The Revenge of the Hot Water Bottle

January 21, 2022 1:53 PM

Imagine a personal heating system that works indoors as well as outdoors, can be taken anywhere, requires little energy, and is independent of any infrastructure. It exists – and is hundreds of years old.
posted by milkb0at (90 comments total)

Go try to find one in a CVS or Walgreens or Rite Aid. When you can't find one, and ask, they will treat you as if you are insane... "A what?"
posted by Windopaene at 1:54 PM on January 21, 2022 [11 favorites]

The article is also available in a full fat version if you care more for resolution than LT Magazine's energy bills (or if they run out of battery power).
posted by zamboni at 2:02 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Well, I had no idea these were so rare outside the UK (and Japan, evidently).

Am filing this, along with electric kettles, underneath: "But why don't you have them?"
posted by penguin pie at 2:16 PM on January 21, 2022 [11 favorites]

Perhaps they don't have them because they don't have electric kettles. Or indeed, in many households, kettles at all.

Without a kettle, it's much less simple to heat water and pour it into the neck of a rubber bottle without spilling.
posted by Pallas Athena at 2:22 PM on January 21, 2022 [7 favorites]

I'm doing the Juan de Fuca trail in April, this is a great reminder of an easy way to stay warm in my sleeping bag at night.
posted by furtive at 2:23 PM on January 21, 2022

"But why don't you have them?"

Because we have better insulated homes and our heating fuel isn't as expensive?
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 2:25 PM on January 21, 2022 [23 favorites]

The maximum temperature the article recommends as safe is a standard setting for domestic hot water in the US, you probably don’t need a kettle.
posted by clew at 2:26 PM on January 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

But why don't you have them?

Because the first time you have one leak on you you never want to deal with them again?
posted by aspo at 2:29 PM on January 21, 2022 [20 favorites]

Go try to find one in a CVS or Walgreens or Rite Aid. When you can't find one, and ask, they will treat you as if you are insane... "A what?"

The CVS near us sells them, and they're available via their web site.

My wife has had one of these for ~10 years and uses it in the winter semi-regularly. It has held up well.
posted by ryanshepard at 2:35 PM on January 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

I'm actually kind of curious whether they really are that rare in "the industrialized world", or whether that's a stand-in for the US or North America. I'm in an industrialized country that is not the UK or Japan, and they're so easy to find here that I ended up buying two without even intending to. (Verdict: not bad! Though not having grown up with them I keep wondering about things like leakage and mold.)
posted by trig at 2:43 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

There's a picture in the story showing "foot warmers" in a railway carriage. Those look suspiciously like cuspidors to me.
posted by beagle at 2:45 PM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

But does it have Bluetooth?
posted by lock robster at 2:51 PM on January 21, 2022 [8 favorites]

To me they seem weirdly medical for some, probably dumb, reason. I get bad vibes and imagine they smell like damp band-aids. But that’s just me, I think.
posted by sjswitzer at 2:52 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

I tend to think of hot water bottles as one of those old-timey things like the bag that was made specifically for putting ice cubes in so that you could put it on a head bump or just comfort yourself if you had a headache or hangover; I dig the site's low-tech groove (even if the "the original hot water bottles were other people!" thing is a bit twee, and also a bit Soylent Green-ish), but I'm not about to give up an electric space heater for something that requires that I heat up water using... electricity.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:52 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

omg the Jayne Mansfield Shaped Hot Water Bottle
posted by Gerald Bostock at 2:56 PM on January 21, 2022 [7 favorites]

There are modern alternatives to hot water bottles. There are gadgets like the Hottie that contain an inert material that can be microwaved. They're very good, and alleviate the problems of absent kettles, leaks and scalding liquids. We've been using them in our house for years.
posted by pipeski at 2:58 PM on January 21, 2022 [19 favorites]

You can get modern silicone HWBs in cozy sweaters, fuzzy covers, and with bonus handwarming pockets. They also come in long skinny versions that some people prefer.

This winter we've been using them at our feet when we sleep, and when camping or sitting around the fire pit they're perfect tucked into your hoodie against your core (which is where the one with the hand pocket is also nice). Our tap water runs a smidge hot and that is sufficient to keep the bottle pretty warm under the covers all night, no kettle needed. When camping, we re-use the bottle water every night and reheat on the fire or stove in our water pot, but you do need to keep an eye on it lest it get too hot.

