Customer Reviews

MSR Dromedary Bag

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This bag is well-made and tough, and for my money is the best there is out there. I've used this for hiking and camping and it has performed flawlessly. Here are the highlights based on my experience with the 10 liter and smaller bags:

Pros:

* Durability - This is one tough bag. The collar is made from a heavy plastic and has a built-in handle that easily supports the weight of a full bag, even in the 10 liter size. The multi-function cap is well-made and hasn't leaked. The construction of the bag itself is downright burly. It is made of heavy Cordura nylon that provides excellent abrasion and puncture resistance. Through much use, I have found these bags to be all but burst-proof. Maybe they'd fail if I ran over them with my truck. Maybe not. With frequent use and significant abuse, these bags have held up extremely well.

* Design - I really appreciate the multi-function cap. Using the larger bag, it can be very difficult to pour water into, say, a kettle or smaller water bottle by using the large opening. With one of the smaller openings on the cap, however, controlling the stream and volume of water is a cinch. A smaller cap can be removed from the large one, providing a smaller opening, or a flip out nozzle can open from the smaller cap for a flow of water that is smaller still. The wide mouth opening will also fit some water filters that attach directly to a Nalgene bottle. I discovered that the cap to these Dromedary bags will also fit my wide-mouth Nalgene bottles (and vice versa) providing some nice back-up redundancy in my gear. Sweet! The Dromedary bags come with strong nylon webbing threaded through large metal grommets on the outside of the bag that allow attachment to backpacks, trees.... whatever.

* Taste - I've been using HDPE Nalgene bottles for going on 30 years now in part because they tend not to impart a chemical taste to the water. These Dromedary bags have a food-grade coating on the inside and I have to say the taste is not bad. There's a bit of aftertaste to the water, but testing the water even after months of storage, the taste was only very mild, and I'm fairly sensitive to that.

Cons: None to date

I've really grown to love these bags. My main water storage when camping is 10 liter bags, stored in pairs in 5 gallon plastic paint buckets. By putting lids on the paint cans I find I can stack and store them efficiently for longer trips, and though the bags alone are tough, once inside the paint buckets they are impervious to just about anything I throw in the back of the truck. I use smaller Dromedary bags when hiking or backpacking.

MSR also makes Dromlite bags MSR Dromlite Bags that are a little lighter, but I'll take a tiny bit of additional weight for the extra protection of these bags. Both the large ones and the smaller ones have been dropped, stepped on, used often and show no signs of wear or failure. These bags give me peace of mind knowing that my water supply is safe. The larger size make for ideal base camp water supply or back-up supply, for cooking, refilling water bottles, or for hygiene.

Note that these are not the style of hydration bag that have become popular, that either come in their own backpack or fit in backpacks designed to accept water bladders. These are more storage-oriented. I prefer these because I find them much more versatile. While you can also drink directly from them, they are not dedicated to your pack. They don't have tubes or valves that add weight and complexity. If I want to drink on the go, I use a bottle, but that's purely preference. Mostly, though, I like that these units can hold up to tough use.

It is easy for me to give this product five stars and an enthusiastic recommendation.

A friend gave me a 10 liter one of these in 2005. I've been using it for most of each year ever since. At first I was using it for drinking water and as a dish washing station, and now I only use it for dishes. I live in a vehicle and this has been a VERY durable and long lasting container.

It was driven over by a large truck, and the bag was fine (but the cap broke). You can get replacement caps easily. I would actually suggest getting the spigot cap. It works amazingly.

I have put boiling water in it for dishes. I have tossed it on rough surfaces. Rats chewed on it (and broke the webbing, which I replaced).

Only now, five years after my bag was gifted to me, it is starting to leak, but even then, it is so slow that it would probably take weeks to fully drain. I think the inner lining is just starting to wear through in one little spot.

I would say this bag is well worth it. 5 1/2 years (plus however long my friend had it before me) of full functionality. I hope they still make them this good, as I am about to buy another.

UPDATE: 1/21/12 - I contacted MSR and they have a lifetime warranty on these bags. I sent in the old leaking one, and they sent me back a brand new one. Hooray! I LOVE these...

