A blast from the past

[GreyNurse]

Must remember my "acquired" hospital blankets and snuggy to the Hairtail Social.

I must also bring this. I unearthed it the other day, when going through my fishing haberdashery. Does anyone remember these?

[Guest]

I sat on one all the way home from Pejar Dam one winters day and boy it got hot

[GreyNurse]

Stewy,

Any idea where I can walk into shop and buy a replacement burner and / or bag?

[Mullatt]

Mate , I sure do remember those. Used them for heaps of things back in the 70's, fishing, going to the football, concerts etc etc. Great little gadgets eh. You were good to keep yours mate.Think mine went to the great pocket warmer home in the sky many moons ago

[Guest]

Stewy,

Any idea where I can walk into shop and buy a replacement burner and / or bag?

Try disposal stores or camping stores ..the fuel stiks were long lasting

[ambrose607]

Just bought my daughter one today for $2.50 at the super market starting with A

[GreyNurse]

Was it a left over from a special, or part of their regular stock

[ambrose607]

They were on sale a few weeks ago. The Macquarie Fields store still have quite a few.

[Ryder]

That's fantastic, I've never seen that before. Chemical reaction produces the heat.

I just googled it. You can still buy them, you might need more than one.

It got me thinking, and I also found Battery heated socks, inner soles vests and jackets.

You can also get battery heated motorcycle gloves, but that's going too far....You couldn't feel the bites.

[Guest 4myson]

That's fantastic, I've never seen that before. Chemical reaction produces the heat.

I just googled it. You can still buy them, you might need more than one.

It got me thinking, and I also found Battery heated socks, inner soles vests and jackets.

You can also get battery heated motorcycle gloves, but that's going too far....You couldn't feel the bites.

I'd prefer not to feel the bites from gloves being to thick than to not be able to feel the bites due to my Fingers being FROZEN !

LOL ....

[GreyNurse]

I fired mine up today and couldn't get it going for more than a minute. I'm pretty sure that the burner element was cactus from years of disuse. So I wound up ordering one on line. Not cheap at $18, but hopefully the replacement should last a few winters.

[bessell1955]

What are they and how do they work ?

[GreyNurse]

Imagine a palm sized Zippo lighter without the flint. The wick is a platinum cap filled with glass fibre. Fill the unit with lighter fluid, put the wick (burner) on and hold a flame to it for a few seconds. It works on the principle of catalytic heat exchange, which basically means it burns without a flame. Once hot, put it in a velvet bag and place it in your pocket, sleeping bag, or wherever you need heat. The large ones last for about 30 hrs.

Edited June 23, 2015 by GreyNurse

[GreyNurse]

My new burner arrived yesterday. It's a bit different to the original burner in design inasmuch as you don't need to light the wick, as the original burner was designed to operate. So I tucked the wick down inside the warmer and poured in one measure of lighter fluid. (It takes 6 measures to fill it up). Placed a flame to the burner for 3 seconds and away it went for 4 and a half hours. So far, so good.

I'm sure I used to run the thing on dry cleaning fluid in the past, so I'm conducting a few experiments. Currently, I'm running it a full load of mineral turps. I lit it at 1am, so far it's been running non stop for 20 hrs. The temperature of the unit inside it's velveteen bag against the hand is at least 50 degrees C. That's as high as the thermometer I used goes. And the unit was resting against the metal guard protecting the glass bulb! I wouldn't recommend using it without a similar cloth wrapping as the metal is too bloody hot to hold directly.

The next few experiments will be with methylated spirit, then lighter fluid. It will be interesting to see how the running times and temperatures differ.