Most running vests and packs come with room for a bladder, but I personally haven't used
one in years aside from in a few very specific cases In this video, I'm going to tell you why
I no longer use a bladder and why I prefer to use flasks instead. And as usual, this video is going
to be very Salomon product heavy because I'm an ambassador, I love their products, and I've been
using them for years. But I will be talking about a couple other brands as well. So let's take a
look at how bladder systems are designed to work in most packs which tends to be pretty universal.
I've got here an Arc'teryx Norvan 14L pack and a Salomon 12L which is the one that i use for
most of my adventures and longer races. And I have here a Salomon bladder system which is the 1.5L,
and you can see there's this separate compartment in the rear which is separated from the main
compartment, this mesh lining, and the bladder goes back in here and the hose itself would be
fed through the bottom and in this case kind of brought up along the side, along the front,
and there are some some dedicated clips here. That's the same thing on the Salomon 12L.
If I flip this around, again there's this sort of mesh liner that creates a separate compartment
for the bladder which separates it from the main pocket up front. And again here, the hose is going
to be fed through and then brought along through this pocket here and clipped to the pack here so
that the hose comes up to your face. Salomon's packs come with this special insulating sleeve
designed especially for the 1.5L bladders, but the bladders themselves are sold separately which
tends to be the case with most running vests and packs. I should point out though that there are
some larger bladders like this one here which is an older 3L bladder that I used to use for hiking.
But this of course is going to be much too big for most running vests. Now there
are a few design problems with bladders in my experience that make them just a pain to use,
and the first most obvious problem is that in most cases at least you're going to have to
pull the bladder out to refill it. That might mean completely pulling the hose out taking the entire
bladder out, taking this top part off, filling it up from a tap or a creek or an aid station,
and then re-fitting the hose and feeding it all the way through, and basically doing it
all over again. And that's fairly easy to do when your pack is empty but as soon as this main
compartment is completely filled up with stuff it can actually be quite difficult to get a full
bladder in here. You could try to sort of hold your pack open and the bladder open under a tap,
but not only are you going to likely get water all over your pack, but again it's going to be
very difficult to get this bladder to full capacity while still inside your pack when
your pack is already quite full. Of course, the alternative is that you could empty your pack
and then fill up your bladder while it's still in your pack and then put everything back in,
but I'm not sure that that's any better. Bladders are particularly hard to get filled up at aid
stations. There are usually volunteers who are more than willing to help fill up your flasks
or your bladders, and of course you're either going to have to hand your entire pack over
or again pull your bladder completely out so that an aid station volunteer can help fill it up.
I had a very well meaning volunteer once during a 100 miler offer to help fill up my bladder.
So I handed it to them and when they handed it back they said, "Sorry, I can't quite get
this closed properly". And it turned out they had threaded it incorrectly and really forced it on,
and not only could they not get it closed but they couldn't get it reopened again.
So I had to spend the next 3 or 4 minutes with freezing cold hands trying to get this thing open.
I finally did and closed it up again, but since then I've shied away from using bladders during
races. Flasks on the other hand are much easier to open and close. What I'll usually do is open it up
and hand the bottle to a volunteer, but I'll hang on to the lid and then close it up myself to make
sure that everything's been sealed properly before putting it back in my pack. And that leads me to
my second complaint about bladders which is that they represent a single point of failure. So if
a bladder does leak, and that's fairly common down here around the o-rings where the hose attaches to
the bladder itself, if that does leak then you're kind of screwed. Whereas, at least with a flask,
it's highly unlikely that you're going to have two flasks leaking at the same time. So while
they're far from perfect, at least you have some redundancy there, and it's really easy to carry
a spare empty flask in the back your pack or of course to have one or two of these in a drop bag
during a race. And when it comes to races, a lot of people like to be able to mix it up when it
comes to their fluids which isn't possible when using a single large reservoir like a bladder.
