HotHands Hand Warmers Review: The Best Hand Warmers for a Power Cut?

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There’s a particular kind of cold that sets in at about two in the morning during a January power cut. The heating has been off for hours. You’ve done the sensible things: extra jumpers, a second duvet, telling yourself it’ll be back on soon. And then your hands go cold, and stay cold. HotHands hand warmers are the smallest, simplest fix for that moment, and they don’t need a plug, a battery or a charger to do it.

Hand warmers sound like something you take to a football match, not something you prep with. But when the power’s off, you don’t need to heat the room, you need to keep the people in it warm enough to sleep. That’s where HotHands hand warmers earn their place, and why we think disposable hand warmers are the right choice for an emergency kit, even though rechargeable ones look like the smarter buy.

What You Get with HotHands Hand Warmers

The HotHands hand warmers value pack contains 20 sachets, packed as 10 pairs. Each one gives up to 10 hours of heat and is ready to use straight from the wrapper. These are air activated hand warmers, so there’s nothing to set up, charge or switch on: open the outer packet, give the warmer a shake, and it starts to warm up within a few minutes.

Whether you call them hand warmers, heat packs or hot hands pocket warmers, the idea is the same: a small packet that gets warm on its own. Ten pairs is enough to keep a few in the house, a couple in the car and a pair in a Get Home Bag, which is exactly how we’d split them.

How Chemical Hand Warmers Work

“Chemical hand warmers” sounds alarming, but the chemistry is about as simple as it gets. Inside each packet is iron powder that rusts very quickly when it meets the oxygen in the air, and that reaction gives off heat. While the outer wrapper is sealed, no air gets in and nothing happens. Open it, and the reaction starts. That’s all “air activated” means.

It’s also why HotHands hand warmers have nothing to break, leak or go flat. There’s no battery, no circuit board and no fuel. The packet sits in a drawer doing nothing until the day you open it.

Why Disposable Hand Warmers Are the Better Prepper Option

Rechargeable hand warmers are popular, and for everyday use they’re great. But an emergency kit has a different job. It sits in a drawer, a car boot or a bag for months, sometimes years, and then has to work first time on the worst night of the winter. That changes the maths.

• A rechargeable warmer needs power to be useful. If it’s flat when the power cut starts, it stays flat unless you’ve got a charged power bank or a car to run. Once its charge runs out, that’s it for the night.
• Batteries lose charge in storage. A rechargeable warmer that was fully charged last winter isn’t necessarily fully charged this winter, unless you’ve checked it and topped it up. Lithium batteries slowly self-discharge, and they lose capacity with age and cold.
• Disposable hand warmers have one thing to check. HotHands hand warmers have a use-by date printed on the packet. Check it once a year when you check the rest of your kit, and replace them when they’re out of date. No charging rota to remember.
• They work when everything else has stopped. Power cut, flat car battery, dead phone: a sealed packet doesn’t care.

If you have a reliable way to charge, a rechargeable warmer is a perfectly good everyday choice. For the backup that has to be ready whenever it’s needed, disposable wins, and that’s why we rate HotHands hand warmers as the best hand warmers for a power cut.

Small, Soft and Flexible

The other big difference is shape. HotHands hand warmers are soft, flat packets that bend with your hand. They slip inside a glove, a coat pocket, a sock or the foot of a sleeping bag without you really noticing them. Rechargeable warmers are solid, usually quite bulky, and mostly live in your hand or a coat pocket. If you need your hands free to scrape a windscreen, dig out a wheel or carry shopping home from a dead train station, a packet inside your glove is far more useful than a block in your pocket.

Where HotHands Hand Warmers Earn Their Place

HotHands hand warmers are cheap enough to keep a few in several places. These are the ones that matter most:

• A winter power cut at home. Tucked into gloves or held for a few minutes, they take the edge off the cold that stops you sleeping. One in the foot of the bed warms it up before you get in.
• The car. A pair in the glovebox or door pocket for a breakdown, a long wait in a snowy queue, or warming your hands back up after clearing snow or changing a wheel.
• A Get Home Bag. If a January commute turns into a long walk or a two-hour wait on a cold platform, a pair in your pockets makes it far more bearable.
• Elderly relatives and neighbours. No buttons, no charging, no instructions to remember. Open the packet, hold it. It’s the easiest bit of kit you can leave with someone who wouldn’t use anything more complicated.
• The first aid kit. One of our own uses: a warmer over a sore muscle, an aching back in particular, helps ease the pain. Keep it inside a layer of clothing rather than against bare skin.
• Whole-body warmth. A tip from the outdoor world: a warmer held under each armpit, over a thin layer, warms your core, not just your hands.

Storing Your HotHands Hand Warmers

Keep them sealed in their outer wrappers, somewhere cool and dry, and they’ll sit there quietly until you need them. Note the use-by date when you buy them, and check it once a year. Once a warmer is opened, the reaction can’t be switched off, so only open one when you’re ready to use it.

The HotHands hand warmers value pack is easy to split up: a few pairs in the kitchen drawer with the torches, a pair in each car, and a pair in each Get Home Bag. That way, wherever the cold catches you, a warmer is never far away.

So the short version of this HotHands hand warmers review: if you want warmth you can store and forget, and rely on when nothing else works, these are the ones to keep.

What the Rest of the Team Think

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Pros and Cons of HotHands Hand Warmers

Pros

• HotHands hand warmers need no batteries, no charging and no power of any kind
• Up to 10 hours of heat from each warmer
• Air activated: open, shake and they’re warming within minutes
• Soft, flat packets fit inside gloves, pockets and socks
• A value pack of 10 pairs splits easily between the house, the car and a Get Home Bag
• Simple enough to leave with an elderly relative

Cons

• Single use: once opened, they can’t be switched off or reused
• They warm people, not rooms
• Need replacing when they pass the use-by date on the packet
• HotHands hand warmers cost more per use over time than a rechargeable warmer you use every day

Frequently Asked Questions