think I actually mind it. I do like the taste of pure water, and CamelBak bladders definitely impart some taste into it, but I think I have grown accustomed to it. Sometimes, if I pack a long time before a trip, and the water has been in the sack for more than 24 hours or so, the taste is a little overwhelming, but otherwise I can usually live with it. There is a chance that part of this taste is the result of the fact that I have not cleaned the sack with anything more than fresh water, but because the sack looks and smells perfectly clean, I kind of doubt it. My cleaning practices for the sack have always been to rinse it with fresh water upon arriving home, and to remove all the water I can from it before hanging it upsidedown with the lid removed and the tube empty. In the past, I have had problems with nasties in the tube, but I think that so long as I get it dry after a trip, it seems to remain pretty clean. The picture at the top of this report was taken about eight months after I bought this sack, and as you can see, it looks pretty much new. On a couple of the trips I have used this sack for, the temperatures have dropped below freezing point. During these trips, the water in the tube of the sack froze, and made drinking somewhat of a challenge. However, in every case where the water in the tube froze, with a little bit of blowing and bending, I have been able to clear this ice back into the body of the sack and continue drinking. It's a bit of a hassle the first couple of times, but I have found that the only times I have had to do this are in the mornings after really cold nights, so it is not really a problem that has cropped up while hiking. Also, I have found that even with the ice cleared from the tube, the rigidity of the tube is much increased by the cold. It's not so much a problem because the tube does not have to do a whole lot of bending in a given day, but I suppose it is worth noting for you cold weather hikers. Recently, on nights that I think might drop below freezing point, I have begun blowing air into the tube (thus clearing it of water) before going to bed, and this has done the trick. One final note that I should put down is in regards to the bursting strength of this sack. In using it, I have really pushed what I would imagine to be its bursting strength. Not only does it ride between my pack and my back, and face a good deal of pressure in that way, but I also have rigged it up with the HydroLink adapter, which allows me to connect my pump action filter straight to it. Once or twice, when the adapter was new to me, I pumped and pumped thinking that I'd notice when the sack was filled by a feeling of backpressure on the pump. Much to my surprise, I was able to continue pumping for quite some time after the sack was full. The first time this happened, I really pressurized the sack to a shocking degree. It held without any problems. I really appreciate this element of the construction of the sack because in many cases a bursting sack could mean quite a problem, and even heat stroke. [back to top] 6. Summary: I really appreciate many of the features of this sack, and love the way it delivers water to my mouth at any given moment while hiking. I like the way the larger opening allows easier cleaning and filling, but I have to admit that the fact that it leaks really does bother me. I can stop it from leaking by really cranking down on it, but for desert use I think this is unacceptable, and making it as tight as it can go cannot be good for the sack. I also like the imprinted measurements up the side of it, and the way it has proven that it will not burst. Leaks however, will not do. [back to top] Read more reviews of CamelBak gear Read more gear reviews by Michael Lissner Reviews > Hydration Systems > Bladders > CamelBak Omega 100 > Owner Review by Michael Lissner | |||
