‘This is serious’: Expert issues warning over hot water bottles as winter bites

People seeking to save on their energy bills this winter by using hot water bottles and electric blankets have been warned to undertake vital safety checks first to avoid serious injuries.

Speaking on This Morning in November, consumer editor Alice Beer told viewers about a woman who was admitted to hospital with third-degree burns on her stomach and legs after the rubber on the hot water bottle she was holding to her stomach split.

According to Beer, hospitals see one person a week with burns from a hot water bottle.

“Half of hot water bottle injuries need skin grafts, they need surgery. This is really serious,” she said.

She added that there is a little-known way to establish if your hot water bottle needs changing or not.

“They do have a date of manufacture, which you don’t know about,” she said.

“Why would you ever take the fluffy cover off? But inside – and I think this is the worst system of printing a date ever, because it’s so confusing – you’ve got a daisy wheel date with 12 segments.

“In the middle, you have the year it was made, then you’ve got 12 segments around the outside – those are the months in which it was manufactured.

“I mean it’s ridiculous!” she exclaimed. “Congratulations if you can work that out. Most people have no idea.

“If you don’t have it on, then you haven’t got it from a very good source, or it’s too old.”

Beer said that new hot water bottles should smell rubbery, an indicator of their strength.

“If it doesn’t smell rubbery, it’s got a higher portion of additives to rubber”, she added, pointing out that this can affect the hot water bottle’s durability.

She also advised viewers to fill hot water bottles with the cover off.

Elsewhere, she added that electric blankets have the potential to heat up your bed “for pennies”.

She warned: “But these are all wires, electric wires, and you’ve got to take that seriously.”

Presenter Phillip Schofield then revealed that he has a scar on his leg after being burnt by an exposed wire in an electric blanket when he was in his early twenties.

“Please don't buy a second-hand [electric blanket], make sure it's safe, check the connections, unravel it and make sure it's flat – but please be careful with them,” Beer advised.

This article was originally published in November 2022