So with two flasks for example, you might be able to have one dedicated to water and then one for
electrolytes or coke or anything else that you might want to pick up along the way. Bladders
are also a lot more difficult to clean, especially if you're using something other than just water,
and that's mostly because of the hose. These hoses are very difficult to get clean,
and I'm sure a lot of you have had this experience where you've put something like
Nuun or some other kind of electrolyte powder in a bladder, and that taste is really hard to get
out. It can also discolor the bladder and gunk up the hose and the attachment point as well.
But at least with flasks, you can maybe have one or two dedicated for that purpose,
where you expect them to be a little discolored, to carry a taste, and potentially to be growing
mold much more quickly than the rest of your flasks. Now take a moment to think about whether
you've ever had this experience: You get to an aid station or maybe you finish a really long training
run and you realize that your bladder is still completely full. You've barely drank anything,
you're probably dehydrated, or worse yet, you're maybe halfway between aid stations
or between water sources in the backcountry and you take a sip and you hear that dreaded gurgling
sound as your bladder unexpectedly runs dry. Flasks make it a lot easier to monitor your fluid
intake whether you're trying to drink more or you're trying to ration your fluids.
So I might, for example, set a goal of drinking one bottle an hour during a race or
maybe trying to finish both bottles before I reach the next aid station. And sure with a bladder you
can kind of reach back and feel how much is left but it's not quite the same. It's also possible
now to buy flasks with built-in filters like the Katadyne Befree or the new Salomon XA filter cap.
I've got a video with a detailed review of both of these that I'll link to in the description below.
One benefit of a bladder over a flask is that you can more easily use iodine droplets,
purification tablets, or even a UV filter. This is especially important if you want to filter out
viruses in addition to bacteria and protozoa. But it's going to be overkill in most cases,
and you do have to remember to keep a UV filter charged, and both tablets and droplets are going
to add a funny taste to your water. Plus they take time, whereas a flask with a built-in filter is
instant, so you can just drink on the go. Last but not least, carrying all of your water on your
back in a bladder only serves to further load the rear of your pack instead of taking advantage of
the front flask pockets that come on most running vests. So this 1.5L of space is essentially being
deducted from the total volume of the pack which in this case is 12L, and that 12L also includes
the roughly 1L of space up front designed for the flasks. So if you're leaving those front pockets
empty, you're effectively only getting 11L of space out of this 12L pack, and putting all of
the weight in the back instead of distributing those extra couple of pounds to the front. Now
you might be thinking, well what if I need to carry more than a liter of water at a time,
and that is one case where I might still use a bladder. So by default, I'll start by carrying a
liter of water up front in my flasks, and then if I know I'm going to be hours between water sources
in the backcountry, I'll then maybe fill up my bladder so that I can scale up to a total
of 2.5L. But I think there's actually a better option which is to simply carry a third and maybe
a fourth flask in the back of your pack. You can then swap them out for the flasks in the front,
and even take the filter off and swap that as well if you're carrying unfiltered water. And
the old style Salomon 12L pack was actually great for this because you could keep them
sideways here in this bottom kangaroo pouch. And while it's definitely not necessary,
getting one of these caps for your flask is a really good idea as well so that you can make
sure that the flask isn't going to leak in the back of your pack. But either way, you should
be able to use that rear bladder compartment to store two flasks standing upright without issue.
So for a lot of runs, that's exactly what I'll do. I'll carry two flasks up front and then one or two
spare flasks just empty that I can fill up only when necessary, and then keep them in the back of
my pack. And when it comes to races, I'll follow a very similar strategy, especially if i have crew.
I'll carry two flasks that I'm using between aid stations, and when I see my crew, I can just hand
them my empty flasks and they can hand me two new ones already pre-filled. So there you have it,
that's why I never use a bladder except for in a few cases. So what do you think? Good idea? Bad
idea? Tell me about it in the comments below. And if you've been following my channel for a while,
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