(And yes, you can still get the bag-style ice packs and - at least if you have easy access to ice - they're better than gel packs when you need them to conform to something odd-shaped like a face, jaw, head, or knee.)
posted by Lyn Never at 3:06 PM on January 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

I don't think I could survive winters in the UK without hot water bottles. I'm sitting here with one right now as I type. It's your standard shape, but the cover has fuzzy hand pockets. My other hot water bottle is about 3 feet long and very skinny and in the pattern/headshape of a giraffe. The website I bought it from uses the same template for cows, dogs, cats, and other animals. So, stupidly, the front legs are up at the head, instead of down at the bottom with the back legs. Other than that, I really can't complain.
posted by iamkimiam at 3:09 PM on January 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

A simple sack filled with cherry pits will also work very well when microwaved.
posted by trotz dem alten drachen at 3:10 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

But so pointy!
posted by iamkimiam at 3:12 PM on January 21, 2022

Go try to find one in a CVS or Walgreens or Rite Aid. When you can't find one, and ask, they will treat you as if you are insane... "A what?"

All three have them in stock at the closest location to me… Maybe it’s a regional thing? I’ve never been to a drug store in New England or the PNW that doesn’t stock them.

Walgreens

CVS

Rite Aid
posted by a box and a stick and a string and a bear at 3:16 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

One of the Christmas gifts my mom gave this year was flaxseed-filled pillow things that can be microwaved. They are fantastic for driving to work in cold weather or just keeping in a pocket.
posted by Foosnark at 3:17 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

And you can perform an old-timey feat of strength by inflating one until it bursts.

From wikipedia: "Most hot water bottles burst with the nose in one minute". Tkeshelashvili successfully exploded three hot-water bottles during a live television broadcast"
posted by etherist at 3:18 PM on January 21, 2022

We got two for our tiny vacation home because even turning on the heater or making a fire in the wood stove is not enough to take the chill out of the mattress in the bedroom on the first night. We use hot water from the tap. You can put it in the bed to warm up the area where the bulk of your body goes and then push it down to your feet when you get in. It makes everything a lot more tolerable.
posted by oneirodynia at 3:18 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Two things:

1) Almost my first job as a paid journalist was to write a hot water bottles supplement for a pharmacists' trade magazine here in the UK. My colleagues on the mag thought this was hilarious.

2) The OP's wording reminded me of something Michael Moorcock once said about the features you'd want to have in the ideal information retrieval device. He listed portability, privacy, silent operation, direct access to the text, ability to scroll forward or backward at any speed and needing no external power source. "We have such a device," he concluded. "And it's called a book."
posted by Paul Slade at 3:19 PM on January 21, 2022 [11 favorites]

Being in the damp and cold UK, and having Raynaud’s, I doubt I would have survived childhood without my Suba-Seal hot water bottle (with furry teddy-bear case!) in bed.

My mum, who grew up poor, had to share both a bed and a single hot water bottle with her sisters as a child, and has nursed a quiet grudge for several decades that she was the one always condemned to have the stopper end to put her cold feet on. So when Dad saw a four-foot-long hot water bottle for sale last year, he bought it for her, to her absolute delight. That night, she carried it triumphantly upstairs to bed, in his words, “draped over her arms like a python”.
posted by Morfil Ffyrnig at 3:24 PM on January 21, 2022 [34 favorites]

How are people exploding these things!? Are they filling them to the brim? Too quickly? Not gently flattening the top third before putting the cap on? Filling them with nitroglycerine?
posted by iamkimiam at 3:24 PM on January 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

I've tried using one in bed when things get colder here and results were mixed. I found that even an hour or two in the bed really it only heated up a small area under the bottle such that my covers still felt cold everywhere else, plus to take advantage I had to kick the bottle off it's spot for my feet to have much of a benefit. Then too if I timed it poorly the bottle would feel quite hot and I'd have to avoid brushing it with my feet during the early part of the night lest I wake myself up from the hot foot. It wasn't bad, but required a lot more effort for the payoff.
posted by Carillon at 3:26 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

I grew up with hot water bottles. In the Rockies they make a cold bed in winter instantly comfortable.

My German is nonexistent - but a while back I was gifted one of these. I'm not sure how one would get one to the US, but it's the perfect hot water bottle for putting between your back and a chair without worrying that it will burst.
posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 3:28 PM on January 21, 2022

Still pretty common in New Zealand (hello cold, damp housing!) and when I call home in winter my mum allows has one. We call them piggies because when they are full, and you fold back the little tab near the top over the filling hole to make a snout, it looks like a pig. We'd draw little eyes of them as well.
posted by inflatablekiwi at 3:31 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

Hot water bottles are great, but beware erythema ab igne, or "hot water bottle rash". (c/w pictures of rashes.) Just don't let the thing cook you too much. Move it around now and then.

(Other names for the affliction apparently include "granny's tartan", oh boy.)
posted by Chef Flamboyardee at 3:38 PM on January 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

Because we have better insulated homes and our heating fuel isn't as expensive?

