People are only just realising what the flower-shaped symbol on hot water bottles means

An expert shared the little-known safety feature and explained what the number inside the flower-shaped sign means, in an effort to help raise awareness among customers

People have been left shocked after learning about the little-known use of a safety feature hidden on hot water bottles. Found under the cover, the flower-shaped symbol is said to reveal when the bottle was made – and helps you work out when it is no longer safe to use. But the symbol is not straightforward to understand.

Thankfully, a Welsh mum has gone viral after sharing a helpful post explaining how to decode the picture – leaving many amazed in the process. Mum-of-two Kaylee Whormsley shared the important tip to Facebook after watching consumer expert Alice Beer on ITV ’s This Morning.

The expert appeared on the show to share hot water bottle safety advice, as she warned hospitals treat one person a week for hot water bottle burns.

During the segment, she advised: “You’ve got a daisy wheel date with 12 segments. In the middle, you have the year it was made, then you’ve got 12 segments around the outside – those are the months in which it was manufactured.”

Referencing the water bottle she was holding, Beer added: “You can tell the month it was manufactured from when the dots end. It’s got dots in eight segments so it was made in August.” She also explained that bottles that have seen typical usage tend to last up the three years.

Keen to echo the expert’s advice, the mum urged her friends and family to check their own hot water bottles – and revealed her bottle was older than three years when she checked it. “Looks like I need to get a new one – I thought this was fine too,” she wrote.

Her post has since gained thousands of likes and has been shared over 95,000 times, with many commenters revealing they previously had no idea about the symbol’s use.

One person replied: “Really good information thank you for sharing. I didn’t have a clue about this but have heard some really upsetting stories recently of both adults and children being admitted to hospital with severe burns. Just checked mine now, all good.”

Another commented: “You are 100% correct. I have a huge burn scar on my back from a split hot water bottle and it was old. Not something I ever thought about.” And someone else revealed: “Thank you very much, I am going to get mine changed this week!”

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