Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I am upgrading my initial review from 1 to 4 stars. Here is why: 1) Initially, I gave this hydration bladder only 1 star because it failed at the basic purpose of the product's intended use; namely, to keep water in. Mine leaked right out of the filler cap area the first time I put water in it, and I was obviously disappointed. If it leaked, none of the other features like the locking hose or the mouthpiece cap really mattered. 2) WACOOL customer service reached out to me because I was looking for a way to return it and not only sent me a new one, but also offered to refund my money. That right there is EXCELLENT customer service, I give it another star simply based on the support and standing behind their gear 100%. Even if I decided I didn't like the bladder for some reason, it cost me nothing to give it a second try, so 2nd star I automatically awarded for WACOOL's great customer service. 3) The 3rd star...WACOOL sent me a new replacement and I tested it out...it also leaked, though not quite as bad as the first one. [Note: I was not testing these bladders to capacity either at this point, nor was I putting significant pressure on the bladder itself, such as might be experienced when in a camelback or backpack.] I played around with different amounts of water in the bladder, and the closer I got to "capacity", the more it was prone to leak a little around the cap. Again, not quite as noticeable as the first one, but enough to be annoying and knowing my gear would get wet eventually. HERE IS WHERE I FOUND THE SOLUTION!! As I had just spent half an hour making a mess on the counter again and was about to give up, I made one more attempt: I took the cap off one of my old Nalgene bottles and tried it on the hydration bladder. Result: NO MORE LEAKING!!! At this point, my Nalgene is now without a lid, but since the point of me buying a hydration pack to begin with was to increase my carrying capacity and move away from a hard plastic container in my pack...this is a sacrifice I think I am willing to make. At this point, the other features like the locking-hose, mouthpiece cap, you can remove the hose even while bladder is full, the slide open/close access at the top actually began to matter now that the hydration bladder was not leaking on it's own...these all earned the product a 3rd star. 4) The 4th star is awarded because once I found that a Nalgene lid fit and solved the leak issue, I filled it all the way to capacity and began to give it a real-life test with a little bit of pressure...ok, I was probably border-line abusing the hydration bladder at this point trying to see how much pressure it would take to fail...and it didn't. Not only that, but I never had an issue with any leaking at all out the slide open/close fold at the top, which is pretty impressive right there. Again, I put it through the ringer this time...and I was gaining confidence in the bladder material and seams and was impressed with how much pressure it was taking...I don't know exactly how many pounds of pressure I put on it, but it was at least 10-15 on the conservative side, and that was with the bladder maxed to capacity. **) I did not give it the 5th star for the following reasons: I had to sacrifice a Nalgene bottle to get a lid that didn't leak. Also, the measurement markings on the bladder are slightly off, and it doesn't truly hold 3L in the bladder: I measured exactly 3L in 1L increments and couldn't get 3L to fit without having to dump some out to close the bladder. OVERALL: It's a good hydration bladder. I'm happy with it now that I swapped the lid, and WACOOL's customer support was great. I'll probably buy another WACOOL bladder simply because their service was great.