Ultimate Survival Technologies USB Hand Warmer

UST is an American company, specialising in survival and outdoor equipment. With over 80-years in the business, they have accumulated a vast range of good quality and useful products, covering everything from cutting tools to first aid supplies.

On test, is their USB hand warmer, which has a clever second function that is a great added bonus. The unit is very small and lightweight and fits very easily into even the smallest pocket. The metal body is anodised orange and the control and sockets are positioned in one end. The hand warmer function has two settings; Low, which gives a very mild heat (ideal for long hours waiting for quarry to present itself on a cold morning) and High, which gives a surprisingly high heat, perfect for thawing out your hands when they have got really cold and you need a quick warm up. The unit gets up to temperature quickly and, on test, stayed hot for longer than the times stated in the instructions (three-hours on high, six-hours on low).

To turn on the unit, you simply press the power button and hold for 3-seconds, the indicator light will show blue, indicating that the hand warmer is on the low setting, pressing it again will change the light to orange, indicating the high setting. You can switch between heat levels, by simply pressing the button once, or turn it off by pressing and holding the button for three-seconds. My only criticism of this piece of kit, is that the controls and the charging ports are open and exposed to the elements, not ideal for a unit intended for outdoor use. The solution proved to be simple and inexpensive: by simply putting the unit in a zip lock bag, it instantly became waterproof but remained completely useable.

On Charge

Alongside the powder button there are two sockets, one USB and one micro USB. To charge the unit, you attach one end of the supplied cable to the micro USB on the unit and the other end to a compatible USB port. Charging takes around four hours and a red light will remain illuminated on the unit until it is fully charged. Once charged, the unit retained the charge for an extended period.

Bonus function

As mentioned earlier, this unit has a second function that really sets it apart from other hand warmers. When fully charged, the unit can be used to charge a mobile phone, or any other compatible device. With the unit switched off, the USB end of the cable is attached to the hand warmer and the micro USB at the other end is plugged into the other device. On test, it fully charged one mobile phone and went on to put a 50% charge into another device.

Conclusion

With no liquid or solid fuel to carry, this is a very clean and easy unit to carry. It takes up no space at all, so is well worth packing when you are going outdoors. The secondary function has proven really useful, as mobile phones always seem to choose the worst possible time to run out of charge. In an emergency situation, both the hand warmer and phone charging functions could prove invaluable, and at the price, this is definitely something worth adding to your kit.