CamelBak is one of those companies that is great a constantly pushing product evolution and striving for innovation. One of their new technologies that I am particularly excited about is the CamelBak Flow Meter.
As a mountain climber, the name of the game to help avoid altitude sickness is constant hydration. The biggest problem I have with using a CamelBak on a mountain climb is that I can't regulate how much I am drinking.
The new CamelBak Flow Meter will measure how much water has been consumed, how much remains, and by measuring your drinking rate, digitally display how much time you have left until you need to refill. You can also program the Flow Meter with your own personal hydration goals to ensure you are consuming water at the desired rate. The Flow Meter will be available in October as an accessory for $30 and will retrofit all current CamelBak reservoirs. The Flow Meter will also be integrated into a future line of CamelBak packs.
There are quite a few older, granted, patents out there around liquid flow meters for hydration systems so I am wondering how CamelBak got around this. Have they licensed someone's technology? I haven't yet found a patent assigned to CamelBak for flow meters.
CamelBak's Jon Austen, Director of Product Management, talks to Trailspace about the new Flow Meter below.