REUSABLE + DURABLE
Thermoplastic Polyurethane (TPU) is at the core of every flexible hydration product we make. We’ve been using it for nearly 20 years and the reason is simple—it performs better than any other material for our application. It is incredibly strong: able to stretch up to 8x its original size without breaking. Because it’s so resilient, we can use minimal material to meet our strength needs. Our hydration products are 3 to 6 times lighter than their hard plastic or stainless steel equivalents, and—as any performance athlete can tell you—weight matters. Lastly, TPU is safe and reliable. It’s 100% BPA and PVC free: every one of our products meets or exceeds the most rigorous national food safety standards in the world.
RADIO FREQUENCY WELDING
One of the reasons we work with TPU is it responds extremely well to radio-frequency welding, which is used to bond film or molded pieces to one another. RF welding passes electricity from an anode to a cathode through the TPU material, exciting it on an atomic level to create extremely localised heat. Molecules in the two pieces of material bond so completely that the site of the weld is actually structurally as strong as the material around it. In addition, we use an “overlap” welding technique whenever possible that greatly increases weld longevity and removes creases where bacteria can grow. Over our nearly 20 years making hydration products, our expertise in RF welding TPU has led the industry.
REVERSIBLE SLIDE-SEAL™ HYDRATION
The original reservoir designs from our early days used roll-top closures much like you’d find on a dry bag used in kayaking. The wide opening had a lot of benefits, including easy access to add ice or electrolytes. Equally important in preventing funky bacteria growth between rides — was the ability to turn the reservoir completely inside out for easy cleaning and drying. These were clear advantages over competitors’ reservoirs, and why it was an essential feature to keep when we engineered the current Slide-Seal top closure. We’ve gone through much research and many iterations to get to our current version and it’s absolutely leakproof, quick and simple to use, and allows for the reversibility needed to get to every nook and cranny when cleaning and drying your reservoir. Additionally, it uses four times less injection-moulded plastic to produce, making our reservoirs significantly lighter than competitor versions.
DESIGN WITH INTENTION
Every HydraPak product is the sum of its parts. No matter how flawless one performs, if another part doesn’t measure up it affects performance adversely. This is why we put hundreds of hours of thought into every component that makes up a reservoir or bottle carrying our name. From tubing and bite valves with higher flow rates to developing IsoBound™ Technology to keep fluids cooler, we’re always searching for performance gains without making sacrifices to durability or weight. We use TPU because it’s extremely light and strong. We use RF welding because it's precise and makes seams that can survive being run over by a truck. The Slide-Seal™ top uses very little plastic, is leakproof, and makes our reservoirs the easiest to use and clean on the market. We design for lightweight functionality because we design for performance.
LIGHTWEIGHT & COMPRESSIBLE
Because TPU is incredibly flexible, we’re able to make the walls of our bottles and reservoirs significantly thinner than our competitors— without compromising durability —and this is why HydraPak products lead the outdoor industry in lightweight hydration. Our soft bottles are 3 to 6 times lighter than popular competitor one-litre bottles made from hard plastic or single-walled stainless steel.
But weight is only half our story: our bottles are extremely compressible. When empty, that same bottle rolls smaller than a deck of cards to disappear neatly inside a pack or pocket. Additionally, our bottles compress as you drink down the water inside them. A half-filled bottle takes up half the space in your pack, and the remaining water doesn’t slosh around on rough trails.