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Owner Review - Geigerrig Hydration Engine
Name: Art Tosborvorn
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Height: 5' 9" (175 cm)
Weight: 145 lbs
Email address: [email protected]
City, State, Country: Palo Alto, CA, USA
Date: 4/25/15
Backpacking Background: I started backpacking a few years back, mostly in Yosemite and other California parks. I also like taking photos on my trips. In the winter my outdoor activities are mostly snowboarding/skiing.
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Product information
Manufacturer: Geigerrig (geigerrig.com)
Year of manufacture: 2011
Size reviewed: 3 liter (2 liter model also available)
Weight: 0.6 lbs empty (0.55 lbs for the 2L model)
Size: 16" x 7" (12" x 7" for the 2L model)
MSRP: $49 ($48 for the 2L model)
Limited lifetime warranty
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Product description
I bought this hydration pack from Costco along with a 1200 cu.in. daypack (which I hope to review in the future). The pack is very different from other hydration pack in that it uses a pressurized system and consists of two separate bladders, one inside the other. The innermost bladder holds up to 3 liters of water, and the outer bladder holds air. When the outer bladder is pressurized, the inner bladder is also pressurized. When the mouthpiece valve is squeezed open, the water is then pushed out of the valve. (The company's slogan is quite appropriate: "suck no more.")
The pack consists of the bladder, an hand pump (similar to those used to blow dust off of cameras), a mouthpiece valve, and two tubes (one for air and one for water). All of these components are detachable for ease of storage and cleaning. I'll go through each component in more detail below.
- The bladder
The bladder is blue on the back, and transparent (with Geigerrig logo) in the front. The material is cloth-like on the back, and plastic-like on the front. There are two insertion points that the user can insert the provided tubes into. To insert a tube, the user simply pushes the tube into the receptacle. To remove a tube, the user pushes the button which would unlock the locking mechanism, and pull the tube out. One of the insertion points connects the air pump to the outer bladder, and the other insertion point connects the mouthpiece to the inner bladder. Closing the bladder involves folding the bladder along the pre-made bend, and sliding a black plastic clip onto it.
- The hand pump
This has the size of approximately two ping-pong balls. The material is rubbery. On one end there is a hole with a ball valve to suck the air in, and not let the air out when pumped. The other end connects to the pressure adjustment valve, which is supposed to be adjusted so that the pressure in the bladder is suitable to the air pressure of the altitude the pack is used. This adjustment valve then connects to the tube which runs into the bladder. The daypack also comes with a velcro strap to strap this pump to any backpack's shoulder strap. Note that the pack could be used as a regular hydration pack without this pump.
- The mouthpiece valve
The valve connects to the tube from the bladder. There are actually two valves here: one is a squeeze valve that the user could pinch to open the valve, and the other is rotational for open/close positions (to prevent accidental squeezing of the other).
Misc 1. I believe Geigerrig contracts Hydrapak to manufacture many components for them, so the components are compatible. Hydrapak logo is clearly visible on the tubes. I bought a mouthpiece cap as well as a magnetic clip that attaches to a sternum strap from them for around $10. It would have been nice had these been included with the set.
Misc 2. Geigerrig is very proud of the durability of their products. On YouTube, you could find numerous videos of their testing this bladder to the very extreme. This includes running a 4WD over it (inflated), putting dry ice into the bladder so that the CO2 builds up and the pack becomes the size of a watermelon without breaking, dropping it from the roof fully inflated, etc.
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Usage
Start from an empty bladder, I begin by opening up the bladder and fill in water. I then fold the top of the bladder and slide the plastic clip on, trying to have as little air in the inside bladder as possible. With this, I put the pack into the hydration sleeve of my backpack and run the tubes from the backpack's shoulder straps into the hydration sleeve. The tubes attach easily into the bladder with a simple push. After pumping up the air perhaps 15-20 times depending on how high up I am, I would try squeezing the mouthpiece. If the water doesn't come out or if the pressure is too low, I could pump more air in; if the pressure is too high, I could let some air escape by opening the pressure adjustment valve.
