Vargo Bot 700 Review (First Looks)

Those small hand warmers are iron fillings, salt, water and sawdust. Add oxygen and the iron fillings rust, releasing heat over 4-6 hours.

That long time frame is great for a day of skiing, but kind of long for meal prep. Perhaps more finely ground iron would react faster, but then it wouldn’t be the same off-the-shelf, mass-produced item.

Self-heating MRE’s are water + magnesium and bits of salt and iron. The spec is to heat 8 ounces of food by 100F in 20 minutes so that seems about right for our application

The quick-acting, reusable hand warmers in which a liquid solution changes to a solid are pretty heavy for the heat you get from it.

MRE flameless heaters, $1.25 each on Amazon. 

But they generate hydrogen gas, so don’t transport by air.

David,

Ryan stated that he was heating his cold soaked meals for 60 sec over a flame.  This is why I thought that the hand warmer may have potential.  If he activated the hand warmer and then prepared his cold soaked food, he MIGHT be able to get his meal slightly warm before eating.  Worth a shot.

The spec is to heat 8 ounces of food by 100F in 20 minutes so that seems about right for our application

I don’t see backpacker Ryan having the patience to wait 20 min. for his food to attain a 100F. Most backpackers want their meals fast fast fast……coffee even faster.

SInce he is cold soaking as well, it is multiplexed time.  My 2 cents.

Do you use the same amount of water when you cold soak a meal that the meal calls for, or do you add extra? Or do you not cold soak freeze-dried/dehydrated meals?

Jon,

Whatever you posted under your comments is missing. Thank you