Hot Water Bottle Testing

Legislation constantly changes & often reacts to incidents & developments, these changes often require the need for a testing program to be developed or additional testing for existing standards. The tests may have to be carried out by accredited third party sources.

An example of legislation change came to Smithers Rapra via New Zealand where legislation requires that all hot water bottles imported into the country must have been independently tested by an accredited authority. Smithers Rapra had considerable experience of this type of product meant that we were able to respond.

Smithers Rapra has been involved in the process of standards development & we are keen to look at new areas to develop product standards & testing methods to illustrate those standards. Smithers Rapra is active on the BSI committee PRI/068 for hot water bottles & currently holds the position of chairman through one of its consultants.

Hot water bottles are a good example of the testing experience at Smithers Rapra. The criteria of acceptability for a PVC bottle are different to those of a rubber bottle even though both will see the same service conditions. The anomaly reflects the different routes that the two types of material have taken in the standardisation process prior to being amalgamated into the one standard. The latest standard for hot water bottles utilises the information from testing procedures implemented at Smithers Rapra & our laboratories are the only ones used by BSI for Kite Mark testing of hot water bottles.

A case study on Hot Water Bottle failure is available here (click through to hot water bottle case study)