Heated Gloves

I got an email from Cameron at V5. He says that they aren't getting the time that they hoped to get out of the batteries and he is sending me an additional set. As I said, the customer support is excellent. Apparently they are revamping the design so that they will piggyback 2 batteries in parallel to decrease the load and extend the life of each charge. I'll then be able to trade my liners in for the new model. As my wife points out, I'm a bit like a beta tester for this company. I haven't minded because the service is so good and I really think that when they work out the kinks this will definitely be the way to go as far as a heated glove. That being said, you may want to wait a bit for the next upgrade (or just beta test like me).

I had the same problem with the Primo Voltas by OR...not enough battery life .....among other issues (search for my review in the gear section)....I think they are releasing new gear much too quickly now to try to get the tech to the market, without proper testing and letting us buyers do the field testing......The Primo Voltas were not ready for "real world" use.....

Thanks. Good to know.

In my other life I work as a Rheumatologist in CO and so I treat A LOT of Raynaud's. I've shown the V5 website to several of my patients but have been reluctant to make any recommendations. It sounds like they aren't quite there yet.

I used to have the Hotronics boot heaters, and they lasted the full day on the #2 setting. The key that I tell all our customers, is that your feet are warm to start and turn them on before you leave the lodge. Our owner likes to tell people they are heat maintainers, not heat warmers.

On another note, one of our patrol candidates has a heated glove that doesn't look like either of the 2 above. It looks like a normal glove, and has a battery on the back like the Zanier but a much thinner battery in a clear pocket that you can see the LCD and switch through. FWIW, After the usual teasing, someone asked if they worked, and she just shrugged.
Found them on the web,
http://ecom1.sno-ski.com/product1268.html
and if you go to their glove page,
http://ecom1.sno-ski.net/gloves.html
they show about 5 different brands of battery heated gloves.

I purchased two pairs of heated gloves in the last 6 weeks.  A pair of Reusch Solaris and a pair of Gerbings Snow Core Gloves:  My thoughts:

Reusch:  Great ski glove its a real glove not an imitation

Switch system and LED  works great and easy to Gage to the setting

Battery life:  Fair to Poor  they advertise 6.5 hrs on low setting and in my home they gave me 6.5 hours outside in the teens that drooped to 75 min and at 30 degrees it went to 120 min.  The gloves kept your hands toasty and comfortable but the best I could get out of them was 2-4 hours depending on temp and managing on/off.  On on the lift off while skiing.  Ultimately kept them because they were real gloves

 

Gerbings:

Great Cust service and a pleasure to deal with

Glove is a glorified driving glove not a ski glove in any way shape of form unless maybe a spring glove.

Switch system OK but could not operate with glove on needed to take off to change level of operation

Battery life:  Much better than the Reusch they are removable as the Reusch are not and they are much thicker and bigger.  I could easily get 4-5 hours at the 50% power setting the problem was the glove would not keep the heat in so it had to operate at 75 or 100% which reduced charge time.  Liked the battery system much better since you could buy extras and carry spares but the gloves needs a lot work.  At 199.00 the price is reasonable enough but the quality is not there.  Gladly pay 300-350 for the right package.

 

Bottom line take the two gloves and use the best of both and you got a real product.  I can't begin to tell you how many people ask about heated gloves and with the Reusch they blink so everyone says what is that.   When they do get a good system count me in for first order!!!!!!

 

This works REALLY well.  It's the poor man's Hotronics.  There's nothing quite like putting your feet into warm boots.

 

My hands get sweaty and cold.  I've found the solution is very thin polypro glove liners and insulated mittens with a chemical hot pack inside (got a box of them at Costco for cheap).  The liners keep my hands feeling dry, wick any moisture to the fleece glove lining, and the warmers keep everything toasty.

Have you received your new design with two batteries connected in parallel? Do they work? It seems that their customer support line has gone dead in the last week.

Has anyone tried the heated glove liners from Activeheat? (http://www.shop.activheat.com/product.sc?categoryId=8&productId=9)

 

 

 

I share your concerns regarding V5.  One of the batteries I have isn't working and when I emailed the company, I never received an answer.  This is atypical of their previous level of support.  I've looked into the activ heat company and IMO it's no better than what's out there now.  They are advertising a glove that can give up to 4.5 hours of heat.  Usually that extended heat output is only at the lowest level.  It seems to me that if you can get away with that level, you probably don't need heated gloves anyway.  Once you have to pay for additional sets of batteries and are forced to change them 3 or 4 times in a ski day, the whole concept of a heated glove becomes more trouble than it's worth.  If I hear from V5 I'll let you know.  In the meantime, I'm sticking with mittens and heat packs.  It's clear that the battery technology still has a way to go.

The concept of the ActiVheat glove liners is attractive, since the battery capacity can be very high (it is not limited by small size/weight consideration, since you wear the battery in your pocket). The only disadvantage is the wiring harness, but for me that is a non-issue. Comparing the price difference (249 vs 69), I think it is well worth a try.

