To remind people NOT to use hot water bottles?

[Laptopsas]

There is another thread running about cold weather and hit water bottles are being recommended as safe. They are not.

Get a heated throw or the microwaveable bags.

If you must use one, don’t use boiling water.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5068468-to-remind-you-all-to-throw-out-old-hot-water-bottles

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5176765-water-bottle-exploded

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2kd7k2e48jo

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cdxnez4zxkno

It's for the same people that need warnings on their coffee cups that the coffee is hot.

Because boiling a kettle (a particularly intensive use of electricity) is free, of course.

Boiling a full kettle is around 7p per time, wheras a heated blanket costs around 3.5 per night for a typical 150 W rated type.

Has no-one of this thread heard of the new fangled thing called central heating. It makes the whole house toasty. Highly recommend it.

I’ve managed to use them correctly for thirty years, so I’m good, thanks.

Electric blankets catch fire. So do wheat bags. There’s risk in everything and I’d rather be warm and take the risk than freeze my ass off because someone else has a bee in their bonnet.

Unless you don't want a hot bedroom. Has to be in the minuses for us to consider this. We have a bedroom window open at night most of the year.

This is ridiculous. Hot water bottles have been around for years!

The cost of boiling a full kettle is irrelevant because no one is putting a full kettle of boiling water in a hot water. Mine gets a bit of tap water then the dregs of the kettle after my night time cuppa (kettle filled to minimum line has enough for both, so the bit in the HWB would be getting boiling wether I used it or not)

I loathe a warm bedroom, I have my window open all year and the radiator thermostat on low. When I went to bed last night my room was 14 degrees which is absolutely fine. But when the weather is like that I have a hot water bottle to warm up as I get in the bed, I usually kick it out at some point in the night.

She says she never uses boiling water. Same here, I’ve used hot water bottles for nearly half a century and never had any issues, the water in it is not as hot as my coffee which I often spill on myself!

Same, a warm bedroom makes me feel ill, I always have the window slighly ajar so fresh air comes in but I'm all toasty under the duvet with my hot water bottle...

Love my hot water bottle. It’s at least 60 years old, quite possibly more and is as brilliant as the day it was first made…to be fair it’s an old pottery one, but it’s 100% fab! The only dowside it’s a bit heavy one 3/4 full. I put it between my sheets early evening and remove it before going to bed, which is all warm and cosy.

These people that live their lives in these petrified states of “what if this unlikely to happen thing happened” baffle me.

Hot water bottle (used correctly)is one of my life’s little pleasures- No one is taking it away.

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

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.

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

So has smoking.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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.!