Hey r/backpacking 👋
I'm a student and my team is building a product called HeatPouch. Here's the concept:
A reusable platinum silicone bag (261g, folds flat) plus water-activated heating packs (around 50g each). You put the pack in the bag, add roughly 100ml of water from your bottle, insert any sealed supermarket meal pouch, rice, pasta, curry, soup, wait 12–15 minutes, and the food is hot. The sealed pouch never touches the water or the chemistry. No gas canister. No stove. No flame. Works in rain. Works where gas is banned.
Cost breakdown per hot meal: sealed supermarket pouch €1.50–3 plus heating pack €1.30. Total around €3–4 for a hot meal anywhere.
The full kit, reusable silicone bag plus five heating packs, would be around €29.99. Refill pack of 10 heating packs around €12.99.
I want honest feedback from people who actually backpack before we take this any further.
The weight question first: 261g for the bag plus ~50g per heating pack. For ultralight backpackers this is probably a non-starter. For everyone else is this worth the trade-off for not carrying a stove and canister?
The speed question :12–15 minutes vs 3–5 minutes on a gas stove. Does passive heating while you set up camp or rest make this acceptable? Or is it a dealbreaker?
The use case question: Is there a specific scenario where you would actually reach for this over your current setup? Fire ban on the trail? Multi-day trip where a gas canister runs out? Hostel or hut situation where stoves aren't allowed?
The trust question : What would you need to know about food safety before using something with a chemical heating pack near your food?
And the honest one: is there already a solution in your kit that handles this and I'm wasting my time?
Not selling anything. Research stage only. Tear it apart if you see problems, that's exactly why I'm posting here 🙏
