Water Bottle Warmth

Have a cold sleeping bag, or a bitterly cold day, where you need a little extra warmth, try this.

Step 1: Intro

Ok... in scouting, I was taught for winter camp outs to keep nice and warm in your sleeping bags is to keep three bottles, a warmth one, a warm drink one, and one to pee in... well... I took this and modified it a little to keep warm while doing various things. This is also a trick to keep pet rats warm during a very cold day. (side note: I do not own the rights to the pictures, they were taken off the web, as just a basic, here you go, however, I did draw the one for pouring instructions)

Step 2: Gathering Materials

Ok, get these things.

1. Bottle of some sort with screw on cover, size matters only for what you are doing with it.
I found that soda bottles work well, and water bottle, such as poland springs just collasp, I suggest a Nelgean, or something similar,

2. Find water.

3. Find heating source

4. Find something to heat water in....

5. Oven mitt

6. Cloth to wrap bottle in

7. String or something similar, that will be able to hang around your neck without causeing you discomfort.

Step 3: Building

Ok.... first step, empty out bottle, drink it, dump it, or if it is water, boil it.

second... boil water, rolling bottle works really nice

once water is boiling, pour into the bottle, be careful, the water is hot, use oven mitt to do this.

now... put cap back onto bottle, make sure it is tight, and wrap bottle in cloth, I made a pouch that holds a soda bottle, and hangs around my neck.

Now, if you don't have a cloth sack like me... tie a piece of sting around the neck of the bottle... then hang the loop around your neck... place jacket over it, and go outside, makes even the most bitterly cold day bareable....

if you don't like the idea of hanging it around your neck, put it in a pocket, or something similar.

Step 4: Placement

Ok, now that you have it built, it is time to place it...

Now if you are camping out, and have a cold sleeping bag... take a hot water bottle and put it in your bag like 10 minutes before bed... then when you crawl in, it will be all warm... then if you want, before you go to bed, make another hot water bottle, and place it in bed with you, keeping the first one there...
but it is not really needed.

Now, if you are traveling around, and need to keep warm, take a water bottle and hang it like a necklace, one in front, and in back, under your coat. I have done this, and it kept me warm for like 2 hours, but it was also 2 below zero, with a high windchill, my hands were numb, but the center of the body was very warm.

Now if you don't like the idea of a bottle on your back, but want to keep your back warm, take a back pack, and place the bottle on the part that will touch your back. This is also convenient if you have water or something that you want to keep from freezing. I took my bottle, filled it with hot coco, and wrapped what would be the exposed side in a scarf, spare socks, gloves and hat, then put my water bottle right close to that, and through out the day, while other people were struggling with frozen water bottles, I was sipping mine.


As for keeping the rats warm, place the bottle in a sock or something as to keep them from burning themselves, and place in the cage where they can cuddle up with it.

(no picture for this, just use your imagination)

Step 5: Enjoy

Enjoy this, it will keep you at a comfortable temperature, and is very useful if you have to use a drafty outhouse.... Take it from a fridged Mainer.

Comments

[admin]

This is a great Instructable, but you need to add a main image of the final project to the intro step. Please do that and leave me a message when you have so that we can publish your work. Thanks!

[randofo]

Hey, this is a great instructable and is very informative. Just one thing is missing... pictures! It really helps a lot when trying to follow directions so you should consider taking some photographs. Once you do that and leave me a message when you have so that we can publish your work. Thanks! Thanks for the cool instructable and we hope to publish this soon!

[sagum]

Please be aware that most plastic bottles will melt and deform if you use boiling water in them. You run the risk of the bottle leaking and causing major burns, not only from direct contact with the boiling water, but also from direct contact with the hot plastic. For plastic bottles, even very hot water from the tap can cause them to leak. Please be careful A hot water bottle would be a much easier and more safe way. Most have a hook hole in them so they can be hung up. Using this hole, you can use the string to hand it from your body in the same way as you have done with the plastic bottle.

[infernisdiem]

I didn't realize they still made the hot water bottles... More recently I have found that a rice sock does the same thing.