From what I've found the best place to get MRE heaters are from inside the MRE pouch.  They should come with them.  Alternate methods of heating? Hmm boiling them in water would do it.

Smalls

LCpl of Marines

I hope the mre's that you have bought have the heaters in them. it will not say on the out side of the individule package but on the outside of the case it is marked warning this case contains water activated heaters.
I hope you got the tan one's as if they do not have heaters they are most likely old or parts of mre's which the later is not bad.
my wife hates them but had one for lunch the other day and gave her a taste of the peanut butter and the lorna durne shorthbread cookies and she liked both.
she even told me not to sell all of them this time just incase we may need some.

I refuse to eat MREs anymore. My diet on drill weekends consists of two good size bags of "Pizzaria" flavor Combos and a box of Nutty bars.

I know a Marine that does the same thing and saves his MREs for emergencies. He told me he offered a few to a homeless person and the guy wouldnt even take them. Yes, they are called "M-R-Es" for reasons stated above.

The commercially available MRE's do not come with heaters and must be ordered seperately. The only ones that the heaters come with are mil issue ones.

There are a few different types but they all do the some exact thing and differ in appearence only. Older (4-5 yrs)had the heating material inside a sleeve of cardboard, the next gen was black powder in cloth looking segments that slid down and made it hard to get the MRE into the plastic envelope. The most one currently in most MREs is a flat, silver colored rectangle contained in a pouch within the envelope. They all work the some and as well no matter what type you end up getting. The only alternate methods would be boiling them or exposing them to an open flame.

I'm piling supplies for you as we speak.

Sherm

[puke] MREs

i must be weird I LIKE MREs!

All I know is that the military MREs cannot be sold to the public.  The civilian MREs are basically the same without the heaters.  The heaters you can buy separately are not the same as the military heaters, because of some chemical that cannot be transported via UPS or something.  Another good way to heat them up is drop the entre bag into boiling water.

first of all,usgi heaters can be found on EBAY. also military mre's are not SUPPOSED to be sold to civilians, BUT you can find a steady supply also on ebay, and be sure it says the tan ones...ive seen people trying to sell the brown bag mre's. and even though i spnt 10 years active duty, i still love mre's. specialy the jalepeno cheese spread.

P.S. Spaghetti and meat sauce is the best hehe.

maybe I'am lucky that I live in a military community and they are cheap and are easy to find. they are my main diet for hunting and when I travel a case goes with me even most of the time I will never use them when traveling. what I do when hunting is to carry a few wAter bottles and put the drink mix in and shake it up and take it with me what I do not drink at the meal. always use the heater exept when by my jeep and then just whip out my troxian mini stove and dump the main meal contents into the canteen cup and heat so I save my heaters for later use. comes in handy sometimes on a very cold day when you are freezing as they make a great pocket warmer or when you get a meal with rice its nice to have two heaters instead of trying to cram both packs into one heater. the new heaters seem to generate alot more heat than the old one's. use to eat alot of topramen when hunting now I get my kicks from mre's.

they do say property of the us govert. right on then not for resale but they do make good backup food in an emergency.

Interesting....somebody better tell the commissary here at Hill AFB that.  They sell them occasionally althought the price is not the best you can get.

Some MRE's are good, some are bad. No MRE is edible unless I dump the whole Tobasco onto the entree.

MRE peanutbutters make good emergency calories.  I am guaranteed not to eat it unless the situation genuinely warrants it.  Whether or not I am willing to eat the peanutbutter is a gauge of how desperate/hungry I currently am.

Bring back the C-rats!!!

> Bring back the C-rats!!!
>

Especially the canned peaches from the c-rations.  I would trade everything else in the pack for an extra can of peaches.

[:)]

- CD

I just bought about $190 worth of MRE's and heaters from Major Surplus.  They appear to have the best prices.  Most date codes were in the "1200C" range which means they were packed July, 2001, so they're fresh.  They have the best prices for heaters that I've seen.  My order was placed Sept. 17 and it arrived Oct. 2 (i.e. 2 weeks and one day).

Ways to heat MRE's:
- MRE heater
- place against your body and let your body heat them
- place them in hot or boiling water
- lay them in the sun and let the sun do the work
- empty the contents into a pan and heat like any other food
- lay them on a hot surface.  Make sure the surface won't melt or burn the MRE cover.

Hope this helps.

Merlin

Engine manifolds, especially Chevy, I too also like MRE's especially the new civilian ones, except for MRE meat slabs, although they make goodresoles for your boots

Yes!  Bring back the C-rats!  Beef and potatoes was great!  Beans and meatballs was damned good, too!  The canned crackers and chocolate disk were far better than the MRE equivalents, too.  And every case came with two (2!) P-38's...

I was am 11B before they invented heaters.  We just ate them cold.  After the heaters were introduced, we used them to make improvised munitions instead of frivilously wasting them on warm food.  Warm food is for REMF's! [+]:D]