chairs – water storage

I have provided an explanation several times of how to use hot tea to safely react with the chlorophenols that are causing the off taste.   But before I do it again, is there anyway of searching this forum for old posts?

“Edited for safety use for anyone who is not familiar with Acids and how it reacts with HDPE materials”

For the MSR water bags. I found a way to get rid of the off taste they give when new. Add about 1 cup pure white vinegar to to the bag and swish around for a few minutes. Then neutralize the Vinegar with a mix of 1 cup of water and 250 grams of Sodium bicarbonate “Baking soda”.

Leave this solution for a few hours or even over night. Repeat a few times until you can not longer detect the taste of the new bag.

Make sure you do this over a sink or outside as the solution will make a bit of a mess when combined. Also make sure to burp the bag as the reaction will create a good amount of C02 / sodium acetate.

After trying many different alternatives over the years, I’ve settled on using several 2 litre Platypus Platy Bottles.  They’re really bags, not bottles, completely collapsible when empty and easily molded to fit into tight spaces unless they’re completely full.  Although the nominal size is 2 litres, they actually hold closer to 3 when full.  They don’t impart any taste to the water and are quite sturdy.  I’ve gotten well over 100 days out of use out of each of the ones I now have and probably more than 200 days for the two I bought first.  Over that time there’ve only been a couple of small punctures and those have been easily fixed with a bit of duct tape, which adheres well enough to make a “permanent” repair.  They’re available at MEC and many other places.

I like using multiple smaller containers for several reasons.  First, I can bring more or fewer depending on the length of the trip.  Second, it’s easier to fit several small containers into my boat than one or two larger ones.  And, third, if one springs a leak or I don’t quite close the cap properly, I don’t lose all of my water supply.  Once, before I used these, one of the two larger bags I was using was dropped as gear was being loaded at the beginning of the trip and burst.  Before we had even gotten on the water I had lost eight litres of water in an instant, half of what I was planning to use for the whole trip.

I use the Helinox Sunset chairs and like them.

For water, the 10L sea to summit watercell x bags are great!! They don’t leave a taste like the MSR bags are they are way easier to pour out of.