UKC

Right, have done a forum search but there’s not been much for a while. As the temperature has dropped and the snow has fallen, even in grey grim Manchester we have been treated to a lovely blacker of white and I’ve realised that hand warmers are a god send for small hands in rubbish gloves hell bent on getting as cold and wet  as possible. I’ve finished my old stock of disposable tea bag style and it all seemed quite wasteful. So......

What are people using nowadays? I’m after something cheapish (two children means 4 hands to keep warm, if they are £15 a pop that’s £60 and as much as I love them both dearly........) that are reusable, gets pretty warm, stays warm for quite a while (8hrs feasible?) and that will be suitable for kids in the park to me hiding them in belay gloves whilst curled up on the north face of the Ben remembering I’m a coward who hates the cold. 

Any suggestions? Zippo seems to be the gold standard according to t’internet.

For kids, who are likely to lose/break them, either stick with the teabag style ones ore try the xtalisation ones. Fuel burners in your child's pocket might cause a bit of concern? 

I got a Zippo one for Christmas a few years ago, and while I don't often use it (or any other handwarmers), it is very good.

When it's lit, it doesn't burn with a flame and is entirely incapable of setting anything else alight — so I don't think there'd be a risk concern. There may well be a loss concern though!

Is 'kids' really a good excuse to continue generating avoidable waste?

We used the burning kind as kids.  It's fine.  

So did I, but we were made of tougher stuff back then. 

Poor argument, the latent heat of xtalisation ones are reusable. The teabag ones contain nothing more sinister than Iron oxide, sand and salt once spent. 

Self fulfilling prophecy.  

I’m using these

https://www.motonet.fi/fi/tuote/5500168/Savotta-kadenlammitin-3-kpl

albeit they only stay warm for like 1 to 2 hours...

but they are cheap.

mostly for Late fall, winter or sling bouldering (chuck one in the chalk bucket and the other in ones arse pocket).

for kids, we prefer proper winter gloves that keeps their hands warm.

as for winter climbing, big ICE fishing no-can-dos instead of spendy belay mitts.. sized to fit over the climbing gloves.

And the energy required to make them? And the packaging required to package them? And the energy required to manufacture the packaging? And the energy cost of shipping them to stores or to the consumer?

It's not just about sinister chemicals, or plastic waste, or CO2 emissions. We must consider our effects on the planet as a whole, and seek to reduce them wherever it is practicable. Binning off disposable handwarmers (or barbecues, or clothing) is an easy win. The argument that they're okay because they leave behind only inert chemicals is missing the point entirely.

Used the burny ones for fishing as a kid. They were a bit variable, sometimes they'd go out, other times they were excellent. Then as a teen I used the 'boil to reset' ones. Really cool to set off, but don't last anywhere near as long as the burny ones. You also need to use them quite soon after you reset them or they go off by themselves - don't expect to get one out the drawer a week after boiling and expect to find it ready to use.

We could, and should, level those questions at everything we buy, consume and do. The Zippo warmers are great, but it's not like stainless steel and lighter fluid are conjured from pixie dust.

No, but hopefully you buy one once rather than once per week. Burning lighter fluid, yes, that's not ideal — but do you have a more optimal solution? My personal opinion is that, unless the OP decides that actually not having a handwarmer at all is an acceptable solution, then the Zippo variety aren't all that evil. I can't reconcile the throwaway varieties in the same way. We need to stop buying so much disposable shit, of all varieties, first and foremost. In my humble opinion.

We should indeed level those questions at everything we do. I fully support that mentality.

Packing Sand, iron filings and salt in to paper bag pales into insignificance vs the fabrication of the stainless steel units and the distillation of the octane to fuel it. 

On second thought I see that it is not anywhere near as clear cut as I thought when I first posted. Buying anything that's designed to be thrown away after a single use still just doesn't sit well with me though. I can imagine that the market for disposable handwarmers is greater than the market for relatively expensive initial purchases and ongoing faff with lighter fluid. It'd obviously be impossible to prove either way, but disposable single-use things just reinforce the idea that disposable single-use things ae perfectly okay. They're generally not. We can't continue to live in a world that generates so much unnecessary shit.

But we're going off on a tangent from the OPs question.

I used to use zippo type but found they would go out if sealed in a pocket and as they aged became a pain to light. 

Nowadays I swear by the USB type electric handwarmers. I've got three different types from cheap and cheerful to bulky but long lasting  - I like the fact that I can turn them on for a blast of heat and they'll charge the phone too!

Freshly hard boiled eggs. I know that they only keep warm for a hour or so,but then you can eat them! If they haven't crushed in your pocket.....

This thread has come just in time for me. Debating with myself if I want a Zippo or a battery warmer... Both seem to have pros/cons.

Do the battery ones get warm, and how long do they last before the battery starts to decay?

Buying a Lith ion battery that lasts about a year is probably far worse than the desposable ones I suspect...

I just buy boxes of the teabag ones. They end up being $1-2 a piece, no worries if you drop them etc.

When I first got the battery warmers I was worried that they may be ineffectual (which is how I found the teabag type)

However, I was pleasantly surprised how hot they get - not far off on par with the Zippo type (to confuse matters Zippo also make an electric one)

I've used mine regularly in the last 3 winters with no noticeable drop in performance but there again I only use them for a 10 minute blast every now and then - I find them too warm to have on continuously.

To be honest they have saved my winter mountaineering - my Reynauds syndrome was getting that I was miserable in the cold.

I've got a pair of the Whitby ones (same as Zippo but cheaper) that I've used a number of times in the arctic winter. Teabag ones are pretty useless in comparison at those temperatures. I was using them for multi-day, unsupported events so no access to power or resupply. Fill them up in the morning - give an extra squirt of fuel to the wadding at the top to aid lighting - good to go for 10-12 hours. Still warm at the end of the day so I'd stick them in my boots overnight and they'd keep them warm - great for bivvying  

I've used teabag ones in NH winter when it's been -10F and below, that -20/25C. Much colder than that and it wasn't enjoyable being out and they were fine to that. It was more the breathing and face once it got below 0F.

I was in the Finnish arctic where it was -25 to -30C and the local bought ones simply didn't work for what I needed them for - inside the pogies on my fat bike, they were barely tepid after an hour or so. I also don't like the waste aspect of them - 5 day's worth would be over a kilo and a fair amount of pack space.