It is very important that you load up your backpack before begin pressurizing the bladder; otherwise the bladder will grow to a size of whatever is containing it, leaving you with no space for other stuff. One thing that would help is if your hydration sleeve is hard. Both backpacks I used this with (the included Geigerrig daypack and the Osprey Aether 60) both have hard hydration sleeve, so those helped pressurize and contain the size of the bladder. Otherwise, the stuff in your backpack would do the job.
The pressurized system allows you to drink water without having to suck from the bladder (something you don't really want to do if you're tired from that steep ascend). It also allows you to easily share water with friends (who might be too tired to suck water out of their bladders). I also found it helpful in cleaning cuts, spot-clean your gear, etc.
To refill, you need to first depressurize the bladder. This is done by either letting the air escape by opening the pressure adjustment valve (this is slow), or simply pull out the tube from the hand pump. I prefer the latter. Once that's done, turn the valve of the mouthpiece off, and unhook the tubes from the bladder. Turning the mouthpiece off first will ensure that water in the tube will stay in the tube with the air pressure from the outside (like when you close one end of a drinking straw.) Aside: I did not realize this at first and water came out every time I unhook the tube. Poor design, I thought. So I emailed the only email available on Geigerrig's website: Bob Geiger, the CEO's. Next morning, I got a reply from him with the suggestion.
Maintenance
The pack is extremely easy to clean. With other bladders, you might need a special brush to clean the hard-to-reach corners, etc. With this bladder, you could turn it inside out and wash it however you want. It is even dishwasher safe. To clean the tubes, you run water through it a few times. You could add dish soap as well if you want.
One thing I'm not quite sure is how to clean the air chamber. I have this scenario in my mind that if I go to a very dusty place and pump in air full of dust, the dust will get forever stuck in the outer bladder. I have not been to a place that bad though.
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Field reports
I have used this hydration pack numerous times, both on summer trips and up on a slope snowboarding. Here are some trips that I could think of with this pack:
- 15 miles, day trip to Half Dome. Sunny, clear sky. Temperature somewhere in the 70s-80s. I filled the pack up almost full (plus 2-3 more plastic bottles, which proved to be way too much).
- 50 miles, 5-day W-trek in Torres del Paine. Weather varied.
- Many days on the slope near Lake Tahoe. Temperature around 30s-50s.
Observations
My first trip to Half Dome with this pack proved that the pack was very easy to use, despite its seemingly complicated appearance. I did not have trouble figuring out the "right pressure." The water shot through the valves after 10-15 pumps, and it proved very helpful for cleaning wounds. One thing I wished I had was a mouthpiece cap (which I bought right after that trip), since the mouthpiece was dangling all over the place when I took my backpack off.
It was also easy to refill the pack from both the faucet and a running creek. (For those of you who might want to drink from a more suspicious water source, Geigerrig also sells an inline filter. I do not own that.) What I found out, though, was that although the pack was great for drinking during the hike, nothing replaces a good old Nalgene bottle filled with cold water that you could gulp in while resting. So I normally carry both this pack and a small bottle.
This pack works great when I'm wearing gloves as well. The squeeze valve was big enough that my gloved hand was able to operate easily. For some reason, the water in the tube does not freeze that easily compared to my friend's CamelBak. This is just an observation though, nothing scientific about it.
Having used it on different backpacks from small to large, I find that the provided tubes were quite long. This means that it could go into a 65L backpacking pack no problem. With smaller packs, though, it seems like the tubes has to be rolled around inside the hydration sleeve a little bit, and that could be a challenge. I always worry I might create a kink in the tube every time I put this bladder in a smaller backpack. An easy fix would be to cut the tube a little bit, but then I'm worried that it might not be enough for larger backpacks. I might just buy new tubes to have a set for smaller backpacks :)
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Summary
I have used this pack for 3-4 years now, and I have yet to find any problem. The build quality is very high, and the product is backed by Geigerrig's lifetime warranty. The pack's two distinguishing features—the pressurized system and inside-out cleaning—distinguishes it from the rest. The pressurized system was innovative and allows for many other uses of water aside from drinking. The bladder cleans very easily and does not need any special equipment to do it. I'd highly recommend anyone looking for a hydration pack to consider this.
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PS. This is my first ever review. Any feedback would be extremely helpful. Thanks!