 

Otherwise, the vaso glove does work well when the batteries are ok.

 

So, you never received the two batteries in parallel?

Never did get them.  With regard to all of these heated gloves I'm most interested in how long the batteries work in cold weather at moderate to high settings.  Often the companies won't even provide this info and when they do it's usually not adequate for a reasonably long day on the slopes.

Just a follow up.  I got an email from Cameron at Vaso that he will be sending me out a sample of the new V6pluse heated glove liner in the next couple of weeks.  I'll keep you posted.

 

I got the double deck batteries, the heating time is now doubled. I am also lookign forward getting the v6 gloves. Hope to get them before the end of the season.

Time to bring this up again, I think.
I was trying out the Vaso V5 gloves last season until a ski crash ended my season early--I had the same problems with production delays, quality control and inadequate battery capacity as noted above. They did have great customer service. I don't think the Vaso company survives. I'd be interested to hear from Goetzfam or Ski09  if they ever got the V6 gloves.
The Mountain Hardwear Red Savina and Outdoor Research Prima Volta gloves are gone from their companys' catalogs. OR voluntarily recalled their product. 
The Reusch Solaris glove is still available, and the Zanier Heat-GX has undergone an upgrade and now uses lithium ion batteries.
I think a common problem with all the heated gloves is the issue of battery capacity--if you actually turn on the heat to a noticeable level, the battery runs out of juice within an hour or two. Not very useful for a full day of skiing unless you carry a spare, or you have the time and the means to recharge the battery. There is a new product this year called "Ardica" which is basically a lithium ion battery pack that can be integrated with jackets or vests to promote warming of the torso:
http://www.ardica.com/
Mountain Hardwear has a jacket this year using this technology. The thing about this battery pack is that you can also use it to recharge other battery powered devices like ipods or cellphones through a USB connector. This might be a way to recharge the batteries on heated gloves (or boots or whatever) while on the mountain and away from the power grid. Too bad none of the devices mentioned have provisions for USB charging.



Edited by extremetito - 10/7/09 at 12:03am

I ahd experience with the Zaniers.  I did not like them.  The heating element is a small spot over the fingernails.  In my experience, if you turn up the heat in really cold temps, you end up with burned cuticles and still have frozen fingers.  I'm glad to hear that the batteries have been upgraded.  They were huge (ski boot battery packs) and very cumbersome.

I do not recommend these gloves.

Hestra Heater is a good heated glove. Mountain Hardwear glove may still be order, they were in stock a few months ago.

Update: I bought the Hestra heated gloves while at Breckenridge/Copper last week. Temperatures were in the -5 to +15 range with moderate windchill on the warmer days (if 15 degrees can be considered warm). They held up OK, with the middle fingers and thumbs becoming uncomfortable only toward the end of the day. Earlier in the week with my OR Super Couloir gloves, the digits were in variable pain, requiring trips to the warming huts, or supplementation with chemical warmers.
The gloves use the new Therm-ic system, also used by Zanier and Thermic gloves. They fit snugly and seem to be well made. Additional battery packs will be available. 
I'll have more to add as I use the gloves this season.

Hestra makes some?  I may have to pick up a pair for my wife.  If I trust any company to do this right, it would be Hestra.

CJ

My wife bought the Reusch gloves last week. Tried them this week-end. Worked well for ... 1 hour. Then the battery died and her hands were painfully cold (she gets very cold hands). Exchanged them for the new Zanier mittens. We will see....

$375.00 for those Hestra's. Has anyone tried these yet?

People with BMIs probably less than 24 might have a bad time keeping their digits warm in colder weathers.
I'm one of them :)

I have the Hestra gloves. They seem to work well, but I haven't had them a long time or fully tested them.
Most of the current heated gloves on the market will cost $325-375.
The Hestra, Zanier (new) and Therm-ic gloves use the same system and the same battery configuration (made by Therm-ic).
I've had conversations with Hestra USA and they indicate they will fully support their product. 

ActiVHeat now have Heated Waterproof Ski Gloves (100g Thinsulate) as well heated glove liners that have no batteries on the wrists. Check them out at activheat.com.

Interesting.  Getting the liners would allow you to still use your existing gloves.  I also like that the battery packs are remotely located.

CJ

Not certain if FirstLift is shilling for ActiVHeat, but I checked out the website--seems to be a whole line of products (gloves, liners, socks, apparel) heated with a remote battery connection. The tech seems to be in the construction of the fabric which has an integrated carbon fiber heating layer. Looking forward to reviews of these products. The battery technology is nothing new, but it would be great if this could adapt to something like the Ardica system mentioned in post #43. The Ardica system has 9660 mAh battery capacity compared to 2200 mAh of the ActiVHeat  proprietary battery pack.