hot water bottle fail

**hikinghombre7** · 01-03-2011, 05:40

Ok....so I've used the hot water bottle in my hammock once and it worked nicely. So I figured....why not try it at home in bed? I always kick off the furnace at night cause I like to sleep with the room cool and get all warm under the covers. I sleep well that way but initially getting in bed is a cold shock every night. I thought why not use the bottle trick? Well, it worked great for the first half hour then had some major leakage. Dunno what went wrong but am leaning toward the hot water affecting the plastic lid somehow cause that's where the leak was. I did tighten it down before tossing it in so not sure how it loosened. I'm using the Nalgene Canteen bottle. Anyone else ever have this happen? Sure glad I wasn't in the hammock when this happened. Not sure I want to try this ever again.....

**MedicineMan** · 01-03-2011, 05:45

yes try again but have an insurance policy....chinamart has decent roll top dry bags, usually sold in a 3 pack, even the largest is light. put the hot metal bottle in a sock to keep from burning you, then into the dry bag. You're right...in the piney woods it could be catastrophic in seriously cold weather but with the above precautions you've have a heat source all night long and sterile/warm water in the morning. I've even double dry bagged for even more insurance.

**hikinghombre7** · 01-03-2011, 05:46

doesn't all the extra bagging take away from getting heat?

**Joey** · 01-03-2011, 05:48

OH MY! My Nalgene has never leaked. I don't even think about it. Now I'm going to pause and double check the lid closure for sure!!

**hikinghombre7** · 01-03-2011, 05:54

yep, trust me....I made sure it was tight before tossing it in my bed. was shocked when I felt the water!

**The Rambler** · 01-03-2011, 06:20

In my experience this can be an issue with metal containers as the metal expands and contracts just a little. I havn't ever had a lid loosen on a regular hard plastic nalgene.

**Syb** · 01-03-2011, 07:06

hikinghombre7, how much water did you put in the bottle?

Syb

**MrClean417** · 01-03-2011, 07:27

At home I'd just use a Beagle or my Husky/Shepard mix. They don't usually leak and MAN are they warm.

Reminds me of one time I took my Son camping up to a model airplane meet and we took a beagle with us. It was a nice day, 70 degrees. But the night cooled down to the upper 20's for some reason. We zipped the sleeping bags together, got in and with Ozzy looking at us I pulled the sleeping bag up and down in he went. We spent the night with half my body out of the sleeping bag just to cool off a bit.