I dunno, if AskMe has taught me anything* it's that the heated mattress pad/electric blanket is enthusiastically embraced in the US, which exists in the same niche. But the lack-of-kettle-begets-lack-of-hot-water-bottle thing does make sense, I guess if you don't have an easy, safe way to pour hot water, a hot water bottle's not really a goer.

I had no idea about the existence of long hot water bottles - ooooh!

Must admit, these days I'm pretty much an electric blanket convert and the hot water bottle doesn't get much of a look in. In the ranking of body-heating aids, I'd say hot water bottles do stay hot much longer than rice/bean/cherry pit bags, though they aren't as easily mouldable to body parts.

*Obvs, AskMe has taught me many more important things than that, but for the purposes of this thread, that's no1...
posted by penguin pie at 3:38 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

Oh my gosh, I LOVE my hot water bottle! I have two - the standard size and the long skinny. I started using them when I spent year camping across the US, and they’re just so damn handy, I kept using them when I returned to roofs and doors.

There are modern alternatives to hot water bottles. There are gadgets like the Hottie that contain an inert material that can be microwaved.

… ah, yes, but on those occasions when the electricity goes out, you want a hot water bottle. Right now, I have a gas stove; the prior abode had a wood burning fireplace with insert; and I still have my camp stove. I’ve lived in cold places with unresponsive landlords, so I tend to scope out water-heating alternatives in every place I move to.

Plus — and this is a significant plus — the gentle ocean-like undulation of a filled hot water bottle is amazingly soothing. I really can’t recommend them enough.
posted by Silvery Fish at 3:40 PM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

...but set a man afire and you'll keep him warm for the rest of his life.
posted by The Tensor at 3:41 PM on January 21, 2022 [23 favorites]

wabenwärmflasche at €15 ?? You was robbed. A few November's ago, I found myself in one of the Irish chain pharmacies. They had a basket full of buidéil uisce te reduced to €5 including a little fleece vest. I bought one for everyone in the family. I use one all the time to warm the cockles of me kidneys while sitting on the sofa. You don't need to heat the whole room/house if you have one of these. But note that they do wear out, especially if you habitually fill them too hot, as my scalded adult daughter found out twice last year.
posted by BobTheScientist at 3:43 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am also a little baffled at the "look at this discovery" tone of the article. I grew up in rural/remote Canada and hot water bottles were a common-enough thing. Strictly an indoor concept, though, because they don't make much of a difference at seriously cold temperatures and instead can actually become a risk. (Wet clothing can get you into a hell of a lot of trouble when it's -45.)

Even still, they're pretty much gone now. There are better/more effective/more economical options when you have things like reliable electricity or access to grocery stores. These days, for warming a cabin bed in the winter, I use catalytic hand warmers that run on alcohol; I don't honestly know what their carbon footprint is, but I doubt it's very much. They work beautifully and can turn a small amount of cheap rubbing alcohol into hours of clean heat. In fact, I think I'm going to go tuck one into a pillow case right now. Bliss.
posted by ZaphodB at 3:46 PM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

Hot water bottles from the UK are much better than the ones you can get in the U.S. Thicker rubber, and much wider, metal reinforced, mouths. They also last forever, as far as I can tell, unless a cat bites through one.
posted by still_wears_a_hat at 3:46 PM on January 21, 2022 [5 favorites]

I was visiting Japan and visited my spouse's grandparents in the countryside one winter and as a bedwarmer (futonwarmer really because we were all sleeping on futon on the floor) they put a coal in a pouch that I'm pretty sure was lined with asbestos. It did the job but it freaked me out.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 3:48 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Maybe my worn copy of Trouble for Trumpets as a child primed me to think these were commonplace, but I've owned hot water bottles pretty much my entire adult life (PNW, FWIW). Actually, on reflection, it was also my best friend's mum who is very British, imprinted the use of these for me. We would hang out in his shitty, uninsulated, detached garage stocked with couches and thrift store heaters. His mum would bring us all hot water bottles...probably to keep us out of the house.

I will credit hot water bottles to some of my early adulthood relationship success; "bring your partner a hot water bottle and some tea" goes a long way when you're 20, broke, and largely clueless.
posted by furnace.heart at 3:48 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

This is one of those physical experiences - like weighted blankets and thick woolen socks - that I just fundamentally don't understand. It does me no harm and I'm happy for everyone who likes it. I'm happy to believe it's more efficient than other things. But, it's only ever been annoying for me. I spent a night in a tent at -60C. The advice I was given was to bring a bunch of hot water bottles. . . and within 20 minutes they were all kicked out of bed because they drove me absolutely nuts. "Let's make one part of your uncomfortably warm" just doesn't work for me. I'm convinced I've given it enough of a fair try.