I have the 6 liter version. It packs great - molding around everything else in the pack. It seems very durable - no problems so far. It fits easily in my backpack's water bladder compartment. The three different nozzles for getting water - a 2 inch opening, a 1/2 inch nozzle and a small straw-like nozzle - are very useful. The water stored in the bladder does have a very slight plastic taste, but nothing objectionable. I highly recommend this.

I highly recommend the MSR Dromedary Bags! We bought two 6L bags almost 10 years ago, and have used them very heavily in highly abusive backpacking settings throughout Arizona. I just replaced the hydration tubing once again, and guess what -- the new tubing sets still fit! They taste fine, even when hot, and pack well.

Compare these to Camelback -- Camelback stuff works great when new, but how many cheap Camelback bladders have come and gone during that time? We've probably tossed a good half dozen of these, cheap, made-for-the-landfill consumer products during the same time period!

We also use our MSR Dromedaries in combination with a First-Need water filter. We hang one bag up 10', then tubing for 8', the First-Need filter, then a short piece of tubing to a second bag. With this system, you can passively purify water without pumping. A very easy way to fill up on a fresh 6L of water in 2-6 hours!

Anyway, Kudos to MSR for making a quality, tough, super long-lasting product!

This pack is very durable I even use it as a (water) pillow when I go camping. It holds liquids well but lack of insulation makes it reach outside temperatures fairly quick.

I have two of these that have survived camping, backpacking, canoeing, rafting, climbing, and being in the trunk of our cars in 110F heat in Texas (think 140+ easy in the trunk) for over 10 years. I wish I knew when my father purchased these because he beat the hell out of them before I got them so they have held up longer than can be expected.

I own a lot of platypus bags and I use those for backpacking due to weight. But these guys are what I carry for desert backpacking, rafting, and anything else where I will likely kill any other bladder type water holder. They are also what I keep for our emergency preparedness in the trunk and in our bug out bags or 72 hour bags.

I am about to buy several more and that should speak volumes. I will make another review comparing the old and the new bags.

I worked on a trail crew for five months and used this every day, either taking it to work or out backpacking. I carried it in my pack w/ some other sundries and it never punctured. I carelessly threw it on rocks and it held up. I used it as a pillow a few times, wrapped in a vest, and it worked like a charm. I always used it in conjunction w/ the optional hose attachment (not included). A great bag, very durable, outlasted everyone else's CamelBaks. I never washed it once all season, even after filtering yucky swamp water into it, and the water that came out of the Dromedary never tasted funny (except the swamp water, of course). Highly recommended.

We use the 4L bag for backpacking. It's rolled up in our kitchen kit during the trek and takes up almost no space. When we make camp in the evening we'll fill it with water from the creek and treat it with iodine. We have enough water for dinner and some basic hygiene and we use the rest to refill our Nagene bottles for the trek the next morning. We often hang it from a tree or a clothes line in camp. The flow is great. I can't believe how durable it is. We've used ours for nearly 8 years off and on with no problems. I'm thinking of getting the larger size for family car camping because our Coleman polyethylene collapsible bag rolls and has slow flow.

These MSR bags are awesome! I recently took my 6 liter bag with me on a car camping trip for the weekend. The bag performed exactly as expected. It is super durable and really held up to the abuse 5 drunk guys can do to it when looking for water. The Bag was very solid in that the stitching was tight and the carry handles were strong. The bag did not leak a single drop and the added features of the multi-function cap were well received. With the option to remove cap, use the spout and add the optional MSR hydration kit, this bag is a MUST HAVE!

I would strongly recommend this product for any hiker or camper looking for a durable water bag that they do not have to worry about in their pack.

Tough, efficient, cross-compatible with the lids and filters for the popular sizes of Nalgene bottles. I've frozen them, left them out in the desert sun, stood on them, dropped them down scree-covered hills, wedged them into any-ol-spot I had available in a pack; and I've never had one fail. There are lighter bladders on the market, and ones with more bells and whistles, but these are my gold standard. They do eventually impart a noticeable plastic-y taste if liquid water is left in them long-term, but you oughtn't be doing that anyway.