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Problem to be solved: like many folks who bicycle or hike, I've used bite-valve, hands-free hydration systems for years. Unfortunately commercial hydration systems include a plastic bladder that is easy to puncture, difficult to clean and expensive to replace. In addition, wearing a backpack that holds the bladder is annoying to cyclists. Far preferable for cycling would be to have a bite-valve system that works with a bottle that sits in the frame-mounted bottle cage. Far preferable for both cyclists and hikers would be to replace the dismal plastic bladder with an ordinary PET soda bottle.
The solution in a nutshell: combine a few purchased components with a purpose-designed Delrin stopper in order to make your own bladder-free hydration system!
The hard problem to be solved: bladders collapse when water is removed and PET soda bottles do not. (Well they will eventually, but not before your ears pop!) Therefore make-up air must be added to the bottle when water is removed. The way to do this is mount a small check-valve next to the drinking hose. The difficulty is that bottle tops are small and figuring out how to fit both a drinking hose and check valve was not easy.
The solution in a nutshell: combine a few purchased components with a purpose-designed Delrin stopper in order to make your own bladder-free hydration system!
The hard problem to be solved: bladders collapse when water is removed and PET soda bottles do not. (Well they will eventually, but not before your ears pop!) Therefore make-up air must be added to the bottle when water is removed. The way to do this is mount a small check-valve next to the drinking hose. The difficulty is that bottle tops are small and figuring out how to fit both a drinking hose and check valve was not easy.
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Signing UpStep 1Design overview
Design goals:
1. Allow bite valve to be used with PET bottle in bicycle bottle cage.
2. Materials must all be food-safe and easy to clean.
3. Assembly should not leak when shaken or inverted.
4. Parts should be inexpensive and readily available.
Design description:
As shown in the attached drawings, the main effort involves machining a tapered stopper from a delrin rod using a lathe, then tapping 1/8-27 pipe threads in it for a hose barb fitting to attach the 1/4" tygon hose. A check-valve is attached via a short length of 1/8" tygon hose. The 1/8" hose is slipped onto a short length of 0.134" hypodermic tubing that is pounded into a 0.128" hole that is drilled through the stopper. The check-valve is secured to the 1/4" hose via a dab of silicone caulk on the side. The stopper is held securely into a water bottle using an ordinary soda bottle cap through which a hole has been cut using a 3/4" punch. A short length of 1/4" hose is used to attach the acetal quick-disconnect coupling socket with valve, and then a longer run (perhaps two feet) goes from an acetal quick-disconnect coupling plug to the bite valve. The bottle is inserted in the bottle cage and the bite valve is attached to the handlebar with a pair of nylon loop straps.
Email me (alchaiken at gmail dot com) if you would like a DXF format version of the drawings for this project.
1. Allow bite valve to be used with PET bottle in bicycle bottle cage.
2. Materials must all be food-safe and easy to clean.
3. Assembly should not leak when shaken or inverted.
4. Parts should be inexpensive and readily available.
Design description:
As shown in the attached drawings, the main effort involves machining a tapered stopper from a delrin rod using a lathe, then tapping 1/8-27 pipe threads in it for a hose barb fitting to attach the 1/4" tygon hose. A check-valve is attached via a short length of 1/8" tygon hose. The 1/8" hose is slipped onto a short length of 0.134" hypodermic tubing that is pounded into a 0.128" hole that is drilled through the stopper. The check-valve is secured to the 1/4" hose via a dab of silicone caulk on the side. The stopper is held securely into a water bottle using an ordinary soda bottle cap through which a hole has been cut using a 3/4" punch. A short length of 1/4" hose is used to attach the acetal quick-disconnect coupling socket with valve, and then a longer run (perhaps two feet) goes from an acetal quick-disconnect coupling plug to the bite valve. The bottle is inserted in the bottle cage and the bite valve is attached to the handlebar with a pair of nylon loop straps.
Email me (alchaiken at gmail dot com) if you would like a DXF format version of the drawings for this project.
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With the usual O-ring system one has to remove the bottle from ones mouth and wait for the bottle to reinflate through the same hole as you are drinking from but with this one can let air come into the bottle through the check valve and squirt again pretty much immediately (if the valve hole is fairly big and the bottle has a strong elasticity as PET bottles do).
I wish this product were commercially available!
Or is it? Does the camelbak bike better bottle with "bite valve" have this type of two hole (drink plus check valve) system?
The sipway looks okay but I would rather do without long straws.
Best wishes,
Alison
who has an entirely different superior design using RockStar cans that she's too lazy to post.
There are valves in the kerosine pumps sold at local "dollar" stores and I have attached one to a water bottle sold at those stores.
Since I can't purchase yours and I am bad at making things I would probably order a sipaway or sipstream but the postage is prohibitive to Japan.
By the way there is, I think, now a commercial version that takes commercially available PET bottles.
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Desert-SmarTube-Hydration-System/dp/B000GM6LWS/ref=sr_1_2?s=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1317193623&sr=1-2
The reviews are not good though so I am sure yours is better.
I think that it would be cool to have a normal bottle cage bottle version just for the convenience of being able to such/squirt continuously without having to wait for air to get back into the bottle.
It's true that my solution doesn't keep the drink cold, although the user can always put ice in the bottles or freeze them. I usually purchase cold drinks at stores and finish them quickly, so I don't really care. Not having a sweaty backpack on more than makes up for warm drinks.
The suction force needed to draw up the liquid is small due to the anti-siphon valves. Once the tube are filled, they stay filled and then the bite valve even tends to drip when it's draped over the bars.
I actually have a completely new design using aluminum Rockstar cans that I have finished implementing yet.
Best wishes,
Alison
www.oasisone-twelve.com
www.sipaway.com
www.neverreach.com
-Thanks
Me either. Suggestions are welcome! $12 of the cost is the
anti-siphon valve that means that the bottle can inverted without
leaking and that the hose, once filled, stays filled. Without that,
the cost would be lower, but the system would be much less sweet to
use.
It should be possible to make a simple, cheap, injection-molded
version, but TechShop hasn't gotten an injection molder yet.
I have other Instructables that I'd like to post that are simple and
cheap but I need to finish this one first.
I guess you're thinking of making this into a commercial product?
No actually. I am a Linux user and believe in Open Source. I
would like to share my invention and prevent others from patenting it.
Thanks for making Instructables available for this purpose. If
you would suggest a different license, please let me know!