# CamelBaks have no place in urban society **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 3, 2006, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camelbaks-have-no-place-in-urban-society/355193 "2006-05-03T02:57:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camelbaks-have-no-place-in-urban-society/355193/61 "2006-05-05T15:47:48Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > I responded to your comment, made in reply to **even sven** mentioning tap and bottled water, which mentions that filtering alone is touchingly insufficient to your enlightened understanding. It was this particularly egregious bit of pseudo documentation I wished to heap scorn upon. Well, I think you’re getting hot under the collar based on a complete misreading of my post and the posts leading up to it. I certainly never said filtering alone was insufficient. In fact, I’m growing more and more confused about what you are complaining about. Sadly, reading your posts isn’t proving enlightening. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camelbaks-have-no-place-in-urban-society/355193/62 "2006-05-05T17:29:09Z")
I live in an old house in an old suburb and yes, you can tell the difference between tap and distilled or bottled water, at least if you have a sense of smell. I can also tell the difference between some bottled waters. I don’t like Poland Spring or Ice Mountain. I don’t mind drinking tap water if it is palatable, but tap water is not palatable in many places. I have opted to have distilled water trucked in for cooking and drinking, but I do go out in the world without a camelbak. Some years ago, a few of the tunnels under Lake Michigan which are used to channel water from the deeper parts of the lake collapsed. Also zebra mussels infested the lake and oddly enough, made the water much clearer. These two things mean that there is more algea and silt in the water that is used for Chicago’s tap water than there was 15 years ago. Periodically they fight the algae or other bio contaminents with chlorine. So you have water that can be ok, can smell of bleach, and can taste dirty. You never know which you will get. Somedays, I think you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between water from my tap and aquarium water, other days it smells ok. ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camelbaks-have-no-place-in-urban-society/355193/63 "2006-05-05T18:19:39Z")
I got a Camelbak a while ago for a trip I took that involved 10 days of ATV riding in West Virginia. It was perfect for keeping hydrated throughout the day. Since that trip, I’ve used it for hiking a couple times and for ATV rides quite often, but it never occurred to me to take it to work in NYC. ---
**Author:** ![xbuckeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9e8a1a/32.png) [@xbuckeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xbuckeye)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camelbaks-have-no-place-in-urban-society/355193/64 "2006-05-05T21:55:31Z")
That bridge is neat…it has a place in society. I think that all day festivals are a great place for a CamelBak. I have nothing against CamelBaks in general. I even owned one until I left it on top of a car before driving off. I used it for biking and band camp. I don’t really care what you do with your drinking water before hand, but I think a Nalgene bottle (not one with a nozzle that makes slurpyglurp noises) or other reusable bottle filled with a beverage of your choice makes much more sense in daily use. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/camelbaks-have-no-place-in-urban-society/355193.md?page=3)