Osprey Packs

Hydraulics Hydration Reservoir

The best bladder I have ever used

There are numerous people in my life that have now converted to this bladder. It's the best on the market and you can't beat their warranty!

Quick connect has a hair trigger

Bought the Osprey 2.0L hydraulics quick connect water bladder for a trip to Costa Rica. The quick connection would come loose if you looked at or breathed on it. Finally after riding a horse through the jungle half way through my trip it was nowhere to be found. Waste of money. My advice would be to buy a unit that is connected permanently.

Started leaking after 1.5 years of light use

Sprung a pinhole leak after 1.5 years of ownership, with very light use. By light use, I mean maybe 20-30 days hikes in total, and a pair of weekend backpacking trips. I had filled it for a day hike and fortunately noticed the leak as I was loading my bag into the car, so I brought a nalgene with me instead. Glad the bag didn't spring a leak while miles out in the woods backpacking! The warranty replacement process via Hydrapak was easy and fast, but I'll be selling the replacement. I don't want to risk a similar failure at a more critical time.

Cool design until if fails you

I bought two of these reservoirs which were for me and my girlfriend. My girlfriend had issues with this bladder leaking from the straw attachment into her bag and soaking all of her warm clothes on a backcountry hike. I had an issue with mine as I couldn't put the clip back on the top after refilling it while I was deep in the backcountry. I had to force it back on with a lot of effort and I'm a strong and big sized adult male. The reservoir has a cool design that gives it the look of being easier to handle in the store, but it will fail you when you need it the most. Avoid this product!

It's okay

Doesn't fit well in the kamber 30. Feels Very clunky. Not helpful in cold weather with mittens on. Adding the cap makes it hard to close the zipper of the hydration sleeve. Wanted it to replace keeping water bottles in my bag but still have to take off my mittens to access it through the zippers.

Quite happy with it

I'm actually quite happy with this overall. The magnet and valve got immediately swapped out because I just prefer Camelbak valves and magnets compared to others so far, but this is actually turning out to be a rather tough little bladder. Granted, I keep it in the insulation kit I picked up at the same time unless I'm filling it at home, but the rigid back this has does make it easy to slide into sleeves. I noticed others stating the zip top feels like an issue, and I don't know if it's just my first zip top reservoir, but I like it. Haven't tried with the 3l, but I stress tested the 2.5l that came in my Mira by filling it to the max line and hanging it upside down over the sink all night. The 2.5l had zero leaks, so I'm confident in this one too. My only gripe would be the baffles inside it. Not sure if they come undone for cleaning and then close back up but they don't seem to, so there are these weird angled baffles in there. Would be nice to be able to get in there with a towel and dry it off, or turn it inside out for cleaning and drying.

Perfect

I bought this product right before a one-week alpine touring trip. I followed the instructions for initial cleaning with lemon juice from the Osprey video. No plastic taste whatsoever, right from first use. I also bought the insulated tube. I had only one event where water froze near the bite valve at-10 C. This was solved by stuffing the bite valve into my shirt for one climb. The pack performed very well all week. There was one incident where the whole bite valve attachment popped off right after filling. I put tape over the connection after reattaching to prevent repeats.

Sturdy but taints water

Good quality build, but after a few minutes the water tastes strongly of chemicals leached from the reservoir. I've tried to eliminate the problem with bicarb, lemon juice, ice, and have used it a dozen times with the full 3L of filtered water, but it still gives the water a bad taste. Not very refreshing after a few hours of hiking.

Clean water coming your way

Familiarity:

I've used it several times

Brought this 3L on an 18 mile backpacking excursion for a group of 4. Broken down it is easy to carry and doesn't occupy much space. I found it easy to fill (fortunately with a river) and set up. It provided immediate access to clean, crisp drinking water, everyone was able to fill their bottles from it. And best of all - no one got sick!