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A few weeks ago I bought a couple of flameless ration heaters at a high street camping store here in the uk.

They are larger versions of the US heaters - big enough for British ration pouches and carry nato stock numbers 8970-21-914-9860. One side is in French and the other in English.

I know the US versions are issued with MREs, but are these larger ones normally issued with the Canadian rations?

Hi jayuk - welcome to the forums! If you get a chance, I'd love to see a picture of one of these heaters. As far as I know, the Canadian IMPs don't come with heaters - but maybe they're changing that?

I tried to find a searchable Nato Stock Number database but couldn't find one. If anyone else has any better luck, let us know.

The manufacturer seems to be ''Hot Pack.''

It's really late here in the UK, so I'll post a couple of pictures tomorrow.

Many thanks.

That is a Canadian FRH you have there. If you look at any NATO stock number, the second set of 2 digits indicates the country of origin(21 is Canada, 99 is the UK, 00 is the US). My brother is still in the Reserves, and they have FRHs for a couple of years now.

This appears to be the supplier referenced on the packages:

http://www.hotpackmeals.com/hpe_military.htm

Info from this url:

Hot Pack®Heaters
... For Military Use ...
The HOT PACK® Heaters have been specialy designed to heat a 300 g (10.6 oz.) retort pouched meal (IMPs/MREs) to 800C (1780 F) in 12 minutes without matches, fire, stove or electricity.
The heaters are replacing hexamine and trioxane solid fuel tablets in todays military and emergency survival use.
This type of heater is used routinely by the US military to heat their MREs (meals ready to eat).

IMPORTANT DATA & FACTS . . .

The Canadian heater is a development of the original US MRE (Meals Ready to Eat) heater designed for Desert Storm (1992).
The current heater has been developed especially for the Canadian Government (Department of National Defence) over the past 3 years
The Canadian heater is larger and more effective than the original US heater. It will heat 300 g of food or water to 80 degrees Celsius from ambient room temperature in 12 minutes.
Once activated, the heater will keep hot for approximately 45 minutes. It can be used as a body warmer or to heat a drink after heating the meal.
The Department of National Defence (DND) completed a BUY & TRY in 1998. The results were overwhelmingly positive. A Canadian NATO stock number (NSN)) has been issued.
Available to military units on local purchase order (LPO) direct from Hot Pack Enterprises. We accept MasterCard, VISA and cheques.
Minimum quantities per order is 1000 heaters.

Hot Pack® Heaters -

EMERGENCY USE

In survival situations, many victims can suffer from hypothermia.
Rarely is there an immediate heat source available.
Rain may have fallen or is falling, making the surroundings wet and damp.
Items to make a fire could be scarce. It could be cold and snowing.
HOT PACK® Heaters will provide a guaranteed source of heat no matter where you are.
Unlike fire that needs oxygen to function properly,
HOT PACK® Heaters can be activated anywhere including on top of Mount Everest
(as used successfully by mountaineer George Tumpach of Seven Summits Expedition)
or in the middle of an ice storm as reported in Emergency Preparedness Digest in April 98.

BENEFITS:

Will defrost ice or snow for drinking water.
Will heat 300 g (10.6 oz.) of food or water from room temperature to 80°C (178°F) in 12 minutes.
Will provide a source of heat for up to forty five minutes after activation.
Is sometimes reusable for a limited heat cycle (dependent on how much of the heating element was exhausted in the first cycle).
The chemical reaction is totally safe. When water is added to the heater, the mixture bubbling away inside the sleeve (magnesium hydroxide) is a pharmaceutical chemical used by doctors to treat stomach acidity. Food grade ingredients are used in the manufacturing of the heater.


There is also a heat graph on this page if anyone wants more technical data.

That looks like them - sort off a supersized US one.

Kman, I've emailed you some photos of the heaters (sorry I can't post them on the forum as I've no webspace).

From my point of view they are great as they are big enough to fit the British army ration pouches. The bad news is that Ive only got two heaters.

Thanks.

Thanks for the pics, Jayuk! Here they are:

(click on a picture for a large version)

I have used the Hot Pack heaters. Be very careful putting the meal in and the bag rips very easily.

Mirage wrote: The HOT PACK® Heaters have been specialy designed to heat a 300 g (10.6 oz.) retort pouched meal (IMPs/MREs) to 800C (1780 F) in 12 minutes without matches, fire, stove or electricity.

That has to be 80 deg C and 178 deg F? Haha.. don't think anything can take 800 deg C or 1780 F

Wow, that's one astounding temperature! It has to be a website typo, I just C&P'd the info - either that or the MRE is heated competely in about 2 seconds and they come in ceramic pouches!