Lewis N. Clark Portable Immersion Water Heater

I got one of these years ago for travel purposes. I was thrilled to see them again and purchased one for my Mom who was in a skilled nursing unit for rehab. She cannot stand lukewarm or cold coffee, which is the norm in most facilities of this type. The warmer is small and easy to use. It should not be used by anyone who doesn't understand the heat it produces (children, adults with cognitive limitations) or have the fine motor dexterity to use safely, since it hangs on the edge of the cup or bowl. It is compact, sturdy and works great for heating water for instant drinks, tea and warming hot drinks or soups in hotel rooms that do not provide a microwave. Bought a new one to keep in my travel items. Want to conserve water? Instead of running the faucet waiting on hot water to cleanse your face, keep a mug handy to instantly have warm water without running gallons to get it. With COVID changing the way we approach travel & lodging, the less I have to touch in a hotel room the better. Does anyone out there think the hotel staff actually cleans & sanitizes the "in room" coffee pots or microwaves? Reduce the risks...take your own sanitizer & one of these warmers. This is a great gadget for multiple purposes & travels well.

It is helpful to know a little about how a product like this works so you can avoid misuse and the associated frustration. The company I work for makes residental water heater elements. I have sat through countless meetings with engineers about how electric elements work...so I have a little more knowledge of submersible elements. This item is designed in an identical way to a home electric water heater element. Electricity flows through a copper core in the center of the element producing heat, which is then dispersed throughout the liquid it is submersed in. If the element is not A. fully submersed or B. taken out even for a second while plugged in....it will dry fire. What is a dry fire? The tiny copper wire inside the element overheats in one spot and breaks...stopping the flow of electrons and thus the heat. There is no way to fix it...it is just game over...throw it away. ANY plumber will tell you that tank dry fires are the #1 cause of element failures in residential water heaters. Thus you can see the opportunity to just by a very brief careless moment to dry fire this element. Don't have it submersed to the lip of the cup...congratulations...you just dry fired it, throw it away. Took it out of the cup before unplugging it? Congratulations...you just dry fired it, throw it away...game over. I have been using mine for many months while traveling and have not had an issue at all...however I am quite vigilant about how I use it...careful to fill the cup to the top...even covering the clip on the handle...and then I unplug it about 30 seconds before taking it out of the cup. If you do this...you won't ever have a problem....if you do? You'll be on Amazon venting your anger with a crappy review over your own negligence. Since no hotel in Las Vegas has in room coffee...this little bably saves me $4.00 a day plus an early AM trip to the lobby. This is always on my Vegas or international travel "must take" list, along with some Starbucks instant coffee...mug and sugar. If you are a methodical vigilant person...don't be scared by the bad reviews. If you are scatter brained morning multitasker....save your Money.

My wife is a big Hot Water and Lemon person and simply goes to the microwave every five minutes for a hot cup. So I got this device to maybe save her some steps. She plugged it in and it worked GREAT for ONE cup. Steam rose quickly, and then... That was it. It will not heat again. Tried to return it and the merchant has put controls on returns so I could not simply request to return defective item, instead I had to use the Amazon Chat and ultimately the customer service phone number, all in hopes I expect by the merchant to ensure many customers just give up over trying to recover $16. Bottom line: I take some negative reviews with a grain of salt, knowing not all things are what folks 'expect' and some folks have high expectations, or simply misread a description or use. I also assume when dealing with electrical items, you might get a bad apple every 100 or so, but based on the prior reviews, I should have listened to them and not taken this for an exception. Stay Away from this device and seller -- If you read my other reviews you will see I rarely, if ever, have said that -- In fact I am not sure if I ever have in the past, this may be my first time saying DON'T ORDER an item.

