How to make a chemical heating pad with your own hands

When hiking, fishing, especially in bad weather, you often need an ordinary heating pad. Of course, an ordinary rubber one is not bad, but it has one significant drawback: it heats up water very slowly over a fire. Let's try to make a chemical heating pad. For this we need the most common reagents.

Let's try to make a chemical heating pad. For this we need the most common reagents.

First, let's do a simple experiment. Go to the kitchen and take a pack of table salt. However, you won't need a pack. 20 g (2 teaspoons) will be enough. Then look into the cabinet where all kinds of household supplies and materials are stored. Surely there was some copper sulfate left there after the apartment was renovated. You will need 40 g (3 teaspoons). Wood chips and a piece of aluminum wire, presumably, will also be found. If so, you're done. Grind the vitriol and salt in a mortar so that the size of the crystals does not exceed 1 mm (by eye, of course). Add 30 g (5 tablespoons) of sawdust to the resulting mixture and mix thoroughly. Bend a piece of wire into a spiral or snake and place it in a mayonnaise jar. Pour the prepared mixture there so that the filling level is 1-1.5 cm below the neck of the jar. The heating pad is in your hands. To activate it, just pour 50 ml (a quarter cup) of water into the jar. After 3-4 minutes, the temperature of the heating pad will rise to 50-60° C.

Where does the heat in the jar come from, and what role does each component play? Let's look at the reaction equation:

CuSO4+2NaCl > Na2SO4+CuCl2

As a result of the interaction of copper sulfate with table salt, sodium sulfate and copper chloride are formed. It is she who interests us. If we calculate the heat balance of the reaction, it turns out that the formation of one gram molecule of copper chloride releases 4700 calories of heat. Plus the heat of dissolution in the initial resulting drugs - 24999 calories. Total: approximately 29,600 calories.

Immediately after formation, copper chloride interacts with aluminum wire:

2Al+3CuCl2 > 2AlCl3+3Cu

In this case, approximately 84,000 calories are released (also calculated per 1 g-mol of copper chloride).

As you can see, as a result of the process, the total amount of heat released exceeds 100,000 calories per gram-molecule of the substance. So there is no mistake or deception: the heating pad is real.

What about sawdust? Without taking any part in chemical reactions, they at the same time play a very important role. By greedily absorbing water, sawdust slows down the course of reactions and extends the operation of the heating pad over time. In addition, wood has a fairly low thermal conductivity: it seems to accumulate the generated heat and then constantly releases it. A tightly sealed container will retain heat for at least two hours.

One final note: a jar is, of course, not the best vessel for a heating pad. We only needed it for demonstration. So think about the shape and material for the tank in which to place the heating mixture.

Source: “Young Technician” magazine, No. 5, 1983, pp. 78-79. Author: engineer F. Nikulin.

December 1, 2011 at 11:35 pm

Healing properties

The therapeutic effect of heat therapy is used to treat many diseases. It is based on the ability of dry heat to soothe, relax and give a feeling of comfort and coziness. As a result, the spasms subside, and the pain gradually passes unnoticed by the patient.

When dry heat is applied, the temperature of the heated tissues increases by approximately 3 °C. This makes it possible to increase blood flow to the vessels and speed up metabolism in cells. Thermal effects help relax muscles, stimulate the sebaceous and sweat glands, increase lymph and blood circulation, improve the functioning of the heart muscle, and have analgesic, sedative and anti-inflammatory effects.

This method is also effective for restoring the body's strength after a busy day. Using dry heat at home, you can increase the body's resistance to pathogens, as well as prevent the progression of the disease and improve well-being in chronic processes.

Using a dry heating pad

In this case, treatment is carried out using salt, sand, cereals or cherry pits.

Preparing a dry heating pad is carried out in the following sequence.

Prepare or sew a clothes bag in advance, into which the main warming component will be poured.
Pour salt, sand or other ingredient into a dry, clean frying pan.
Heat to a temperature of +60 ˚С, stirring constantly.
Pour the component into the prepared bag.
Allow to cool slightly so that the heat is not scalding.

Next, apply a dry heating pad to the sore spot, evenly distributing the salt in it. Leave it until the warming component cools completely, which happens within 30-50 minutes. To achieve lasting results, it is recommended to repeat the procedure 3 times daily.

Experts recommend warming the ear with salt for otitis media in the following cases:

inflammation occurs in the form of a sluggish process, that is, in the chronic form of the disease;
presence of musculoskeletal injuries;
for resorption of adhesions;
in case of complications after ENT diseases (hearing loss, autophony).

Warming should be carried out only after a diagnosis has been made by an experienced specialist and in the absence of purulent discharge.

Wrapping

This type of dry heat therapy is used for people suffering from increased excitability of the nervous system. For wrapping, a dry sheet is used, one edge of which should be wrapped around the patient with his arms raised to the armpits. After this, the second edge is wrapped around the body to the neck. But the arms must be lowered along the body. The upper end of the sheet is placed behind the back, and the lower end is placed under the legs. You need to wrap a wool blanket on top and lay the person on the couch.

