Badlands Hydration Reservoir with Insulated Drinking Tube

Okay so these are my first impressions on the Badlands 1L Bladder along with a few things about it: 1) I ordered this bladder for my Haley Strategic Flatpack (the smaller of the 2). My units SOP says we need a hydration source when wearing our FLC in the field so this compliments my Micro nicely while staying in regs and I don’t have to carry an awkward canteen. 2) This bladder upon first impression felt thick enough to take a beating. I wouldn’t trust it with your life but as a nice spare patrol water source it’s good to go. 3) This bladder seamlessly fits into the Flatpack and doesn’t feel awkward. The hose seems a bit long but you can remedy this by either A) cutting it down a bit or B) Snaking the spare tubing into your packs bladder sleeve. The mouth piece also slides through the Flatpack’s straps made for a radio antenna nicely and that’s where I’ll keep my hose in the future. 4) The slide lock portion on the top of the bladder doesn’t lock into place as securely as I’d like and I’m not sure it will hold its integrity under hard side to side movements. I’ll remedy this by putting shock cord through the 2 holes on the left of it and make a rope catch on the side of the bag. 5) For those who can’t read well or are Marines the bag clearly says you need to lubricate the hose before insertion into the bladder. Just lick the O-Ring or put some water on it before you insert it and you’re good. I have had 0 leaks so far. I even went as far as putting on my kit and leaning against the bladder in a wooden chair. Not even a drop of lost fluid and I sat there for 10 minutes. 6) This setup could also be ran with a Sawyer mini or normal sized filter in the hydration line fairly easily to be left inside your pack and if you bring this thing down range I’d recommend that. I’m not sure how iodine tablets would effect this but expect heavy discoloration. My overall thoughts: I think this bladder is well made. I took one star off because I don’t like that the top doesn’t lock into place securely. I think this bladder will hold up for years. My only big issue is I’d love to see this come with a patch or two so you don’t get utterly screwed in the field of you spring a leak. Other than that I would definitely recommend this thing to anyone who wants a hydration source for their Flatpack.

Good hydration for my badland backpack

Great Service and simple to clean

Ordered two, one of my bag has a little leak somewhere...but my other one is great.

Expensive, but worth it. 12-day muzzleloader hunt without having to mess with nalgene or commercial H2O bottles. Loved it!

Great product at a reasonable price.

Badlands = life time warranty. Thats what sells me. On top of that it fits nicely in there bag and is very easy to keep clean.

worked great!

I gave it 5 stars although been havnt ng difficulty re attatching the hise back onto the bladder, i believe because there mayb some ice in the contraption in the bladder, i usually throw it in the freezer after emptying it, otherwise e tremely easy to keep clean can reverse it inside out WOOOW!!!

Good product