(I really wanted to link to the song "Hot Water Bottle" by the Trifles. The San Francisco band from the early 2000s, not the newer LA one or the older London one. But, it doesn't seem to exist online.)
posted by eotvos at 3:55 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

Recently was using one for a sore back and my four year old was intrigued and took it away from me to cuddle with it. Brought back memories of the comfort of a hot water bottle in bed as a child.
posted by CMcG at 4:10 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

"We have such a device," he concluded. "And it's called a book."

What about text search?
posted by metaplectic at 4:19 PM on January 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

Oh I am an evangelist of the hot water bottle lifestyle, in the winter my toes get so icy when I go to bed that I can’t sleep. I do have a kettle, though (and a cashmere cover for mine, it’s wonderful). A lot of friends also have them but like, we all are weirdos (for the US) with kettles and no microwaves. I used to use an electric heating pad and I think the hot water bottle is just more… radiant? Cozier? It’s a nicer heat. Don’t ask me what I mean in more detail, I can’t explain it.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 4:23 PM on January 21, 2022

We ordered our first hot water bottle when we were doing an end-of-year “oops, that FSA money is about to go away” spending spree and they were available on the FSA-specific dot com where we were shopping. And it turned out we loved it so we bought another the next year.

Also we do have a kettle, but we just fill the hot water bottles from the bathtub spout.
posted by fedward at 4:36 PM on January 21, 2022

Drinking coffee got me interested in coffee thermoses, and from there ... well, let’s just say I now have more than 100 thermoses of all kinds... probably many more, from 180 ml up to 7L.

The old glass thermoses never seem to lose their vacuums, but the older stainless steel and chrome plated ones do, and I discovered that the half gallon Thermos brand stainless steel thermoses made by King-Seely in the mid-70s (like this, but with a stainless cup, which is purely a matter of aesthetics) have lost some but not all of their vacuum, and that if you fill them with absolutely boiling water they will still be quite warm 8 hours later, yet not too hot to touch even right after filling, but I always put a heavy cotton sock over it because I was so worried about burning my partner in her sleep.

She needed to sleep by herself sometimes because of extreme insomnia, but couldn’t abide an electric blanket or a warm room, and one of those kept her perfectly toasty all night, though she most often peeled the sock off in her sleep with her freakishly prehensile toes.

I’ve often thought that in snow camping with a good down bag, a thermos with an intact vacuum might be enough to keep a person warm, but I never got around to trying it.
posted by jamjam at 4:45 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Back when I was a kid, my father took me to see a compilation film of a bunch of Laurel and Hardy shorts. One had me laughing uncontrollably with tears pouring out of my eyes. They are together in a room, dressed in their night shirts, and about to share a bed. Hardy gets in and moves toward the wall. Laurel with his back to Hardy, reveals a hot water bottle and gets into bed, and pulls up the blankets. He shuffles around a bit, obviously placing the hot water bottle. They both appear to be going to sleep. Suddenly, Hardy’s eyes open, he raises his head and looks at Laurel with a real look of disgust. That’s when the laughing started… And their bickering over mistaken impressions over what is going on. The moral of the story? Make sure the hot water bottle is sealed securely.
posted by njohnson23 at 4:49 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Amused at the bit where the author noted hot water bottles were their only home heat source. Wind chills over the past few days here were -30°F. We would probably die (figuratively) trying to stay warm with just hot water bottles.
posted by caution live frogs at 5:01 PM on January 21, 2022

My only knowledge of hot water bottles comes from this Jeeves and Wooster episode (I promise it makes sense if you watch the whole episode). Dang Bobbie Wickham, always getting Bertie into ... uh, hot water.
posted by basalganglia at 5:23 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Previously, related: Restoring the Old Way of Warming: Heating People, not Places. I still want a hooded chair, but am making do with microwaving a rice bag as needed.
posted by MonkeyToes at 5:45 PM on January 21, 2022 [9 favorites]

YES! I was hoping somebody would dig up and reshare that FPP.
posted by iamkimiam at 5:52 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I think a single use version of this is quite common in Asia but unheard of in the West. In particular, Japan, due to the general lack of central heating and far more common use of public transport in winter, but I know a lot of Hong Kong residents who use these.

Here is one example, the Kairo heat pack - these are single use and disposable, and produce heat for 12 hours. It's a thin flat layer with an adhesive to stick to the underneath of your clothes. Generally used for winter for occasions where you don't want to wear a big puffy down jacket but still want to remain warm outdoors, perhaps on an extra cold winter day using public transport but you need to be in office wear / formal clothes.
posted by xdvesper at 6:09 PM on January 21, 2022

Yeah, it's easy enough to find it in Asia (perhaps my part of Asia, being adjacent to East Asia?), I have loads in various sizes. Great for cramps too.

