Cold Hands

[Dave Fritz]

I'm good to go with the ski pants and layered clothing but my hands get really cold. Has anyone tried heated gloves and if so, any recommendations?

[Paul F Franklin]

My wife and I have heated gloves that we got for walking the pup in really cold weather and they worked well enough. Don't remember the brand, but we bought them years ago from Cabela's and they are no longer available.
Things that I would look for:

Ability to recharge the battery without removing the battery from the gloves. Ours require the batteries to be removed to charge and while not a huge deal, it was a pain and seemed to be hard on the wiring to the batteries. Not sure if there are actually any brands that allow this. I would be hesitant to buy a model that uses non-rechargable batteries; I think you would burn through them fast.

Lithium Ion batteries for their high energy density, fast recharge, and lack of memory effect with frequent charge/discharge cycles. Downside of Lion batteries: they are less efficient the colder it gets, so the charge lasts for less time when it is really cold, and ironically, that is when you tend to use them on the highest setting and when you need them the most.

Removable batteries so if you need them for longer than a few hours you can swap out the batteries. Buying an extra set of batteries isn't a bad idea anyway, because like most "techy" things these days, models come and go and battery availability over the long term isn't guaranteed. We struggled to find new batteries for ours just a couple years after we first bought them.

We got the best results when we kept them inside instead of in the car in the cold garage, so they were warm to start with. And we turned them on a few minutes before heading out to give them a head start. They work better if they are just keeping your hands warm and not having to warm them up when already cold. In addition, the Lion batteries work best when they are warmer.

But probably the best way to avoid cold hands is to do some exercise before heading out to get your core warm.

Most of them seem to have hi-med-low settings. Nice, but I don't think we ever used anything but high because we only used them in colder weather.

[Jim Becker]

I have not used heated gloves, although I'm sure my hands would appreciate them if I had to be in the cold a lot. (That's not been an issue for years here, but this winter might be different due to the El Niño weather pattern that is now upon us) But what I do have is a pair of heavy mittens to use when I'm using the Big Orange Power Tool for clearing the driveway. Mittens are warmer for me due to their nature. Yes, not good for "detail work" where fingers are required, but for turning a steering wheel and operating the control stalk for the FEL, they do a fine job and my hands stay warmer that even with the heavy Thinsulate filled gloves I also happen to own.

[Edward Weber]

Glove liners do help
IMO the ones made from silk work best and are the thinnest.

[Kevin Jenness]

With cold hands due to neuropathy I wear mittens with Hot Hands chemical warmers. They do an adequate job, cost about $1 per package in quantity, take 10-15 minutes to warm up, last 4-6 hours and can be shut down and reused by putting in a ziploc bag. The heated gloves I have looked at were quite pricy.

[Warren Lake]

what did Cool Hand Luke do?

years back we took down a 90 foot spruce bent over a cottage. I ended up going into frostbite territory. That cause I walked down carrying my gear from the road no gloves on first of all so it set me up and not getting how truly cold it was. As I started working with gloves on pain started. I was unable to stop it, all kinds of colours and fingers had no feeling and were mush. My friend said put your hands on the chain saw exhaust. I went back and forth in gloves to mitts then back on the exhaust and after five minutes pain lowered. We were over half an hour from the nearest hospital but all worked out fine. Now though my fingers are not the same, super sensitive to the cold compared to before that.

[Jim Becker]

Glove liners do help
IMO the ones made from silk work best and are the thinnest.

True, but it's important that there is enough room in the outer gloves to accommodate them without making things tight. Without any airspace, it's kinda like a "thermal bridging" problem and one can less or little benefit from the liners. BTW, many of the glove liners make great "driving gloves", too.

[Edward Weber]

True, but it's important that there is enough room in the outer gloves to accommodate them without making things tight. Without any airspace, it's kinda like a "thermal bridging" problem and one can less or little benefit from the liners. BTW, many of the glove liners make great "driving gloves", too.

This is specifically why I stated that IMO the silk works best. It takes up almost no room inside a glove or mitten and is breathable. The "thermal bridging" or conduction is not realized.
No different than wearing long johns
They worked for me, YMMV

[John Stankus]

What I really need is a heated computer mouse. My office is about three doors down from an outside door, and when classes change the temperature drops 10 degrees (at least now when we are having this cold snap-San Antonio doesn't deal well with the temp in teens (or even the thirties ) But even when it is warmer my right hand gets colder than my left since I am using the mouse so much.

John



EDIT: After I posted I googled heated mouse, and low and behold such things exist. The ones I saw look like they heat where your palm goes, but its my fingers that get cold.

[Alan Lightstone]

What I really need is a heated computer mouse. My office is about three doors down from an outside door, and when classes change the temperature drops 10 degrees (at least now when we are having this cold snap-San Antonio doesn't deal well with the temp in teens (or even the thirties ) But even when it is warmer my right hand gets colder than my left since I am using the mouse so much.

John



EDIT: After I posted I googled heated mouse, and low and behold such things exist. The ones I saw look like they heat where your palm goes, but its my fingers that get cold.

I'm charging my cordless mouse now as I type. It's quite warm. So there's that...

[jared herbert]

My son has Renauds syndrome. He now has electric gloves and socks. It has changed his life

[Jim Becker]

This is specifically why I stated that IMO the silk works best. It takes up almost no room inside a glove or mitten and is breathable. The "thermal bridging" or conduction is not realized.
No different than wearing long johns
They worked for me, YMMV

Sorry, i missed the reference to silk. My bad...

[Bill Howatt]

Obviously, there is a range of sensitivity, reasons, etc why a person's hands are cold so we can eliminate on-size-fits-all right away.
My only comment is, if you haven't, try a pair of good mitts first and not the ones that have internal liners that keep fingers apart.
When I was a student, I had a summer job for a few years working in the ice-cream freezer of a large dairy and mitts were the thing we all used.

[Barry McFadden]

I bought a pair of KARBON gloves at Costco last year and they have been great.

[Kevin Jenness]

My son has Renauds syndrome. He now has electric gloves and socks. It has changed his life

Jared, do you have a source/link you can share?