'Hotties' Hot Water Bottles

[Grandad]

As we have mentioned Hotties on another thread, and as I was responsible for getting a British Standards Kitemark on bottles manufactured by the only European producer of these items, and as I am becoming a sad old b*gger with nothing better to do on this Monday evening; I thought I would tell you a little about the process involved in their manufacture.

These pictures are very poor being screen captures from a video I did last year. Firstly a 'mix' is made of rubber, chemicals, and fillers. A batch is 70 - 80 kilos, enough to make around 200 bottles. This is dumped onto an open mill, further blended then taken off in a long strip. This happens every 8 - 9 minutes.


The strip is cut into smaller pieces, blanks, two of which will produce one bottle. Most bottles are made two at a time in a press with a closing force of 100 tons.


Samples are taken from each press to ensure the inside seam is properly formed, using an endoscope.


Every bottle is tested for leaks using water under slight pressure.


They then have the stopper fitted and are bagged and boxed ready for dispatch. Ex works price for a plain bottle was about £1, what did you pay today in Boots Kiya??? I expect yours came from China or Malaysia. As far as I know my old company is no longer in business, far east competition finally killed them.

[Kiya]

Interesting to know how they are made, I was checking the seam while reading your post, without finding one I now know its inside. The one I got from Boots today was £7 99 and made in Germany , it has a number BS1970:2012 and under that the number 86

[Mad Dilys]

I had a bottle leak in the bed once and it made a hell of a mess. I think the seal on the stopper was the problem.

As an expert Grandad, what is the life of a bottle in regular use? My mother always replaced the bottles every year. The one I've been using intermittently recently is at least three years old and the bottom of the stopper is a bit sticky. Can one still get replacement stoppers?

[Horus]

I can remember years ago that there was a man on TV who could blow up a hot water bottle just like a balloon

[Grandad]

I can remember years ago that there was a man on TV who could blow up a hot water bottle just like a balloon

Yeah! I remember him Horus but I always had a suspicion that his bottles were specially made. But he certainly blew them up large, and I don't remember one bursting.

@Mad Dilys
MD, It is difficult to say how long a bottle should last even with frequent use. If the instructions that come with the bottle are followed it should give good service for at least two years. I would just say DO NOT USE BOILING WATER, HOT BUT NOT BOILING; when a rubber bottle smells badly inside and particles of reverted rubber come out when emptying, it is time to get a new one.
The British Standard requires each bottle to be marked with a date code but only the digit of the decade in which the bottle was made. I think the assumption here is that a bottle is unlikely to last more than 10 years. But, here are the marks on the most recent of our 4 bottles


In the first image the marks are, The Kitemark, the BS number and its year of issue, and the manufacturers license number.
The second image is the date of manufacture, in this case, second week of May 1998. I know it was 1998 because I retired shortly after that date but by the BS coding system, that could be 2008, 2018, or even 1988, so the system is a bit iffy especially when claims for personal injury are made. I did get involved in some of those and in the end I just had to be an expert witness using my experience and knowledge of the products.

Now, your stopper question. We used to supply spare stoppers to the major retailers and it is most likely that Boots will have one if yours looks like this


Many bottles today are made of PVC. I don't find that as flexible as the rubber version. I just checked some prices and you can buy small bottles from China for as little as US$0.6 FOB Shanghai. That is about 43 GB pence. How can we compete with that???

End of epistle