No, they aren’t paying me

I have to give kudos to the company, Hydrapak. Back before I was a gear addict, I bought a Hydrapak. In fact, it may have been my very first piece of gear. It was 2001 and my friend alerted me that he was buying a Hydrapak for $14.99 because it was on sale. What’s a Hydrapak, I (and probably you right now) ask? It’s a hydration system, duh. Really, it’s just a huge water bottle (or bladder, as they call it) that you wear as a backpack. My sister loves to make fun of me when I wear it, but I assure her all the cool kids have one.

Anyways, getting back to 2001. My friend convinced me to buy one too, as I had my first backpacking trip to Havasu Canyon and I needed a good supply of water for the hike. Cool. I purchased it and loved it. Took it hiking, backpacking and running many, many times since 2001.

So now it’s 2008 and I actually have two such packs–the other is a Camelbak brand that J got me. I still hold my Hydrapak near and dear to my heart, but I have to admit I use the Camelbak one more only because it is more of a day pack with other storage options beyond water.

Anyways, the point of this very long, nonsensical blog entry is that recently I used my Hydrapak and realized the bladder mouthpiece was broken. Remembering that Hydrapak had a lifetime warranty, I looked up their Web site and sure enough, they still stand by their brand. I popped the bladder in the mail and not 2 weeks later, received a brand-new one in the mail!!! The bladder they sent was definitely an upgrade from the one I had. Yippee!!!

Yes, I am that person who takes advantage of warranties. Knock it if you will, but it has saved me tons of dough! My favorite warranty story is when I bought a shredder on sale (for like $10) and it broke 2 weeks later. I called the company and they said don’t bother sending it, but they will send me a new one. What arrived in the mail was the super shredder … I mean the one that does the fancy criss-cross and like 20 pgs at a time. All it took was that simple phone call.