The Source UTA™ Rapid Refill Kit Makes Re-Hydration Easy as 1,2, 3
The rapid refill kit provides you with a quick solution to refilling your hydration bladder without the need to remove your pack.
The UTA™ Rapid Refill kit is a great solution if you need to refill quickly without having to take off your backpack. It’s also very handy for race day situations where time is the essence. But forget about just needing to be speedy, it’s just a bloody good idea and makes refilling your hydration bladder a breeze!
First Impressions
There’s not a lot to say about the product from just looking at it. There are three main parts and that’s it. Simple! The UTA™ Rapid Refill kit comes with a hose which has SQC connectors at both ends. The UTA Adaptor and the bite style drinking valve, which connects to the hose.
The quality of materials and construction is very high, as we’ve experienced with all of Source products.
The Rapid Refill Kit; simple, functional and adds to your riding experience. Pic:©Richard McGibbon
Features
UTA™ Rapid Refill kit uses Source’s SQC system. What is SQC?– Source Quick Connect (SQC) provides push-button convenience for fast and easy disconnection and connection of drinking tube and valve, and attachment of various accessories like the UTA or in-line filters.
When disconnected, the SQC-auto-lock seals both ends watertight, which means you can exchange the tube or accessories when the reservoir is full without any water escaping.
The UTA Refill kit fits a large variety of water bottles and indoor/outdoor taps and faucets. Filling time from a 1.5L bottle is around 50 seconds.
The hose is slightly longer than the standard one that comes with the Source bladders. This allows for extra reach. The hose is covered with a UV block material, which helps to keep the fluids a little cooler in the hose section.
There is also a nice little magnetic clip that can be used to attach the hose to your pack, be it up high or down low.
The magnetic hose clip, down low. Pic:©Richard McGibbon
The magnetic hose clip, up high. Pic:©Richard McGibbon
Installation
First off, you’ll need an existing Source bladder for this kit to work. When you get your UTA™ Rapid Refill kit, all you need to do is remove your existing hose and mouthpiece and clip in the new ones provided.
Remember to leave the UTA adaptor in your car if this where you’ll be refilling, or if not, just keep it in your pack. It only weighs 19grams anyway, so you won’t notice the weight. And that’s it, very easy.
Out On The Trails
When you’re heading back to refill at the car all you need to do is:
1: Pull off the mouthpiece by using the button on the SQC Helix Drinking Valve.
2: Attach the UTA adaptor.
3: Plug your water bottle straight into the UTA adaptor.
Hold the bottle upright and the reservoir is filled directly through the tube using gravity and because each end of the hose has a valve, the water doesn’t come spilling out when the bladder is full. Pretty neat eh!
You’ll get the most out of this system is if you’re refilling using a water bottle, because you can literally just get off your bike, open the car boot and get filling whilst standing up with your pack still on.
If however you need to use a tap, then you’ll need to be at the height of the tap to make this work. So you can imagine, if the tap is down low on the ground, you’ll need to bend down or pull the pack off, which sort of defeats the purpose.
However, even if you do need to pull your pack off, we found that filling up using this system is still quicker than pulling out the bladder.
What’s In The Box
- SQC UTA adaptor – Fits almost every bottle and tap, connects to the tube with SQC Quick Connect in place of the drinking valve.
- SQC Co-ex tube – Get extra reach with this drinking tube, equipped with SQC connectors on both ends.
- SQC Helix Drinking Valve – SOURCE Valve with SQC Quick Connector.
Where To Buy / Price
Price: $30.00 – $40.00
Where to buy: Most good local bike shops or at the Source online store. They offer FREE worldwide shipping with orders over $60.00.
Conclusions
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