[Dolly]

Bought one yesterday and just can't work out how to get the bite valve to open.
Is there some trick or knack ?
I assumed it was like a bike hydration nozzle where you just bite and it opens but it doesn't seem to work like that.
I guess there's a chance I've got a faulty valve

[Paul B]

is there a valve upstream?

[Dolly]

Sorry Paul don't know what you mean.
Do you mean a separate valve apart from the bite valve ?

[Paul B]

yes, like a 'lock closed'?

[Dolly]

I dont think so.

[rosmat]

On mine there is also a twist lock valve behind the mouth piece. You have to turn it 90 degrees to open it. If yours doesn't have a twist lock and is bite valve only then don't bite too far back.

I'll try and post a picture later.

Cheers

[rosmat]

Link to photo here:

https://picasaweb.google.com/100286364660046276299/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCMGp_P2Dk9XkMg#5776977391990046482

[Drew]

I feel patronising even asking this, but have you removed the protective cellophane cover?

To be honest there's basically nothing which can go wrong with these things. The only failures I've ever encountered have been a loose fit, and water leaking. Never water not coming out.

[lukeyboy]

I seem to remember that they are marked with the bite valve, but you actually need to make the slit with a knife. Presumably this is a way to keep them sterile whilst on the shelf. Though I've not used one for a few years so perhaps this isn't the case any more.

[rosmat]

I seem to remember that they are marked with the bite valve, but you actually need to make the slit with a knife. Presumably this is a way to keep them sterile whilst on the shelf. Though I've not used one for a few years so perhaps this isn't the case any more.

This isn't the case anymore. I bought one a couple of months back and it was ready to go straight out of the packaging. The only thing I had to do was turn the twist lock valve behind the mouth piece. (see photo above).

[Dolly]

Thanks for the replies.
Yes I have taken it out of the cellophane (although leaving it on is the daft sort of thing I'd do)
Its a bottle with a screw in top Ross - so its different to the one in your pic which has a tube to a hydration bladder presumably.

I can only assume that its faulty then

[Drew]

So it looks like this?:

[SA Chris]

Eliminating the obvious..

Is it one of the bottles with a flip up nozzle and a bit valve at the end? If so you might not be flipping it up far enough?

Is it one of the bottles with an internal "straw"? If so this might not be pushed in properly?Are you sucking air or getting nothing at all? Take the valve off and give it a squeeze? Does it open? Is the rest of the waterway clear? As someone said you need to only bite the very end of the rubber valve so that it opens.

[lagerstarfish]

if none of the above advice helps, you might have to resort to reading the instructions

maybe worth persevering for a few more days before taking such radical steps

[Jaspersharpe]

That's curveball, blue sky thinking from outside the box right there lagers.

[lagerstarfish]

I'm all for taking a contemporary reimagining approach to compatible transitional innovation

that's how I roll

[andy_e]

I think we just need to grab the bull by the horns and take it into a china shop in order to action our five-year plans.

[SA Chris]

if none of the above advice helps, you might have to resort to reading the instructions

maybe worth persevering for a few more days before taking such radical steps

Real men don't read instructions.

[rosmat]

if none of the above advice helps, you might have to resort to reading the instructions

maybe worth persevering for a few more days before taking such radical steps

Whoa there, steady tiger that's a bit radical.

Unfortunately, non of the Platypus I've bought have come with any instructions. 

[Dolly]

Yes it looks like that Drew.
There's no flip up lid or straw Chris.
Its as if there's a blockage as I can't even suck air through it when I take it out of the bottle.

Maybe I could just unscrew the lid and drink out of the neck

[rich d]

until my daughter was about 1 year old she couldn't work out how to drink out of straws. Do you think this could be the same problem Dolly?

[Dolly]

Quite possibly.
Maybe I just don't have the intellectual capacity for one of these new fangled hydration solutions and I should just stick with a Sigg bottle.
When you get to my age its hard to learn new things.  After all these years I'm still going to the Lakes at the weekend hoping to find dry rock ( I know)

[lagerstarfish]

If Slackline was here, he'd tell you to install Linux

have you updated your Platypus drivers?

have you tried switching it off and then back on again?

that's me out of ideas

[hamsforlegs]

Just looked at my girlfriend's. It looks like the picture above. On hers, you need to twist the valve 90 degrees to open/close. That is, the valve itself rotates on the screw-on portion.

I guess you've tried this already, but on the off chance...