How to fill your hot water bottle safely

Dec 02, 2022 Last reply: 3 years ago 8 Replies

This is a why question which I looked up and found this.



How to fill your hot water bottle safely

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My why questions are below.


  1. When filling your hot water bottle, do not use boiling water.

Mine says 120 degrees but I like 160 degrees best. What is the right temperature given those discrepancies?


  1. ALWAYS expel air from the bottle by lowering it carefully onto a flat surface until the water appears at the opening.

Why? Air will compress. Water won't compress. If someone lays on it such that it might explode, won't air in the bottle make it safer?


If you actually contact 160 degrees you can be burned. The bottle is insulating you some though.

150-degree water can cause second-degree burns in two seconds.

If you were the lawyer for the bottle company what would you recommend?

Air is an insulator and it lowers the effectiveness of the bottle. Heat transfer is minimized. I don't see it helping under pressure as it won't compress very much.

If you are talking about a hot water bottle that people lay on etc., I would recommend using a heating pad.

Using a hot water bottle with very hot water is an accident waiting to happen.

Plus, what if it leaks while you are laying in bed, etc?

Andy

The heating pads I've seen come with a warning not to lie on them. Not to put them between your body and the mattress. And indeed, when my mother was old, she rolled over in the night and burned herself. It healed, but it hurt and for some people, diabetics maybe, would have been hard to heal. Hence, the warning.

It probably sounds more risky than it is. Growing up in South Dakota, we only had a small wood stove in the kitchen, with no heat in the bedrooms. We had one hot water bottle and it was frequently used, always without incident.

There were 8 kids, 4 beds, and 1 hot water bottle, so those of us who didn't get the hot water bottle would try to sneak in a cat from outside, but the cats didn't belong to anyone, so a lot of times when we needed a few we couldn't find them. You just do the best that you can.

I am a diabetic.

I have used a heating pad for 10+ years for my back pain.

Mine has a timer that shuts it off after 2 hrs.

Heating pads can be safely used while lying on them.

You might benefit from investigating further.

Fear can sometimes paralyze us.

Andy

Get a waterbed with a good heater. Really nice getting in on those cold nights.

I bought up diabetes, because I've heard they can have an especially hard time healing, but I included "maybe".

That's good. I don't know how long it takes to get burned.

I wrote so that everything I said was accurate. I was trying to do you and other readers a favor.

Maybe so but I'm not paralysed at all.

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