Who doesn’t love a hot water bottle? When the temperature drops and as energy prices rise, there’s nothing quite like the warm hug they give you.
But a rubber bottle filled with scorching hot liquid comes with risk , and a lot of people don’t realise that they come on a timer. As with most things, hot water bottles have expiry dates.
A hot water bottle is actually only designed to last up to three years from its manufacture. They can degrade over time and the material can split, leading to nasty burns and other serious injuries.
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But how can you tell when your hot water bottle is out of date or even when it was made in the first place? Well, all modern ones come with a motif that makes it easier to tell when it was manufactured.
How to check whether your hot water bottle is out of date
On the funnel of your hot water bottle, there should be a small flower motif embedded on to one side. This daisy sign will have a number in the middle signifying the year that it was made.
Around the number are 12 petals, one for each month of the year and inside those petals will be some dots. The dots, which can have up to four in each petal, are to demonstrate the week of the month that it was made.
So if your hot water only has one dot in the first petal, then that shows it was made in the first week of January. If it has 13 dots in four petals, then it means the first week of April.
If your hot water bottle doesn’t have the daisy sign, then look out for the BS safety standard. The internationally recognised standard for rubber and PVC hot water bottles should read BS 1970:2012.
This standard has been updated from BS 1970:2006 and BS 1970:2011. If your hot water bottle has either of these then it is likely time for an upgrade.
People are advised to remove the covers from their hot water bottles each time they refill them, this way they can see the expiry date. This also ensures that nothing spills inside the cover risking further burns.
Previously speaking on This Morning, consumer expert Alice Beer also warned consumers to never pour boiling water into their hot water bottles. Using the scoring hot liquid can damage the seams and put users at further risk of suffering more serious burns.
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