Water Bag Taste

I have a 10 litre water bag that I bought last year from MEC and it's the perfect size for us but it has one huge flaw - the water tastes terrible. The first time I thought it was possibly the source, but I've used it twice since then filled from my own tap (not that Oakville water is anything to rave over!) and it still tastes awful so it is clearly the bag. How can I get rid of this?
Thanks
Dorothy

Cleaning your dromedary!

Hey Dorothy,

I am sitting at a round table of experts here and we have come up with 2 solutions to try. First is to try a little baking soda and water and let it sit for a while. Shake it a little and rinse. Dympna has used this and rinsing is important!n secondly put 3 drops of bleach in the bag with water and let that sit. Hopefully one of these will shift the taste. Next time you finish with your dromedary rinse it and then let it sit with lid open and bag pulled open to increase air flow!

Hope this helps!

Expert Chemist Reply

This advice came in from Justin the Chemist. Some interesting Insight!

I'm certainly not an expert but I am a chemist and do know a bit about polymers. I’ll also try to be succinct. All plastics will give off a plastic taste some more than others. This is where purchasing the higher quality water bags might be the way to go. The chemistry is complicated but basically some bags are not made well and some are not cured well. My rule of thumb is density - the more soft the plastic the more plastic taste. I look for a higher density bag (stronger and not able to stretch as much as softer bags) when purchasing.

To get rid of plastic taste I rinse many times (sometimes 10 – 15 times) immediately after purchase. One rinse should be defined as filling the bag with water and then emptying. I also rinse a couple of times before each use. I have recently changed my storage method from letting the bags sit empty between uses to storing them full of water. I have found this to be more successful than aeration but have only monitored this for about 1 year with only 1 product so can’t provide any hard statistics.

I would be careful about chemistry solutions to the problem. The plastic may react to the chemical introduced. If the rinsing doesn’t work and you really are unhappy then perhaps acids or bases could be used to try to fix the problem. Chemicals around the house, which could be tried, are vinegar (the white stuff) or baking soda. Don’t try them at the same time try one and rinse a few times and test and if that didn’t work then try the other. Some coffee maker cleaners are food grade phosphoric acid and could be used instead of vinegar. They could be stronger, so be careful, but will not have the vinegar taste.

Sometimes the taste is from something else. Never put organics (food, lemon, lime, sugar, flavouring etc…) in your water container. This eliminates the need to clean them. Fungi and mould will live on just about anything you put into your water container and impart a fun taste. I do use lime or lemon once in a while but rinse well right after use. The surface of plastic can be full of pits and hard to clean places. In a microbiology lab we think of plastic as impossible to clean.