New Product with Survival Kit Potential

H

Hazardous

Joined
Nov 27, 1999
Messages
42
My lovely wife recently purchased some Reynolds Hot Bags for the kitchen, but I'm stealing them for my mini kit!

What these things are is a heavy duty aluminum foil bag, perfect for a survival kit water container. They are thick rectangles about 12 by 15 inches and fold up quite small. One end is open and the other three are sealed. I think they come in three different sizes, too. I have the regular size, but my wife says there are larger and smaller sizes.

I think with a little experimentation, it would be easy to come up with all sorts of survival uses for this product, and you can always cut the stuff up to use it as regular foil if the situation calls for it.

They are also embossed with pictures of food like turkey legs, fish and mushrooms so if you are out for a long time, you have something to keep you motivated to get back to great home cooking! Check them out.
 
Great idea!
Isn´t that similar to a solution from one of my first posts where I described the use of the aluminum packaging from vacuum-selad coffee? It is a perfect container, and I boiled already water in it, but I doubt if it can take several boilings (will it disintegrate?) How about your product? Can you boil water in it? Sorry, but I don´t get the picture what it is, since this brandname is unkwown to us Germans.
I think besides containing water the solution should always be able to boil water (puryfying purpose + heatsource). Mine holds about half a liter, so if I need 2 liters per day for a minimum of three days that means boiling 12 times before I have to through it away (minimum).
robert
 
Germansgt,

I'll use terms more familiar to you to describe the product. What I'm talking about is a thick aluminum foil pouch about 37 cm by 32 cm made by folding a piece of foil in half and then welding two sides shut, forming a sort of rectagular pocket open at the top.

I just tested the water capacity in my kitchen and the bag will easily hold four liters of water, maybe five. There is more room in the bag even when filled with five liters, but I think at that point weight becomes a factor and more water may cause the bag to burst.

I plan to test these bags under field conditions soon, and I'll post and update then. I think the best water boiling approach would be to place the bag on the ground so the bottom was supported and fill it with as much water as desired. Then build a fire on one side, or all around, the bag. That should heat it quite well. In a snow situation, you could keep the bag off the ground with some green branches. It looks like it would stand up to several boiling sessions.

I'm very familiar with the foil bags German coffee comes packed in. I was in your country for four years in the U.S. military (I guess you could call me Americansgt
wink.gif
). The product I am describing is much more durable. Packaging coffee in that manner is still a bit unusual in the U.S., but you can find it that way if you look around a bit.

BTW, what unit are you in? I was in the 3rd Infantry Division, 2/64 Armor, stationed near Wurzburg. Our sister unit was the 12th Panzer Division. Maybe we trained together.

Email me your mailing address and I'll send a package or two of the foil bags out to you so you can give them a try.

[This message has been edited by Hazardous (edited 03-06-2000).]
 
Most foil coffee bags in the USA now come with a degassing vent, to allow the release of CO2 and prevent the entrance of 02; this vent would compromise watertight integrity.

Walt
 
Most of the time the degassing vents are far enough up on the bag that you could use plenty of bag underneath. However, your average american sealed coffee bag is a coated plastic, not a metal foil, and I do not know how they would withstand fire temps...


Stryver
 
Don't forget you can boil water in a folded paper cup..

the trick is to not let the edges catch fire.

I would worry about the reflective nature of the foil preventing the water from absorbing the heat (infra-red) energy, by reflecting it.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top