Are dirty bladders forever dirty?

I would think that a warm water and bleach solution or Aqua Mira would more than clean up any dirty bag.

Agree that a mild bleach solution will take care of anything in the bottle you need to worry about.

I’d be more concerned with how close to failure all those old bottles are :)

or, just rinse with clean water.  Tap water has a little chlorine.  It’ll dilute any giardia or bacteria.

maybe write “dirty” on one container and use it until you think it might fail

I’d think that soap, warm water and well dried should be plenty. Works with dishes every day. I guess I could be wrong. :)

If in doubt use chlorine or set them in the sun for a day.

well DUH….what a concept?!  washing things to reuse!!!    And to think I’ve been pondering this question for months now……

If you are concerned, fill them up with a dilute bleach solution and rinse well. I like the Aquamira idea too. Make sure to get the threads on the outside.

I often just rinse out a “dirty” bag with hot water to make it usable as a clean bag. I have low standards I suppose. :)

If I’m more concerned, I’ll use a drop of dish soap, or a rinse of 70% isopropyl alcohol if I want to go full decon. One benefit of using the alcohol is that it dries much faster.

I used a paint pen to mark my dirty water bag.  It says “No, no, BAD!” on one side, and “So-o-o-o Dirty!” on the other.  Have to renew it at the beginning of each season, as eventually it does wear/wash off.  They are remarkably durable, haven’t had one fail on me yet despite multiple rolls/squeezes through the Sawyer filter.  I retired my dirty bag at the end of this season just because of worries that it might fail, not because it had.  It gets folded up and collected with a large rubber band with my water scoop (an Evernew bag with the top cut off), my Sawyer, and the syringe.  That way it never really gets into circulation with the clean bottles.