Going thru the history in TFA reminds me that people used to put warmed up bricks as well (at the bottom of the bed)? That's what I have read. Feels more likely to hurt someone though.
posted by cendawanita at 6:35 PM on January 21, 2022

We always had a hot water bottle when I was a little kid. I spent hours resting my head on one whenever I had one of my many, many ear infections.
posted by briank at 6:55 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

Brings back a memory about the one time I slept over with my boyfriend at his mother’s house. It was winter, and I get cold if it’s below 70. It was a drafty old New England house, and she was a stingy New England Yankee. I was FROZEN.

I asked if there was some way I could be less cold, and they affectionately brought me a hot water bottle. He said that’s how he kept warm in bed while growing up. It made falling asleep tolerable.

The next morning, the bottle was just as cold as the rest of the house, and I absolutely YELPED while waking up when the thing touched my bare leg.
posted by Melismata at 6:58 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

One of the Christmas gifts my mom gave this year was flaxseed-filled pillow things that can be microwaved.

I prefer the ceramic bead types, since they can also be tossed in the freezer if you need an impromptu ice pack.
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:15 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I remember the one we had growing up (in NJ, my mom from New England) and the strong rubber (?) smell to it. I think that’s why they still seem medicinal to me.
posted by raccoon409 at 7:22 PM on January 21, 2022

How are people exploding these things!? Are they filling them to the brim? Too quickly? Not gently flattening the top third before putting the cap on? Filling them with nitroglycerine?

I generally find the nitroglycerin method more reliable than any of the others.
posted by flabdablet at 7:32 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

I used one last night when I woke up with icy cold feet despite the down comforter and blanket. It was still warmish in the morning. Warm feet make sleeping much easier and nicer. It's supposed to be below 0F again overnight. You have to keep the house pretty warm so the pipes don't freeze, but the cold tries to get in. I'll fill the hot water bottle again tonight.

I love this article, great find.

Melismata, you may be my daughter-in-law, sorry.
posted by theora55 at 7:50 PM on January 21, 2022 [3 favorites]

gently flattening the top third before putting the cap on

Popping the plug into the opening and giving it a half turn closed, then gently squeezing until air stops coming out and water starts to, then screwing the plug fully home before the expelled water can run back in, then shaking out the excess water, makes for a gurgle-free night's warmth.
posted by flabdablet at 8:09 PM on January 21, 2022 [6 favorites]

one study revealed that lowering the air temperature in an office from 20.5°C to 18.8°C (69°F to 66°F) and giving employees a heated chair to compensate for the discomfort leads to 35% less energy use and consistently higher scores for thermal comfort.

Whaaaa? Got to be pretty warm in the study location. Setting back four degrees celsius here gains maybe 10%

The rather short and mild winters here in Barcelona allow me to use hot water bottles as the only heating system because it rarely gets colder than 12°C (54°F) in my unheated apartment.

Ah. Yes, in that climate setting back a couple degrees would make for significant savings. But also eighteen degrees is regular winter room temperature for the Mitheral house with an over night setback of two degrees.
posted by Mitheral at 8:39 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

> xdvesper: Those oxidation-based warmer packs are pretty common in cold parts of the world, mainly for supplemental warmth in pockets, gloves, and boots. I used dozens of them every winter growing up in Minnesota, stuffed inside my skates while playing pond hockey with the neighborhood kids.

Since they don't have much thermal mass I wouldn't say they could be used in place of proper cold weather clothing -- though I suppose our definitions of "cold weather" may differ.
posted by theory at 9:00 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

to me they seem weirdly medical for some, probably dumb, reason

Because way too similar to an enema bag (and those are available at Wal-Mart).
posted by Rash at 9:08 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

Rash has something there.
In form factor, there's too close a resemblance to the old fashioned douchebag.
Not a comforting association.
Also the rubber used? Maybe it was just a certain era, or brand, but the ones I remember vividly had the same medicinal-latex smell of, um, a brand new birth control diaphragm?
Perhaps some reasons why they aren't as popular in the US.
posted by bartleby at 10:05 PM on January 21, 2022 [2 favorites]

