Another gift...

[warthog]

This one came from out of the blue from a very old friend. Haven't heard a word from him for more than a year then this shows up in my mailbox today with a note saying, "Saw these and knowing how cold it gets up there, I knew you would enjoy them" We sort of exchange a few emails now and then but since I moved here and he moved to FL, we both lived near each other in Champaign, IL, we have slowly being doing what people tend to do when out of sight. It was a really nice surprise and nice to ear from him again too.

So anyway, here is what I was sent!

they are reusable and you get a pair of them, one for each hand!
GOOD THING I HAVE MY CARRY PERMIT!

[nalioth]

That is truly a gift for a gunny

[hunter_la5]

Haha, clever.

[warthog]

They get HOT! I tried one already. Then they turn hard and crystalline and you boil them until all the crystals go away again which takes about 10 minutes and just let it cool down. Then, when you want to use it again, there is a little clicker-cricket disk in them and you simple click it and they heat up again. I imagine the solution is some manner of super saturated solution that once properly disturbed (the clicker) then salts out. The reaction of it salting out is of course the exothermic reaction. If I am indeed right, as long as the little clicker keeps working, these will keep being useful. Super neat!

[nalioth]

They get HOT! I tried one already. Then they turn hard and crystalline and you boil them until all the crystals go away again which takes about 10 minutes and just let it cool down. Then, when you want to use it again, there is a little clicker-cricket disk in them and you simple click it and they heat up again. I imagine the solution is some manner of super saturated solution that once properly disturbed (the clicker) then salts out. The reaction of it salting out is of course the exothermic reaction. If I am indeed right, as long as the little clicker keeps working, these will keep being useful. Super neat!

Sodium Acetate is quite fun

You can make your own solution and have great fun "building things" as it's poured out of the mixing container (the "shock" of pouring activates it)


P. S. That gives a whole new meaning to "hot gun"

[warthog]

Another name for a handgun is a "Heater" BTW....

I didn't know what was in it as there is really nothing that says, which is odd now that I think about it. The instructions only tell you how to re-use it and the not drink the goo and if it gets on you to wash it off. It doesn't actually say why or what it is that would harm you and I wonder why? I can usually figure out this stuff myself from the warnings but this is the first of this kind of hand warmer I have ever had... As a diabetic, I have to be careful of the ones that get this hot because I can't feel my hands really well. I have issues with both hot and cold, I don't really know when my hands are getting frostbitten or being cooked. Maybe these will have to go into a drawer and be col things to look at and play with rather than use...

The ones I use often are the ones with the iron reaction to make them warm. They are generally not reusable but are really cheap.. They don't get HOT though, only warm so they are a lot safer for me to use. In any case, I "re-set" the one I "used" a little while ago and it is now cooling off. It was pretty nifty how fast the crystals went back into solution but it takes a bit of time (about 6-7 mins) to get them all gone. If you don't get all of them of course it doesn't return to liquid but gets hard again as it cools. At least this is what the directions said and that certainly makes sense.