Handwarmers

I thought I'd start this thread as a repository of anything to do with handwarmers. Of particular interest are the Jon-E type handwarmers, but we can also discuss all other types of handwarmers. For example, I know that certain brands of disposable warmers (that use iron filings, salt and wood dust) work better than others. Either they actually last as long as the manufacturer says, or it actually gets warm enough to be of use.

Areas of interest might be:
1. Does it actually live up to the manufacturer's claims?
2. List of suppliers, online and brick & mortar.
3. Prices, deals, etc.
4. Mods to make it work better.
5. Observations on quality, usefulness, etc.

I don't know much about handwarmers at all. I picked up an old-fashioned chrome plated one that runs off of lighter fluid. It stays hot to the touch for over eight hours. I probably won't ever use it hunting as it gives off a slight smell, but great for most other outdoor activities.

To start off:
I have just bought a few new Jon-E handwarmers. These use a liquid fuel to power them. Heat is generated by an exothermic catalytic reaction, using platinum wires or wool as the catalyst.

These were bought from Scotts Bait and Tackle (www.scottsbt.com). They came in a packaging different to what you normally see on other on-line stores. It is a clear plastic clamshell package, whereas the pictures on the other websites seem to be a blister pack with printed cardboard backing. I wonder if the version I got is the newer or older packaging and whether there has been any small changes to the design of the handwarmers.

Years ago, I bought a couple of other handwarmers, not from the Jon-E brand. The big difference was that it didn't have the wick on the side and seemed to use a bit of platinum wool rolled in a wire gauze, rather than the woven stuff that Jon-E uses.

I think that the Jon-E design has a major disadvantage in that the wick continues to vaporise fuel even after the flame has been blown out and the catalyst is running. It seems very wasteful as I'm sure most of the fuel vapour from the wick is missing the catalyst.

A quick test seemed to bear this out. I loaded both my old non-Jon-E handwarmer and my new Jon-E handwarmers with similar amounts of fuel. The Jon-E ones come with a filling jug and I loaded each handwarmer with 1 measure of the filling jug. (The instructions state that it a full fill is 2 measures).

Both seemed to get to the same temperature, but the Jon-E handwarmer burned out about a half hour before the off-brand handwarmer. I forgot to check the starting time. Also, the smell from the off-brand was clean with no odour, while the Jon-E version definitely smelled of unburnt fuel. Anyone else noticed this with their Jon-Es? Has anyone tried to plug up the wick to stop the smell? I know having the wick there makes lighting easier, but I wonder if it wouldn't be better without the wick. One can light them almost as easily with a proper Zippo.

I held an open flame close to the case and actually had the Jon-E version burst in to flames. Nothing happened with the off-brand version.

Pity I can't recall where I bought the off-brand version from, but it was quite a few years ago when there weren't many online stores selling these handwarmers. The only one I remember looking at was safetycentral, but they weren't shipping internationally at that time.

Anyway, a note about the fuel. I've never used Jon-E branded fuel as it has to be sent by ground, so I don't know if there is any noticeable difference in operation quality between the branded fuel and generic fuel.

I did note that Jon-E fuel is supposed to be Naptha, which is also the predominant component of Shellite, Zippo fuel and Coleman Fuel. I can't find an MSDS for Jon-E or Zippo fuel (though I found one for Rosonol). However, the MSDS for Shellite and Coleman both show that the fuels are composed of greater than 95% Naptha.

I have used Zippo fuel and Shellite with no noticeable ill effect. At some stage I may try Coleman fuel. Has anyone else got any other fuel recommendations?

BTW, has anyone tried the "1955 handwarmer" from restorationhardware.com? At $15 a pair, it has to be the cheapest one I've seen. Does it have a wick?

Also, I noticed that the finish on my off-brand handwarmers is very nice and smooth, like it was properly polished and buffed before being chromed. The Jon-E ones are much rougher, like it had been put through a drawing former that had been over-used, then not even given a cursory rub before being chromed. The 1955 ones look to have a beautifully buffed finish.

Steelwolf,

Actually, the handwarmer I own was from restoration hardware, the one pictured here: http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod230102&navAction=jump
The inside is filled with something like cotton, and the heating element looks like some kind of rolled metal mesh (sorry I don't know the terminology) and there is no wick. I just use Zippo lighter fluid in it, and that seems to work just fine.

