You do sports? No? Well, surely you know someone who does and that comes full of bruises, overloads, etc. and that they say the sport is good 😉
The other day after a long workout, I came home with knee pain. At home I had a 3M cold and hot gel pack but why buy a bag if we can make it?
There are homemade solutions to apply cold using frozen bags of peas or rice. Although it serves as a provisional measure, they have the disadvantage that they cannot be reused and that do not serve us to apply heat.
I love DIY the other day I make homemade baby wipes and fake snow if you love them too see our posts.
How to make reusable cold heat gel packs
If you are going to try it, follow these tips.
- Use two bags. If the first one gets out or breaks the second one will prevent it from staining and losing everything. And make a better closure than mine. Try airtight bags and superglue sticks 😉
- When putting it on a part of the body, cover it with a cloth, do not apply it directly on the skin, which can harm you. This also applies to commercial gel bags.
- If instead of cold you want to apply heat, you must put your bag in hot water and wait for it to absorb heat.
Let’s go to the mess that is a very simple recipe or DIY. With only two ingredients.
We only need a bag, alcohol and water. I have used burning alcohol that is much cheaper than the pharmacy.
The operation is very simple, the alcohol does not freeze and depending on the mixture will allow the partial freezing of water, but for this we have to see the ideal percentage of the mixture.
We have done 3 tests. Two with alcohol and one with a dishwasher.
Test 1 (2 parts of water for 1 of alcohol)
We put the corresponding parts of alcohol and water in the bag, mix them well, take out as much air as possible and close it. From here it goes directly to the freezer, at -18ºC
In the end there is a completely liquid solution that although it can be used because it is very, very cold, it is not what we are looking for.
Test 2 (3 parts of water for 1 of alcohol)
Without a doubt the best recipe to make the hot cold gel ice packs. Although we must try more proportions to refine the mixture and make it perfect.
Of the three tests as I have commented, this has been the best by far, the water partially freezes but does not fully compact.
Although I have to say that the texture is not exactly the same as the gel they sell, it seems to be a slush, but for what we want to use it is fantastic.
The one in the picture was extremely cold 😉
Test 3 – With dishwasher (3 parts of water for 1 of dishwasher)
In a comment on a website that I can’t find, they said that a good gel was also made with a dishwasher. So I have done the test.
The result has been bad, it has completely frozen, leaving a block of ice.
If anyone has any experience I will be happy to hear it.
Test 4 – For future. Antifreeze and water
Another option I can think of that would work fine is to try a mixture of car antifreeze and water.
I leave this experiment for later