Keeping hydrated with Camelbak bottles

Its very important to keep hydrated in order to stay healthy. Being dehydrated can lead to all sorts of complications, such as headaches, and at its most extreme, kidney problems. I know myself that I struggle to drink enough, especially at work. I developed a bad habit of mostly drinking coke zero, which is not great for you, and expensive. I did balance this out with bottled water, which can also mount up in price, and all the plastic bottles are not good for the environment. So, I looked for a better solution. I wanted to take some kind of juice, and water to work.

So in comes the camelbak bottles! I got the bigger one first, the eddy. I use this for no added sugar diluting juice, and it holds 750ml. At the same time as I got this I got a Bobble for water, but I don't find that easy to drink from. So I ended up getting the water filtering camelbak, the Groove Tritan, which is 600ml.

The camelbaks are so easy to drink from. This is due to the bite valve, which is a rubbery valve which you simply bite on to drink from. The valve doesn't leak as there is no flow when it is not bitten. It is quite like drinking from a straw, and is easy to drink quite a big volume quickly. I find this really improves my fluid intake, as I can easy drink the whole 750ml bottle in my 30min break. I then sip on the water bottle for the rest of my shift, and can easily refill when needed. The filter means that the normally icky water at work tastes good.

The bite valve then folds down out the way when not needed.  The bottles are very watertight, I carry them to work in my bag and have had no problems with leaking. The bottles are made of very sturdy plastic, which can be dropped and survive. They are a little heavy so not ideal for using when running or at the gym, but thats fine! The water filter in the Groove Tritan needs to be replaced every 3 months or 180 litres of water.  The only slight problem with the design is cleaning it properly. However, all the parts come apart, which makes this a bit easier. There is a custom made cleaning kit available, which is a bit like those wee test tube cleaners you used at school. 

I bought my bottles from Amazon, as I found that the cheapest. They are available in a range of colours, but I obviously went for the pink. The Eddy was £12.95 and the Groove Tritan was £17.99. Replacement filters for the Tritan are around £30 for 6. I think thats a pretty good deal considering the money saved by not buying bottled juice and water, and the health benefits of increased hydration!

How do you re-hydrate?