Great pack but bladder was a huge disappointment
This is my first Osprey pack, and while I am very happy with the pack itself (features, construction, design), the changes that were made to the normal Hydrapak bladder baffle me. The internal ribs, hard plastic hose guide and smaller than usual top opening all combine to make it nearly impossible to turn the bladder inside out - Hydrapak's primary selling point and the main reason I abandoned Camelbak. The internal ribs make for difficult cleaning. There's already a clip/loop to hang the bladder inside the pack, so I don't know why the hard plastic hose guide plate was added. I would have given this pack a glowing review if it had just shipped with a normal 2.5L Hydrapak reservoir with Osprey silkscreened onto it, but instead I'm getting rid of the supplied bladder (want it back?) and will purchase a Hydrapak bladder... which doesn't come in 2.5L so I have to either downsize to a 2 or try to cram in a 3... Grrr.
Ken
Newark, DE