But for camping though, it has long been wisdom to make an extra pot of hot water at night, pour it in a canteen or Nalgene bottle, and put it in the foot end of your sleeping bag.
Another camping-store endorsement is for reusable hand warmer packs. A plastic pouch that you boil for 10 minutes to liquefy the contents. After they cool, they stay liquid, until you snap a little metal disk floating inside. That triggers an exothermic (heat producing) reaction, as the goo inside re-crystallizes into something resembling wet sugar. When they've given up their heat, you take them home and boil them again to recharge. Not enough to get through the night, but lovely tucked into a coat pocket on a cold windy walk.
posted by bartleby at 10:08 PM on January 21, 2022 [1 favorite]

If you're ever somewhere in the US northeast, decorated with a colonial era antique aesthetic (spinning wheels and butter churns, etc), you might see something that looks like a copper frying pan with a lid, on the end of a broom handle, hung on a wall. They used to fill the pan with hot coals from the fire, then use the long handle to 'iron' the bedsheets to drive out cold and damp before getting in. And/or make the bed and tuck in the blankets, then shove it down into the toe end of that pocket, so when you slide it out a few minutes later and slide yourself in, the foot end is all toasty. That's what that thing was for.
posted by bartleby at 10:09 PM on January 21, 2022 [8 favorites]

The Japanese oval ones are great, we have one in metal, but uncharacteristically there is one tiny thing that would improve ours. It needs a way to attach the plug to the pan while it's being stored with the plug out.

Unless the metal is so good that it can be stored closed and damp? I've never wanted to for fear of must, if not rust.
posted by clew at 11:12 PM on January 21, 2022

I used to fill up a water bottle to keep our newborn warm in a draughty flat in west London. It would generally do an amazing job for half the night, and we'd have to top it back up when it got cold.

I can't remember which story it was, but I remember reading a scene in which someone had left a loose brick in the fireplace all evening, and wrapped it in a blanket to warm up their bed. I remember thinking that was so clever.

We have serious damp problems in the UK, because most of our housing stock was built with the notion that you'd always have fires in the fireplaces, warming up the bricks of the house to radiate heat slowly throughout the night and day. Since we don't do this any more, they stay more damp than they used to (particularly when someone has pebble-dashed the outer walls to help retrain heat).

Time was, you would occasionally be able to stand on the outside of someone's chimney in winter and warm yourself up for a spell.

Anyway, the electric kettle hypothesis for why water bottles are still big here is interesting, but then I'd wonder why they aren't just microwaved in the US. You'd be amazed the myths people here have about boiling water by microwaving: they're convinced it's going to create an explosion.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 2:25 AM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

If you want to save energy, you can turn off your heating and wear your full winter clothes inside. People don't want to live like that. They want to be comfortable. As long as people can afford the resources to heat their homes, I think they will continue to do so.
posted by starfishprime at 2:28 AM on January 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

I am a cold sleeper, and I could not cope without my hot water bottle. The secret is to put the bottle in the bed before hand, so it's nice and cosy when you get in, and then push it to the very bottom of the bed, out of reach, so the radiant heat keeps your feet just warm enough.

They are also very efficient. In a good cover, it will still be warm in the morning. Those microwavable bead/rice/ wheat things don't last an hour and are a poor substitute (but better for holding against body parts without burning yourself.) I live in Scotland, but the flat is well insulated enough that we actually haven't turned the heating on since we've moved in. A hot water bottle is sufficient for cold mornings and evenings and is waaaaaaaaay cheaper than electric radiators.

On very cold days I leave a hot water bottle for my cats, wrapped in blanket so they can't burn themselves.
posted by stillnocturnal at 3:37 AM on January 22, 2022

It needs a way to attach the plug to the pan while it's being stored with the plug out.

A short length of brass or stainless ball chain (here you could steal it from a tub stopper) could be attached to the pan and the top of the plug with some JB weld or your go to two part epoxy.
posted by Mitheral at 4:59 AM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

Technology connections reviews reusable rechargeable hand warmers!
posted by rebent at 5:12 AM on January 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

(and a cashmere cover for mine, it’s wonderful).

That's a thing, woo?!? Home made or is there a secret source? No really, what a great idea.
posted by sammyo at 6:18 AM on January 22, 2022

Omg, there is a whole world I never knew,

Simple and elegant, this cable knit design is a timeless one. We select only the finest Cashmere fibres to ensure unparalleled softness in our products, and as a result, our Silver Cashmere Hot Water Bottle Cover feels like pure luxury next to the skin.

... take a beat,

$175
posted by sammyo at 6:22 AM on January 22, 2022

Am filing this, along with electric kettles, underneath: "But why don't you have them?"

Standard UK outlets supply about 3000W, standard US outlets supply about 1800W.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 6:48 AM on January 22, 2022 [2 favorites]

We do have electric kettles in the US but they're not very common, and probably not as good.

