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Hot water bottles: Timeless living room wellness
Photo: Elizabeth Fernandez/Getty Images
They provide warmth, relieve pain and offer living room wellness for mostly little money: hot water bottles.
There are probably few products that are so passionately and deeply loved by so many.
In 1981, a hot-water bottle was a betting prop at the premiere of "Wetten, dass...?" There can hardly be a clearer declaration of love in Germany.
Back then, bodybuilder Hans Oßner blew on a hot-water bottle at the nation's campfire until it burst.
Bet won!
But is the rubber classic from back then timeless and without alternative?
Or are there new variants that you should at least think about before the next cold night or when your feet freeze in the home office?
We tested five models - from cheap to more expensive, from the proven form to the electric to the supposedly innovative.
We tested these products:
Troy Classic with safety lock
Blumtal hot water bottle with polar fleece cover
Hot water bottle Nora by Steiner
Children's eco hot-water bottle with a knitted cover »Owl« by Hugo Frosch
Warmi from Unold
This is how we tested
Rubber or eco-plastic, wool or knitted cover, it doesn't matter, the main thing is that the hot-water bottle is hot, some might think.
But besides the temperature and what you could call the cuddle factor, there are other distinguishing features.
For example, how easy it is to fill with water or how secure the closure is.
But of course, the cozy warmth is central.
All hot-water bottles in the test that are filled with water have a smooth side and one with fins or other bumps.
Smooth rubber provides direct heat, fins for longer-lasting heat.
In our test on the side with slats, we measured how much heat the filled bottles radiate through their covers - six hours after we poured in boiling water, slightly cooled.
Surprisingly small temperature differences
In this test, the electric version from Unold and the inexpensive rubber model from Blumtal immediately heat up to more than 60 degrees Celsius on the surface through their covers.
It is therefore better to let the water cool down a little longer before filling them.
All other variants radiate 53 degrees heat.
This is a little more comfortable if you don't like it that hot - and reduces the risk of accidentally scalding your skin.
After six hours, Unold's heat is only 30 degrees warm, the Nora von Steiner and Hugo Frosch models still emit 31 and 32 degrees.
Blumtal and Troy are a bit warmer with 35 and 36 degrees.
Considering that the manufacturer of the Troy hot-water bottle explicitly advertises long-lasting heat, the differences are rather small.
Troy Classic with safety lock
Since there have been hot-water bottles, the very simple basic construction has hardly changed.
So it's nice that someone is trying.
This deserves detailed consideration.
The German manufacturer of the Troy hot water bottle promises constant warmth.
Not too hot at first, but warm twice as long as classic models, that's how the product is advertised.
A few years ago it was featured on the TV show The Lion's Den.
A so-called Troy pad in the bottle is intended to ensure the advertised even heat output.
The bottle makes it feel similar to the once-popular hand warming pads, only the other way around: it's hard at first, softening as water is poured in.
It is designed to extract heat before releasing it again.
Only: It doesn't really work in our test.
The Troy bottle initially emits less heat at 53 degrees Celsius than, for example, the electric model from Unold and the classic rubber bottle from Blumtal.
But three other models are just as hot to begin with - even without innovation and the Troy pad.
In addition, the Troy cools down almost as quickly as the competing models.
After six hours, it is the warmest model in the test at 36 degrees Celsius, but it is also only one degree warmer than the Blumtal hot water bottle and six degrees warmer than the coolest hot water bottle in the test.
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Should prevent accidental opening: safety lock from Troy
Photo: Jonas Mielke / DER SPIEGEL
The so-called safety lock is practical.
It's the second feature the company wants to use to differentiate itself from the competition, and it consists of two parts instead of just one.
As with an Allen key, you turn the bottle and then remove the key.
It cannot be opened without it, which can help to protect children or those in need of care from incorrect operation.
According to the manufacturer, the closure should also fit on hot-water bottles from other companies, but it didn’t work with any of the other bottles in our tests.
Liked:
The safety lock is a good idea.
The less:
Hardly anything could be seen in the test of the advertised more even heat emission than with conventional models.