The duration of the procedure depends on the final goal:

to reduce fever – 15 minutes;
for the treatment of the initial stage of hypertension and as a sedative for insomnia – 35-40 minutes;
in order to detoxify the body and normalize metabolism – 55-60 minutes.

The full course is 15-20 times with sessions every other day. It is best to carry out treatment in the afternoon.

Blue lamp treatment

This type of heat therapy helps to increase blood flow, dilate blood vessels and improve tissue metabolism. For this, a special blue medical lamp is used, which helps to warm the problem area. This type of treatment is used at the first signs of the inflammatory process.

To carry out the procedure, it is necessary to position the lamp at an angle of 60˚ so that the heat rays hit the desired location at an angle. But at the same time, the distance between the light source and the skin must be at least 50 cm. This allows you to get a pleasant feeling from the session with maximum therapeutic effect. The duration of therapy is 5-20 minutes, depending on the complexity of the disease. For complete recovery, it is necessary to conduct 10 sessions, one per day.

Heat therapy with a lamp should be performed in the evening before bedtime. For children, the duration of the procedure should be 5 minutes, and the condition of the skin is regularly checked, as there is a possibility of getting a burn.

Contraindications

Despite the positive effects of dry heat, there are certain contraindications to its use.

If the following pathological processes are present, heat therapy cannot be performed:

violation of the integrity of the eardrum;
sudden ear inflammation;
fluid in the ears;
high body temperature;
likelihood of inflammation of the appendix;
internal and external bleeding;
open wounds;
dysfunction of the heart, kidneys;
a sharp increase in blood pressure;
acute form of the inflammatory process in the body;
mental pathologies;
benign and malignant tumors;
vascular atherosclerosis;
skin diseases (eczema, lichen).

It is necessary to use dry heat at home after the recommendation of a doctor, since only in this case the beneficial properties of heat therapy will bring positive results without causing harm to health.

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Bite activator. Attracts fish in cold and warm water with the help of pheromones included in the composition and stimulates its appetite. It’s a pity that Rosprirodnadzor wants to impose a ban on its sale.
More sensitive gear. Reviews and instructions for other types of gear can be found on the pages of my website.
Lures using pheromones.

You can get the rest of the secrets of successful fishing for free by reading our other articles on the site.

The catalytic heater is started by heating the catalyst for ten seconds from a direct flame. To avoid hand burns, the heating pad is covered with a special cover before direct use.

Dry shower

This method is the simplest. For this you will need to use an electric hair dryer, which can be found in almost every home. For treatment, it is necessary to place the warming device at a distance of 30 cm from the sore spot and turn it on to a moderate setting. In this case, the emanating heat should be pleasant, without a burning effect. The duration of heat exposure is 15 minutes.

Experts recommend using the dry shower method for joint diseases, as well as to eliminate adhesions and scars in the inner ear.

How to replace a medical heating pad?

The easiest way to warm a sore spot if you don’t have a heating pad on hand is to replace it with a regular plastic bottle of hot water. To avoid getting burned, you need to wrap the bottle with several layers of fabric. Do not pour very hot water, as the bottle will begin to melt. The only negative is the small heating area.

You can make your own cloth bag of salt. To do this, you need to warm it up and pour it into a bag, distributing it evenly there. This homemade heating pad retains heat for a long time. Sand can be used instead of salt.

Mustard plasters also warm a sore spot well. This remedy contains mustard seed powder. The mechanism of action of mustard plasters is the irritation of the skin by mustard, which leads to increased blood circulation, resulting in vasodilation. Mustard plasters are used for bronchitis, pneumonia, osteochondrosis and muscle pain. Contraindications to the use of mustard plasters are damaged skin, allergies to components, body temperature above 37 degrees.

You can use traditional medicine. For example, boil potatoes, crush them and stuff them into a simple sock. If you need to warm up your nose, you can use boiled eggs wrapped in several layers of cloth. As it cools, each layer is removed.

How does a heating cable work?

It is clearly not possible to make a heater from ordinary copper or aluminum wire. A standard cable of two to five cores has negligible electrical resistance, so even with a very strong electric current, the sheath heats up, followed by melting of the insulation and a fire.

Alternatively, you can make your own heater from a heating cable. This is a type of heating device made in the form of a long flexible cord. In this case, heat is generated at the surface due to the dissipation of electrical energy on a high resistance conductor or graphite matrix imprinted between two copper or aluminum strands.

Many models can be directly plugged into an outlet

These cable heaters have several significant differences:

You can, of course, make a homemade heater from a heating cable, as they say, “by eye,” without calculations, and connect it to the network without automation. In theory, an experienced electrician will be able to make such a homemade product, but in practice, this option either quickly burns out from overload or heats up very poorly.

In any case, using a heating cable for a home heater is a modern approach to the problem. The efficiency and safety of such a device is an order of magnitude higher than that of a nichrome spiral or expensive and unsafe halogen lamps. Therefore, making a homemade homemade heater from a heating cable will be the cheapest and safest option.