To remind people NOT to use hot water bottles?

Well exactly it's ridiculous, hot water bottles have used safely for decades until some fuckwit fills it with boiling water, 99.9% of the time it's the user who's unsafe for not reading fucking instructions...it's really not difficult

Nah. We like a cold house and DH wouldn’t be able to sleep. My HWB is for my feet (Reynauds).

For every time someone’s hot water bottle has “exploded” there’s probably tens of thousands of times they haven’t exploded.

You could say this about so many things. You could do a thread titled “to remind people NOT to go on an aeroplane” or “to remind people NOT to light a candle” or “to remind people NOT to cross the road.” I couldn’t live my life this way.

I don’t need to be told to stop using mine, I will happily continue!!!

Thanks for the advice OP. I think I will stop using everything. It's the only way to be safe.

Don't use if old or rubber is perished, don't use boiling water, don't over fill on it and don't lay on it.
Common sense to me now, but until I was advised this I didn't know.
Been using for many years and no problems.

And go mouldy inside. Not a smell that's quickly forgotten!

Used hot water bottles my entire life, with boiling water. Never had an issue, it's user error surely.
Health and safety gone mad!

Oh Jesus, yes 🤮

Somewhat amused by "don't use hot water bottles because some people get injured by them... use electric blankets instead"
Because no one has ever been injured or accidentally set the bed on fire with those

I can't say that's a problem I've ever had with any of my wheat bags. Admittedly they don't stay hot all night, but long enough to warm you/the bed for sleep or soothe a stomach ache/aching muscles or warm up cold feet.

Wheat bags also serve as a delightful mouse feeder.

All this talk of hot water bottles is making me nostalgic for the seventies when they were an essential if you didn't want to freeze to death.

No central heating, ice and water inside windows, constant chest infections, a ton of blankets on the bed and the smell of rubber coming from the hot water bottle which you clutched like a lifesaver.

Hard to believe it now really when we nearly all have central heating, double glazing, several bathrooms, dishwashers, tumble dryers, books on demand (kindle) and entertainment on demand (streaming) and food on demand (just eat or tesco delivery etc)

It really is like another world. I'm kind of glad I got to see the old world too. It still amazes me that world war 2 had only been over for less than 20 years when my sister was born and my parents were alive during it (they are dead now) but how different were their lives to mine even. When clearing out my dads stuff I found ration books etc - it was just surreal.

Anyway sorry to hijack the threat but all this talk of hot water bottles just took me right back.

I love hot water bottles!!!!!

I did have one explode on me once though (my own fault, it was hot water and I'd put too much water in it) and I had burn blisters on my lower back and on the top of my buttocks for ages and it was incredibly painful.

I haven't made that mistake again!!

I would never be without my hot water bottle though!!!

For a bottle to "explode" it would have contained boiling water and the air not expelled. That was down to your misuse.

I warm the bed with an electric blanket, turn it off and take a body length bottle inside a fluffy cover filled with hot water to bed. I also make sure I can see the water at the neck as air expelled, before fastening the stopper.

Just because a few people misuse something, doesn't mean the sensible among us should be prevented from doing so.

Your heading should read "Don't forget to use your hot water bottle safely.!

Yeah I get that. I use morphine but it often doesn’t touch it so it’s back to heat and pacing around/rocking

Thanks OP, I know I'm in the minority here but I genuinely didn't know that you shouldn't use boiling water!

I've got an electric throw now so don't really use a hwb, but if I ever do I'll definitely get a new one (my old one is 10 years old) and not use boiling water!

we have a Percy pig one, well a hot water bottle that goes inside Percy. I’m 53 and I’ve just realised that the reason it feels so stiff is because the one that we had in the house as a child was obviously perishing, it was really pliable and wobbly. Percy also retains heat til morning , it’s quite amazing.

Yeah a couple of years ago I had a water bottle burst when I was holding it in my lap. It caused pretty bad burns on my thighs, which happily completely cleared up in a few weeks.

However, it was my fault for using a bottle which was clearly old and had visibly damaged rubber. Literally an accident waiting to happen. I've used hot water bottles since then without issue, due to my not being an idiot. Again.

Believe me, I have tried everything. I don't mind my heated period tens machine but nothing comes close to my hot water bottles. I do have the hot water bottle rash from years of use but that's a small compromise imo.

I'm allergic to wheat bags, my eyes swell shut so hot water bottles are the only alternative really. I am extremely careful with them though.

I love a hot water bottle, I've been using them sensibly all my life, 61 years, keep in date and expel the air when doing up the stopper.
Wheat bags are no good, they lose the heat so quickly.

So has smoking.

Be you stick on patches have been amazing for me and a heated pad I got from amazon
i stopped using hot water bottles as I ended up with toasted skin but sometimes it was the only thing that helped

This makes me laugh. Classic case of not wanting to admit that something I like might be risky. Yet if someone on here was posting about a MIL not using a car seat for a 2 minute journey the thread would probably go berserk.

Unfortunately most people find out how potentially dangerous hot water bottles are for the first time when they get covered in scalding water.

I am not sure how "using your brain" or "getting some common sense" helps guard against failure with manufacturing faults or fake standards (in fact a lot of products these days are produced incompliant with standards but claim that they actually are). It's difficult to tell what is fake and what isn't.

I guess the only good news is that largely it's the people that take the risk that bear the consequences of it.

Wheat bags don't hold the heat long enough and have a vile smell