Barley vs. flax heating pads

This week, I decided to do a somewhat more scientific experiment. And every good scientist needs a hot assistant, and I had mine. My husband’s more scientific and unbiased approach to things made him the perfect assistant. I remember doing science experiments in junior high, and used the same approach.

Question: Which filling is better for a heating pad, flax or barley? Which will retain its heat longer and which is more comfortable?

Hypothesis: The barley should retain its heat longer, since each piece of barley is larger than each piece of flax. The flax will be more supple, and therefore more comfortable.

Method: Two identical heating pads were made for this experiment, each filled with exactly 1 ½ cups of filling, and sewn shut.

Variable: 1 heating pad was filled with a lavender/flax mixture (1 part: 3 parts), 1 heating pad was filled with a lavender/barley mixture (1 part: 3 parts).

Test one: Each heating pad was heated for 1 minute in the microwave. This proved to be too long, as each heating pad was too hot to touch. As they cooled slightly, I put each one on the bare skin of my legs and sat to wait for them to cool. I felt them occasionally with my hands as well, and asked my assistant to test them as well. Although the flax heated up more, they lost their heat at about the same rate. There was no noticeable difference in the rate of heat loss.

Test two: I determined to heat each heating pad to approximately the same temperature to test which stayed warm for the longest. I heated the barley heating pad for 45 seconds and the flax heating pad for 30 seconds. I again put each one on the bare skin of my legs and sat to wait for them to cool. My assistant and I both concurred that there was little difference between the two, with the barley staying minutely warmer than the flax.

Test three: The cuddle test. Which one was more comfortable? The feel of the flax was far softer to the feel than the barley. The barley felt a little bit prickly, whereas there were no hard edges to the flax to be prickly or uncomfortable.

Conclusion: Although the barley retained its heat a little bit longer, the difference was not significant enough to switch to barley, as the feel of the flax is so much nicer that the heat retention difference was deemed insignificant by comparison.

Note: Spritzing the heating pads with water, or heating them with a glass of water in the microwave will prolong the life of the heating pad.

Join us next week as we tackle bath bombs and bath salts. A special thank you to my lab assistant!