I brought this with me on a trip to Niger because the hotel I stay in doesn't have a kettle. They have 220v so it heated the water quite quickly. I like that it's compact, has a small carrying case, and came with a small adapter. A few notes: (1) This may go without saying, but the amount of time it takes to heat the water is proportional to the amount of water you're trying to heat (2) It's harder than you might think to make sure the metal portion stays covered by water the entire time it's plugged in; be very careful! (3) I tried it with soup once and it didn't quite work (I just heated the water, not the soup). I'm going to try it again at some point, but I don't think the water was quite hot enough. It left the soup "crunchy". It worked for instant oatmeal. (4) I tried it with a tall thermos and this didn't work. The water appeared boiling at the top but I could tell when drinking it that the water below had not been properly heated. A wide, squat mug worked best. (5) I purchased a wide ceramic mug at the grocery store for this and it worked great (will probably get a metal camping mug for future travels). In a way, I think it was better than a kettle because the mug heated up as the water heated up (akin to what it would be to "hot the pot"). This meant that my tea steeped beautifully, though it would have been a bit problematic if you were in a hurry because it took longer to cool off -- in which case, I would recommend heating up in the mug and transferring (carefully) to a thermos All in all, I'm happy with this purchase and will be bringing it along with me on my travels to places I know or suspect don't have kettles.

Works well. Mount it as shown, making sure to hook it on the side of your glass+ with liquid with covering up to 1/2" or more of top the element. It quickly heats cold/room temp water to tepid. If you get distracted, it'll be boiling in minutes. I'm about to order my 3rd one in several months because there's no sensor, shut-off or fail-safe, and that's my only complaint. You must place the element in liquid BEFORE plugging in or it'll short. You must unplug the heated element BEFORE removing it from your glass or it'll short. If you think you've unplugged it, removed it and the prongs accidentally touch and make electrical contact with the outlet once removed, it'll short. This is why I'm about to order my 3rd element. Sigh. Returning to my no multi-tasking rule for my am routine. I suggest you find something heat resistant to place the hot element in once removed for cooling. I use the little glass pictured. A sensor/shut-off/fail-safe would make this perfect! Only reason why I don't give it 5 stars!

This handy little travel immersion heater is actually quite amazing. I did not expect it to work as well as it did. In order for it to work properly you MUST FIRST insert it in your cup of water. THEN PLUG in. AFTER the water boils THEN UNPLUG it. Let it sit for 30 seconds or so and THEN REMOVE from the cup. This will keep from destroying your immersion heater. I was amazed how quickly it boiled a typical coffee cup of water. On my first use I didn't know what to expect. I started it up and in less than two minutes the water was boiling away. I found that to be the case each day while on my trip. Hard to believe the little thing can boil water so quickly! And it brings it to a vigorous boil too! I was in a third world country. The tap water was not fit to drink without boiling it. In this case, I was able to use the tap water, boil it in a couple minutes, remove the heater, and make my instant coffee. Perfect. I am very content. It comes with an adapter that will work in some countries, but I had a universal adapter with me which would have worked fine if needed and it was more versatile. Handy little pouch within which everything fits. Great little product!

Product comes with an European plug adapter and pouch. Easy and convenient to pack. Takes up less space and weights less than the collapsible tea kettle. Opted for this over the collapsible tea kettle due to weight and space, and to avoid chemicals leaching into water due to wear and tear. Not sure how it is in Europe, but in the US, it takes 20 minutes to bring ~10oz/300mL somewhat cold tap water to 160F. It's a tad slow if you're looking to bring water to a complete boil at 212F. Just remember to fill the container with water before plugging in the immersion heater as noted on the instructions.

I was looking for an immerser that worked on 220/European current and this item along with its plug adapter is a good combo and value. I was trying to fit it into a travel cup I already had, and most of the immersers here on Amazon were too long for that purpose, so I found this shorter immerser and it works great. I wanted to be able to place the unit in water inside my large travel cup (durable plastic) without the heating element touching the bottom or sides of the cup. I used immersers when I was a student abroad and now am using them so I can have a cup of tea or coffee/ oatmeal on the go while traveling. Love being able to have hot water for coffee in my room--happy with purchase.