Good Thinking

Heatbox steam-heats your lunch, wherever you are

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The Heatbox's inner food container can be removed and thrown into a dishwasher, along with its lid
Heatbox
The Heatbox reportedly tips the scales at 1,244 g (44 oz)
Heatbox
The Heatbox's inner food container can be removed and thrown into a dishwasher, along with its lid
Heatbox
The Heatbox is the product of a successful Indiegogo campaign and is now available for preorder, priced at $149
Heatbox
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While having a hot lunch certainly is nice, it's not always possible if you don't have access to an electrical outlet or a microwave oven. That's where the Dutch-designed Heatbox comes in, as it uses an integrated battery to steam-heat your food.

Users start by pouring 20 ml (0.7 oz) of water into the Heatbox, then adding its stainless steel inner container, which contains their food. One lid is then placed on the inner container – sealing the food inside – and another lid (made of bamboo) is placed on the outside of the Heatbox, keeping the water contained. The whole thing can then be carried around, without anything leaking out.

Once it's time to eat, the outer lid is taken off, the inner lid is removed, the outer lid is put back on, and a button is pressed to activate an integrated heating element. This causes the water to boil, turning to steam which heats the food without drying it out. Two release valves allow excess steam to escape, so the internal pressure doesn't get too high.

The Heatbox reportedly tips the scales at 1,244 g (44 oz)
Heatbox

Utilizing an iOS/Android app, users can select between Low, Medium and High heating programs, based on how much and what sort of food they're heating. Generally speaking, heating times range from eight to 12 minutes. One 90-minute charge of the battery should be good for three Low heatings. And while other food-heating lunchboxes do exist, they typically having to be plugged into an outlet, limiting their usefulness in the outdoors.

The Heatbox is the product of a successful Indiegogo campaign and is now available for preorder, priced at US$149 – shipping should commence by the middle of this year. It's demonstrated in the following video.

Source: Heatbox

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4 comments
guzmanchinky
That seems really handy for heating soup while camping
Fredrik Bäck
So you're going to contain the water content with just a bamboo lid, without leakage over time? I'd like to see that. And one 90 min charge lasts for "three low heatings", i.e it will last for one high heating per day, and then needs to be charged again. And what is this "autonomous steaming technology" they talk about in the video? That's just nonsensical technobabble. And it weighs 1.25 kg by itself too, so that's about 1.75 kg for a filled lunchbox. Essentially you pay $150 to lug around a small portable stove that needs to be recharged daily and will most likely start to leak over time.
pmshah
Funny! At the end of the video it sisplayed links to 2 other similar and earlier gadgets, up to 3 years earlier, and 35% cheaper at that.
Baker Steve
It sounds like a perfect recipe for food poisoning, especially where rice is involved (as in the photo). Bacillus cereus can be, well, cerius :-)