Blumtal hot water bottle with polar fleece cover
This soft rubber hot water bottle is a classic.
At 66 degrees Celsius, it emits the most heat immediately after filling.
You should let the water cool down a little longer beforehand so as not to endanger the skin.
At 35 degrees Celsius after six hours, it is only one degree cooler than the Troy model in our test.
Of all the test bottles, it also has the strongest smell of chemicals at the beginning.
Its filling opening is rather small, so you should have a steady hand when filling it.
But that generally applies to hot-water bottles that are filled with water.
Otherwise, the model made in China does what it is supposed to do – for relatively little money.
There is a point deduction for the cuddle factor.
The manufacturer describes the cover made of 100 percent polyester as »polar fleece«.
You can like that, but you don't have to.
The cover is machine washable, removing it from the bottle is a bit fiddly.
I like that:
It's a hot-water bottle, sometimes that's enough of an argument.
The less:
There are more pleasant references.
Steiner hot water bottle Nora
With this model, which is very expensive in comparison, you primarily pay for the cover, which consists of half alpaca and the other half merino wool.
According to the manufacturer, the slightly fluffy fabric is produced in Austria.
Inside is a Sänger rubber hot water bottle, which can be obtained directly from the manufacturer and is much cheaper without a cover.
The combination of cover and bottle warms up to a pleasant 53 degrees Celsius immediately after filling with hot water, just like the Troy model.
That's ten degrees less than the variants from Blumtal and Unold.
After six hours, the Nora is the second coolest bottle at 31 degrees Celsius, four degrees separate it from the warmest model.
It feels like it makes little difference.
Liked:
the fabric
feels good,…
The less:
...one just wishes he wouldn't leave so much fluff behind.
Children's eco hot water bottle by Hugo Frosch with a knit cover »Owl«
Somehow a classic, but then again not: The hot-water bottle in child size (also available with more volume) is not made of soft rubber, but of hard plastic.
This feels a little like a shampoo bottle.
If you fill it with hot water, it becomes a little softer.
If you like to warm your feet under the desk, you might find this pleasant because it is less wobbly than other models.
The "material composition", as the manufacturer writes, should do without PVC and plasticizers.
In addition, it is recyclable and is made from 90 percent renewable raw materials in Germany.
The heat output is almost identical to that of the Steiner hot-water bottle: at the beginning it warms you up with a pleasant 53 degrees Celsius, after six hours it is a touch warmer than the Steiner model at 32 degrees.
The owl-look cover is a matter of taste, but feels good and has a practical loop for hanging on a towel hook.
The screw cap also differs from the other test products.
It can be screwed on a little more comfortably and has a slightly larger diameter so that the bottle can be easily filled.
Liked:
The robust material is interesting, the ecological aspect is a bonus.
The less:
If you don't want to do without the wobbly feeling of a hot water bottle, you should keep your hands off it.
Unold Warmi
The Wärmi from Unold has the shape of a hot water bottle and feels like it, but works completely differently, namely electrically.
Almost like an electric blanket.
Dubbed an electric hot water bottle, the device weighs about the same as a full hot water bottle and is powered by an idiosyncratic-looking charger reminiscent of a squashed horseshoe.
It takes about ten minutes to heat up, which is longer than a kettle would take.
But for that you can not spill hot water here.
In terms of use, the Wärmi hardly differs from other hot-water bottles.
The plastic covering of the charging port is a bit unusual, but it doesn't bother us much.
The polyester cover is less fluffy than that of the Blumtal hot water bottle.
You can get along with it, but it feels less cuddly.
Like the Blumtal product, the Wärmi is ten degrees Celsius hotter than the other three hot-water bottles, at 62 degrees.
If that's too much for you, you have to pull the plug before the heating lamp goes out.
There is no other way to regulate the temperature.
Six hours after it has been fully heated up on the charger, the warmer emits the least heat at 30 degrees Celsius.
What I like:
You don't run the risk of scalding yourself when filling with hot water.
The less:
Please not another charger that eventually ends up in a box.
If you lose the very special power supply, you have a problem.
Rather low cuddle factor.
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