On another thread, chemical heat packs came up in the discussion for keeping warm.
I was wondering what experience others have had with them and whether you would depend on them as a last resort.
Here was my experience ...
My feet were very cold camping out this weekend. I could have survived the night without using heat packs but I figured why be uncomfortable since I had brought them.
I used the heat packs Sat. night at 18 degrees and they did help me. I didn't use the foot warmer packs. Those have never worked for me. Too small I think. I used one hand warmer and one larger pack that was advertised as a bag warmer. I wore one liner sock and two heavy wool socks. I opened them, shook them around and waited for the heat to start. Then I stuck them under the top wool sock down under the flat of my foot. Gave off heat all night.
In morning I put them in my pocket and they gave off heat for another 45 minutes. I believe they were 10 hour packs, but they didn't give off heat for that long. More like 8 hours.
Just Jeff reported this . . .
You should try the chem packs in a test before you depend on them as a last resort...they're not really that effective. The main problem is that they don't give off a whole lot of heat if they're not in the open air (i.e. lots of oxygen). If you stick them in your pocket, you have to take them out and shake them from time to time to keep them warm. So if they're stuck down in your bag or quilt, they won't help a lot unless you take them out and shake them...which means you have to be awake. But maybe you'll have better luck than I did...I found they were much less useful than heating a water bottle (I use soft-sided Nalgene bladders).
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