Heart Hand Warmer to use again and again

by Carolyn in Miscellaneous Gadgets

9 Comments on “Heart Hand Warmer to use again and again”

Phrogg Says:

December 17th, 2007 at 10:05 am

Sounds like the ones i used to use about 10 years ago, though the ones i had were colorless, rather than red. Same principle, though. This isn’t anything necessarily new, but they work really well and are definitely cool just for the geek-factor of being able to watch a chemical reaction over and over again.

Latest Gadget Gallery Matrix » Coolest Gadgets Says:

December 18th, 2007 at 6:29 am

[...] Heart Hand Warmer to use again and again [...]

Ashley Says:

December 27th, 2007 at 5:06 pm

I recently bought a pair of these from EBay – they’re wonderful!

Push the little button inside and the sodium acetate inside the button sets off a chemical reaction in the gel that solidifies it and heats it up. Perfect for slipping into your gloves or back pocket. The heat lasts up to an hour and they’re easy to re-use again and again. Just stick them in hot water, melt the insides down, and use them again! I highly recommend these!

Suresh Says:

January 14th, 2008 at 2:35 am

How does button trigger the chemical reaction?

Kitsune Says:

January 14th, 2008 at 6:27 am

Suresh-

Inside the warmer is concentrated sodium acetate. Snapping the button makes all the little molecules inside (whatever you want to call them) freak out and crystallize by creating a nucleation center.

The easiest way to explain it would be to picture a football field of nerds. They’re happy, doing their thing, discussing D&D and whatnot. Then throw a jock into the field. Provoke the jock. He turns around and punches a nerd. The rest of the nerds freak out in response to that single nerd being punched and all the nerds falls over.

Simple, chemical chain reactions :3

Mellimaus Says:

December 17th, 2008 at 5:41 pm

I just bought some of these, but they won’t reset…do you HAVE to put them in boiling water? I just put them in a bowl of hot water…should I do hot water with a towel?…

Phrogg Says:

December 18th, 2008 at 2:07 am

Mellimaus:
Yes, it does need to be boiled for the gel to return to liquid form. The temperature of a bowl of hot water won’t be adequate; the sodium acetate requires sustained temperature at above the boiling point of water in order to become stable in a fluid state.
Wrap one in a towel, and boil a pot of water. Drop the wrapped warmer in after the water’s boiling, and let it boil for 10-15 minutes.

Ashley Says:

December 19th, 2008 at 9:45 am

I won’t debate with you over this when I know for a fact that simply melting it down in hot water works just fine :3 Seeing as I bought these over a year ago and they’re *still* working just fine and they don’t re-crystalize after being melted down again.

Phrogg Says:

December 19th, 2008 at 9:56 am

Eh. Maybe they’ve changed somewhat since i had mine.
If you look up toward the top, it’s been about ten years since i’ve used mine. I seem to remember trying to simply soak them in hot water and it not working; i actually had to keep mine at a low boil.

Air pressure will also affect boiling points, though…boiling at one elevation might just be really hot water at another.

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