Well if you bring the subject here in CPF then:
I use a Q3 with rechargeable batteries, it gets quite warm, has a long runtime, easy to reuse, you can have extra batteries if you need to be warm longer, etc.


Luigi

It looks cool... Now the $1,000,000 questions: Is this safe?

I'm thinking this would be perfect for a Patriots game here in New England. I would want probably 4 of them (2 for pants pockets... two for jacket pockets mabe 5)

I guess what i'm asking is.....Will I be a walking bomb?

leukos said:

Steelwolf,

Actually, the handwarmer I own was from restoration hardware, the one pictured here: http://www.restorationhardware.com/rh/catalog/product/product.jsp?productId=prod230102&navAction=jump
The inside is filled with something like cotton, and the heating element looks like some kind of rolled metal mesh (sorry I don't know the terminology) and there is no wick. I just use Zippo lighter fluid in it, and that seems to work just fine.

Click to expand...

I used the shake ones and find they need to be shaken to warm them back up, plus they can be resued in a zip lock bag. When they go bad, they go from feeling like they are full of fine sand, to rough grains of material.

The Jon E one gets hot fast and stays hot. The only bad part is you need to light it for a minute in a calm area before you put it in your pocket. Ive done this in bathrooms with no problems in public places.

Cobb: can you elaborate on the shaken handwarmers? Are they disposable or reusable? Do you have a brand?

Manzerick: 4 may be too many. I typically only need one in an inside pocket. Jon-E sells a hip pack that holds 2 standard sized handwarmers close to your kidneys. The idea being that the kidneys go through a lot of blood in an hour. If you can warm that blood, pretty soon it would reach the other parts of your body and start warming you up.

Leukos: Any pictures of the mesh/heating element and the filling port underneath the mesh? How's the performance? Does it warm up quickly? How long does it really stay hot on a single filling? How much fuel is considered "a single filling"?

I've just tweaked the woven heating element in my Jon-E handwarmers so that it sits lower, a little closer to the filling port. It now heats up very quickly. Much faster than my test yesterday anyway, and definitely a lot faster than the off-brand version. Within minutes, I could barely hold the bare Jon-E, while the off-brand was still only just perceptibly warm.

I believe it is a useful and fairly simple tweak to make the Jon-E perform better. I think that by pushing the heating element closer to the filling port, and having it seal up the opening, it catches more of the fuel vapours and so gets hot faster. It remains to be seen if this will adversely affect its run time.

Luigi: Interestingly, I once came across a battery powered handwarmer. IIRC, it took 4 AA cells to run. I haven't come across it again, and I can't remember where I saw it previously. If anyone has seen it, can they point it out?

I saw one several years ago that a co-worker got at a flea market. It was a small heavy plastic bag with a liquid inside. It also had a little metal "clicker" in there. When you bent the clicker to make it click, it set off a chemical reaction that gave off heat and turned the liquid to gel. The really great thing about this was that you could "reset" it back to the liquid stage by heating it in your microwave.

It was only good for a short duration, IIRC. It wouldn't keep your hands warm for an entire football game but it would warm them up if they got cold.

I've never seen them for sale anywhere before or since, including at flea markets. Anyone know if they are still around and where they can be bought?

Added: Hehe, well I guess I never did a google search for them since google wasn't around back then. After a quick search I found Quantum Heat

Man, I really wish I could remember the name of the hand warmers I saw at the computer show, but I'll try to describe them. They're little little bean bag sized vinyl packets that are filled with some type of goo. There is a little "button" inside the packet, that when pressed, snaps and then the thing becomes nice and warm. When the warmth ends, which I believe was over a period of hours (can't remember how long), the good becomes more solid, kind of like sand. They can be recharged by, I think, boiling them. Boiling them IS NOT where the warmth comes from, it only turns the sand back into a gooey liquid. After they are "charged" you let them cool down and they are ready for activation again just by popping the imbedded button.

I'll look around to see if I can find them.

Edit: Found them! http://www.hotsnapz.com/

LOL, Trashman, great minds think alike.

Oh, and from the web site, it says don't microwave it. You need to boil it like Trashman says.

drizzle said:

LOL, Trashman, great minds think alike.

