hot water bottle: a low tech heating aid

I was happy to see an interesting article about hot water bottles in (where else) Low Tech Magazine! There's history, numbers, and even a hot water bottle shaped like Jayne Mansfield. The hot water bottle is how I get through the winter in a house without heat, and I'm amazed at how many people say they've never seen a hot water bottle.
It was good reading, maybe it will give someone some ideas!
The Revenge of the Hot Water Bottle

We use plastic milk jugs to hall water around to each animal this time of year.  I keep an extra one filled with hot water to put my hands on every so often.  It is the fastest way to get the tingling out of my fingers.  The jug will stay warm for over an hour when it is in the teens.

Great idea for heating a small space.

When I was a kid often when visiting my grandmother, she would fill up a red hot water bottle (like in the picture) before I went to bed to warm up the bed.

Since we don't heat the bedroom until we go to bed I could get the hot/cold compress bag we have to do that.

I have a dog that helps warm the bed though she stays next to me not down by my feet.  This is because she is nosey and wants to peek out from under the covers so she can see everything that going on.

Thanks for the memory of my grandmother.

I love hot water bottles - my bedroom can get really cold at night so there's always one or two on the go. When it gets really cold I fill 4 of them and lay them out in the shape of me (like when children in films run away and leave pillow dummies behind) to make sure there are no cold spots!

We still sell quite a few hot water bottles in our shop. I guess some of our visitors come from warmer climes!

We don't use one ourselves (I just wear socks to bed if neccessary!), but our mastiff puppy Della, really felt the cold when she was little and a hot water bottle in her 'cosy' meant she went to bed and settled down straight away. No wires to chew and we only had one leak, when I hadn't quite tightened the stopper well enough.

I love my hotwater bottle, Just for information if anyone looks at that photo, that's not how one uses a hotwater bottle, you want to get or make a cover for it or at the very least wrap it in a towel. Also don't fill them with boiling water, it's bad for the rubber, use water that is off the boil.
If you suffer from cold feet at night they are amazing, popped into the bed down by your feet before you brush your teeth, the bed will be lovely and warm by the time you get to it.  Under covers they keep a noticeable heat for 4-5 hours easily, the only issue is if you have a cat, they consider the hotwater bottle their property and you will probably have to fight them for it.

I live in a really damp climate and our water is heated by electricity, so I admit I've gone higher tech with an electric bed-warmer which I turn on 1 hour before bed and turn off when I get in. That said, we do have large rocks on top of the wood-stove downstairs, and at times we would move them up to the bed an hour or so before bedtime - they're not as comfy as a covered water bottle but even lower tech!

For me it would be like K McFarlane wrote - I'd need a half dozen to surround myself with, *after* using them to preheat my shape! I get cold really easily, have trouble warming up, and don't get to sleep if my feet are cold.

I love a hot water bottle on my feet in bed. And if you have good wool or down bedding and a tightly made bed, popping a hot water bottle in about an hour before bedtime can make it nice and toasty when it's time to crawl in!

Are there really people without hot water bottles? They are sold here in every pharmacy and drugstore.
We don't only use them to get warm (in bed) but also for tummy-ache in small children, or to warm up hedgehogs when rescued in late autumn/winter.

As our bedroom is not heated I use a water bottle on really cold nights.
I still remember when I was staying in a B&B in Ireland when I was on a business trip some winter, and Irish houses (especially windows) are badly insulated compared to German houses. I came "home" after a business dinner and the landlady had slipped a hot water bottle in my bed some time before. Heaven!

And these days I sometimes take my hot water bottle with me in the car. When one of the kids has tennis lessons at night it is too dark to go for a walk and the restaurant is closed, so I stay in the car with the hot water bottle (which barely gets me through the hour, but I take some hot tea as well).

Oh, and I forgot the constant use of my hot water bottle to make yoghurt: I pour the liquid in little jars, place them on a tray and put them under my duvet together with a HWB in the morning. In the evening, the yoghurt is done and the bed still a bit warm!

I used to have a hot water bottle I used all the time. It started developing a crack and after a while I didn't trust it anymore, so I threw it out and bought a new one. That new one smelled so strong I couldn't use it. I hung it on a nail in the porch to let it off gas and tried it every few months. After over two years the smell still hadn't gone away. I got rid of it when I moved. I've looked at them in the store a couple times, but they all seem the same as the  stinky one, so I haven't  bought another. I wish I'd never got rid of my first one.

Anita Martin wrote: make yoghurt!

This is also my second-favorite use for the hot water bottle!