Heat Pack or Hot Water Bottle? An Honest Comparison

I'm hardly neutral here. I've been sewing grain heat packs in Brisbane since 2012, so naturally I think they're good.

But a hot water bottle is a genuinely good thing, it costs about fifteen dollars, and for some jobs it beats anything I make. So here's the fair version, including where I lose.

The quick comparison

Where the hot water bottle actually wins

Three jobs, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise.

All night in a cold bed. Nothing I make holds heat for four hours. If you want the bed warm when you get in and still warm at 2am, a hot water bottle is the right tool.

Soft, heavy warmth on a big flat area. A full bottle laid across the stomach or the lower back has a water-filled weight to it that grain just doesn't replicate.

Price. Mine are hand sewn from designer cotton and corduroy and filled with Australian lupin. A hot water bottle from the chemist is a fraction of that. If budget is what decides it, buy the bottle. I won't be offended.

Where a grain pack wins

It stays where you put it. This is the big one. A hot water bottle on a shoulder slides off the moment you move. A pack shaped for the body doesn't. My Boomerang sits around your neck while you work at a computer, and the Back Strap ties around the lower back or stomach so you can walk round the house with it on.

No boiling water. Every year Australian burns units treat scalds from filling and carrying hot water bottles. There's no water in a grain pack at all, which also means there's nothing to spill on the couch.

It works cold. Two hours in the freezer and the same pack becomes a cold pack for a sprain, a headache or a hot Brisbane night. A bottle technically can, but you end up with a sloshing bag of cold water.

You can shape it to the job. Bottles come in one shape. I make twelve, from a 600g Mini for a child through to a Mega Large that covers a whole back.

Which one to buy

• Warming a bed for hours: hot water bottle.
• Neck and shoulders at a desk: heat pack, every time.
• Period cramps on the couch: either, but a pack you can walk around in wins.
• A child who feels the cold: heat pack. No boiling water in the equation.
• Cold use as well as hot: heat pack.

Both of them have a safety problem

Different problems, and both avoidable.

Hot water bottles perish. Rubber degrades from the inside, and a bottle that splits while it's full of near-boiling water causes serious burns. There's a small daisy wheel stamped on most bottles showing the month and year it was made. Go and check yours. Anything past two years, replace it, and never fill one from a kettle that's still boiling.

Grain packs get overheated. Heat one too long, or reheat it while it's still warm, and the filling can scorch and in the worst case smoulder. Fire services warn about it every winter. It's entirely preventable by sticking to the recommended time, letting a pack cool right down before reheating, and binning one that smells burnt. I've written the full timings and rules in how long to heat a heat pack.

And neither is for everyone. If you can't reliably feel heat on your skin, or can't move away from something too hot, applied heat isn't safe without advice from your doctor. That includes people with nerve damage or reduced sensation, and very young children.

What most people end up with

Honestly? Both. A bottle lives in the bed and a pack lives on the couch, because they solve different problems. Plenty of my customers have exactly that arrangement, and about half of them started with the bottle.

If you're replacing a hot water bottle with a pack, the shape matters more than the size. My guide to shapes walks through it, or have a look at the range.