You really can't run the toaster oven and electric kettle at the same time in our kitchen without blowing the breaker though.
posted by Foosnark at 7:03 AM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

We do have electric kettles in the US but they're not very common, and probably not as good.

I think electric kettles are pretty common among American tea drinkers. I am from the Midwest and while they aren't in every home the way they are compared to the UK, they're in more homes and workplaces than people might think. I studied abroad in England in the mid-2000s which is where I got turned on (heh) to electric kettles (and also unsurprisingly where I developed my love of tea), but most of them were simply on/off. The one we have in our house has different settings for various types of teas, plus a french press setting.

I never thought to try heating up water from an electric kettle for a hot water bottle, though. Wouldn't most electric kettle settings be way too hot for that?
posted by mostly vowels at 7:37 AM on January 22, 2022 [4 favorites]

As someone who’s owned kettles in both the US and the UK, the difference in time to boil isn’t tremendous — a couple minutes at most.

There are decent-ish electric kettles available in the US. I think their relative rarity is due more to the culture of drinking (hot) tea being, uh… weaker.

With a hot water bottle you let the kettle sit for a couple minutes after it’s come off the boil before filling. Or use a lower temperature setting if your kettle has that.
posted by theory at 7:54 AM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

Wouldn't most electric kettle settings be way too hot for that?

Not in my experience, and I'm from where a hot water tap is the more unusual occurrence (actually non-existent), and so far so good, especially as it's more common to have them in woolen sleeves. Hot climate here, of course, so as I mentioned, it's good for cramps.
posted by cendawanita at 7:54 AM on January 22, 2022

Wow, 175 dollars for the cashmere one! I got this nice one from HEMA for 7 euros. Never mind that kettle business, I fill it with boiling water straight from the quooker. Nice for cramps, cold feet or back pain.
posted by mirthe at 9:14 AM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also when a sweater falls to moth or shrinking, that’s good wool for warm covers.
posted by clew at 9:55 AM on January 22, 2022 [4 favorites]

Surprised no one has mentioned reusable chemical heating pads [sl amazon] yet. I have one for years and years in my first aid kit and it amazingly still works and recharges.
posted by Insert Clever Name Here at 11:09 AM on January 22, 2022

I'm a little mystified by the discussion of kettles. While I know electric kettles are not as universal in the US as in Britain (probably owing to our weak-sauce 120V mains instead of 240), do kettles in the UK not bring the water to a boil automatically? I'm pretty sure they do. I can't imagine putting boiling water into a hot-water bottle. First because I don't think they're designed for it, second because it seems like it would be way too hot for comfort.

I guess maybe a coffee tureen would do the job, although those seem to get pretty hot, too.

I've always just filled hot-water bottles, when I've used them, from the hot tap on the faucet after giving it time to warm up. That's usually 110-120F in most places where I've lived.

Agree though that in the US, the microwavable heating pillows seem to be the solution du jour. The commercial ones seem to be filled with plastic/resin beads of some sort, although homemade ones can apparently be made from lots of stuff. (I've heard of rice, beans, dry popcorn, buckwheat hulls, and various gels all being used.)

We use electric heating pads and stuff in our household, and have found them very effective for keeping warm at night and thus reducing the use of the furnace. We have a timer thermostat that basically turns the central heat off (down to 60F or so) at night, and kicks it back on in the morning so that getting out of bed isn't totally miserable. Seems to save a reasonable amount of natural gas.

There seem to be two varieties of heated mattress pad and electric blankets available: the older type actually runs 120V mains current through the heating wires, which is cheap but can be bad if an animal chews on it, and then there are more modern ones that use some sort of step-down transformer / voltage converter, so the current in the pad itself is low-voltage. We decided to pay for the second type on account of cats and dogs. On full-size beds and larger, you usually get two sets of controls as well, one for each side of the bed.

I doubt that the energy usage of a heated mattress pad is that much higher than keeping a tureen of water constantly hot for hot-water bottles, as the article proposes. You're still "heating the person, not the room", but not fussing around with hot water.

It's still resistive heat, though, at the end of the day. So at best, it's using 1W of electricity to produce 1W of heat. Given that a good heat pump can basically move 4W of heat using 1W of electricity ("COP" is the value you want to look at, it's similar to SEER for air conditioners—but unlike AC units that can get a 30:1 ratio, heat pumps generally top out around 4 or 5:1) I wonder if there's really that much energy savings in a small, well-insulated space.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:40 AM on January 22, 2022

(probably owing to our weak-sauce 120V mains instead of 240)

I've seen this claim a lot over the years, and I honestly have no idea if there's any evidence for it being anything but a basic "just so" story. I live in the US. I own an electric kettle. It boils water on 120V mains about as fast as I can get anything into a cup or pour-over coffee maker that would require it. If Brits would view that speed as so slow as to make the appliance unworkable, I am terrified to even ask what it is they're doing with boiling water.