Oh, and from the web site, it says don't microwave it. You need to boil it like Trashman says.

Click to expand...

Hey, no posting when I'm typing! You beat me to it! Anyway, now that I see the name of your link, I remember that those are the ones I actually saw, although I believe that they are the same thing. I knew they had a "Q" in the name, but I couldn't remember what it was!

Those handwarmers usually contain sodium acetate tri-hydrate which has a melting temperature of 58°C.
It only stays liquid below 58°C as long as there are no seed crystals. By bending the small aluminum "button" you generate a disturbance where crystallisation starts. During cristallisation, (latent) heat is released.

When boiling the handwarmer the contents are heated above the melting temperature of 58°C. The crystals melt and during melting latent heat is stored.

Those rechargable chemical hand warmers last about two hours or so with decreasing effectiveness. They are a good idea for some applications, but I find the fluid type better for my uses.

I bought an 8 pack of Grabber Mycoal's "Hand Treat Hand Warmers " on clearance at Target last year for around $5.
I popped one open to try them, and it lasted for atleast the advertised 7 hours. Needs to get exposed to air to activate, and it helped to take them out of my pocket to "breathe" every few hours.

I think the brand name varies year to year and are found in the sporting good section of a mart store. I think last years brand was called hot hands.

I too have one of those reusable hand heaters with the flicker disk. They make a lot of heat instantly, then fizzle out.

It seems that the sodium acetate handwarmers tend to be the major type being used. I guess it doesn't feel as wasteful as the disposable packets like "Grabber Mycoal" and the solid fuel and liquid fuel ones are more messy. Also, I think the liquid fuel ones tend to be harder to find? You need to go to a proper outdoor store and even then, not all of them have it. But Coghlan's puts out a solid fuel handwarmer and that brand is almost ubiquitous. Even KMart carries it.

But the sodium acetate handwarmers tend to make an appearance in Perth shops only through "sales booths". It isn't a store carried item. Someone comes along and sets up a little kiosk with couple of tables and sells them for a week or two, then moves on to another mall.

At least the outdoor shops like Mainpeak and Mountain Design, and army surplus shops like Midland Army & Navy Disposals carry both the solid fuel handwarmers and the disposable packets. Though sometimes it seems to be carried only seasonally.

Since I'm still playing with the Jon-E handwarmers, I thought I'd mention that I measured the amount of fuel dispensed by the filling jugs that come with Jon-E branded handwarmers. There is an almost unnoticeable marking on the inside of the jug that marks the fill line. Unnoticeable because it isn't heavily embossed or coloured, so it kind of blends into the container wall. I certainly didn't notice them until about the third or fifth time I was filling the handwarmers.

Anyway, the standard size takes 20ml per half filling, the giant takes 40ml per half filling, i.e. one jug. A full fill is supposed to be 2 jugs. The easiest way to fill is not actually with the jugs as they just dribble everywhere. Use a syringe. You can get them without needles. I happened to have a couple of 30ml and 60ml syringes and they worked a treat as you can fill the handwarmers slowly and give the absorbant material inside time to soak in the fuel.

My uncle still has the Jon-E (still chromed! :huh that I saw him use more than 30 years ago. Today, I like using the Jon-E handwarmers and it seems that one of them performs better than the other for some reason or another. Don't know. . .But pretty much what Steelwolf stated above in post #3, except that "bursting into flames" part.

Using the Jon-E brand fuel does emit odor though. But to me, after the initial "break-in" period, I don't notice it. Mine stays pretty warm for nearly 7 hours, but it does need to "breath" some. I do that by opening the flannel bag from time-to-time until it gets HOT!

The finish is nice and smooth without any burrs or pitting that I can notice. No regrets buying it.

I have the other type that that uses some fire "sticks" that you insert into a small velvet lined eyeglass case type holder. But this one REALLY SMELLS! I forgot the name of it though. . .

Enjoy!

A 'handy' little tip with the clicky ones is, instead of boiling them in a pan over the cooker to recharge, simply throw them in the kettle and boil it. They don't leave any smell or trace!!

Here I am contemplating the purchase of handwarmers in the middle of summer.....

If it weren't for CPF, I'd have absolutely no debt. Thanks guys.