(it's also able to heat to temperatures below boiling, ranging from something like 100F to 212F in 1 degree ingrements; so you could in fact use one with a hot water bottle without being required to bring the water to a full boil)
posted by a faithful sock at 12:11 PM on January 22, 2022

I can't imagine putting boiling water into a hot-water bottle. First because I don't think they're designed for it, second because it seems like it would be way too hot for comfort.

The manufacturers do specifically warn you not to do this.

Everybody in my family has always done it anyway. Never had an issue with it. Comfort is perfectly fine given a nice thick fluffy cover, and the high internal starting temperature plus the insulating quality of the cover means that the bottle will stay properly and comfortingly warm all the way to the morning instead of turning into a cold and flabby jellyfish in the foot of the bed.
posted by flabdablet at 12:26 PM on January 22, 2022 [4 favorites]

I think the danger with boiling water is not so much that the bottle is a burn hazard (because most people use a cover). It's more that you have to pour the water in such a way as to leave room for hot air to escape the bottle. If you pour too fast, you get boiling water splashing back out as the hot air expands and creates a bubble of pressure. And you don't want water that hot splashing on you. But poured slowly, and with excess air carefully expelled, it's fine. They usually mould a warning into the neck of the bottle.
posted by pipeski at 4:02 PM on January 22, 2022 [1 favorite]

Or the bottle fails just as you are snuggling up with it and you get drenched in 90 degree water.
posted by Mitheral at 6:24 PM on January 22, 2022

I've noticed two things make a huge difference - at least as a foot-warmer - for heat longevity using hot but safe tap water: I swish the bag out with hot water and dump it before filling it, so the bag itself is hot on fill, and I put an extra blanket across the foot of the bed so as much heat as possible is trapped in the blankets. I have definitely gotten up after 8ish hours in the bed and the bag is still detectably warm to my feet.

Our bags are wearing pretty cheap acrylic sweaters; they don't provide a ton of thermal retention but do make it comfortable to hold the bag between my ankles.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:23 PM on January 22, 2022

I've seen this claim a lot over the years, and I honestly have no idea if there's any evidence for it being anything but a basic "just so" story. I live in the US. I own an electric kettle. It boils water on 120V mains about as fast as I can get anything into a cup or pour-over coffee maker that would require it. If Brits would view that speed as so slow as to make the appliance unworkable, I am terrified to even ask what it is they're doing with boiling water.

They're making tea. How many cups are you making, and how often? Like the Simpsons, in this house, we obey the laws of thermodynamics. For a single cup, the difference isn't too bad, but as you make more tea, things get worse.

The Wirecutter recommends the Cuisinart CPK-17. Let's take that as our reference US kettle. 1500W, apparently about 7 minutes to boil 1.7L of water.* The UK equivalent is the Cuisinart CPK17BPU, 3000W, 4 min for a full kettle.

* You'll see 4 min listed in several places for the US Cuisinart, but they're likely taking that figure from the Consumer Reports review testing, which used 4 cups for testing.
posted by zamboni at 8:49 PM on January 22, 2022

I have used rubber hot water bottles all my life and never had a catastrophic failure. Old ones tend to develop small leaks around the filling hole, but can be discarded before that gets too bad.

I was brought up in a cottage with no heating upstairs and still prefer an unheated bedroom with a hwb and lots of covers, supplemented by a cardigan and even a hat if it is very cold. In exceptionally cold weather I may even turn the radiator on. I;ve only burned myself once, when I fell asleep drunk and woke with what later turned into a scar on my ankle. As a child I used to greatly resent it when we had visitors and I had to make do with a glass lemonade bottle of hot water crammed into a sock, which would make a very loud noise if it fell out of the end of the bed and rolled across the floor. We also had one of the large ceramic jobs (which are really only meant for heating the bed before you get in) and that made an even louder noise if you forgot it, but didn't roll.

One of my winter rituals (along with desperately trying to locate a pair of boots or slippers) is digging out last year's hwbs from under the end of the bed where they have escaped from my feet. My favourite has a cashmere cover made from a moth-eaten cardigan and is like having a cat in the bed, but it doesn't wake you at 4 am demanding to be fed. I find the smell of warm rubber (and feet, I suppose) very comforting rather than medicinal.
posted by Fuchsoid at 10:48 PM on January 22, 2022

I have one of these Japanese-style "tin" hot water bottles and it is so great on a cold night.
posted by ob1quixote at 6:26 AM on January 24, 2022 [1 favorite]