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2021 Heated Gloves Comparisons--Black Diamond v. OR v. Lenz v. Hestra v. Sierus v. Chaval

David Chaus

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I have mentioned this before, but using a shell mitt over heated gloves (I have OR Capstones) does a lot to keep the wind off the gloves, which then helps keep heat contained in the envelope. Hands stay warmer and batteries last longer.
 

Noodler

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I have mentioned this before, but using a shell mitt over heated gloves (I have OR Capstones) does a lot to keep the wind off the gloves, which then helps keep heat contained in the envelope. Hands stay warmer and batteries last longer.

True, but what a PITA to deal with that when needing any level of dexterity to do anything other than hold your poles while you ski. That just would never work for me. I would eventually throw those over-mitts off the chairlift in disgust... ;)
 

David Chaus

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True, but what a PITA to deal with that when needing any level of dexterity to do anything other than hold your poles while you ski. That just would never work for me. I would eventually throw those over-mitts off the chairlift in disgust... ;)
Yeah, I suppose I just deal with taking them off and putting them back on as needed, or stuff them in a pocket (or backpack if I'm wearing one). For me the benefits outweighs the inconveniences, since my hands really do get cold, and once cold do not warm up on their own. Sucks to be me.
 

shima

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Battery life concerns can be met by using an extra set of batteries. The larger issue is whether or not the gloves can actually warm your hands. What I've found is that unlike my boot heaters, the glove heaters pretty much had to be on high to even tell they were on (my experience is primarily with the OR models). I'm going to take a chance on the Seirus Hellfire this season and see if they are any better. I mean if it's the fire of Hell, then they have to be hot, right? ;)
I also wasn’t the happiest with the water proofing on my 10 year old gloves… my next trip for skiing isn’t until February so I’ve got time to live through everyone else’s experience and testing the next month or two before deciding if I will upgrade before the trip or not…
 

Tom K.

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Great luck with the Gerbings so far. Yesterday was only cool at 15 on the summit, but today was 2 or 3 and I was happy on the low setting.

The glove quality, dexterity, and warmth without the heaters is looking really good. Battery life, however, may be a little suspect.
 

David Chaus

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I’ve now had a few days this year to compare using my OR Capstone gloves to my new Lenz 6.0 mittens, which I acquired late last spring but didn’t get the chance to test in colder weather until this early season in the PNW.

As previously noted, I sometimes use the Capstones with a shell mitt over them. Being a diabetic with Reynaud’s results in cold fingers, particularly my fingertips. Having a shell makes a diference, though I sometimes remove the shells once things warm up a bit in the afternoon.

The Capstones with two batteries per glove can produce more heat overall, however the heat is distributed the back of the hands and thumb. Even with the shell mitts, I find myself sometimes balling up my fists inside the glove to warm up my finger tips. The Lenz 4.0 mittens that I got a year ago were not much different, with the heat on the back of my hands, and while their battery technology and secure connections are better, the one battery per glove didn’t last all day.

The Lenz 6.0 are a different story. Heat is directed to the fingertips, and there are individual fingertip pockets inside the mitten, you barely notice they are there but they definitely surround your finger tips with warmth. I have yet to need to keep them on high, alternating between low and medium heat. If I wanted to refine the temperature setting more I can use the same Lenz app for my heated socks, with settings for heat level from 0-9, intervals for heat (for instance, 5 minutes on/5 minutes off) to save battery power, etc. I acquired a set of the RCB 1800 batteries for longer lasting power.

I have also tried using glove liners inside the mittens. I couldn’t really feel the heat as much as the liners were insulating my fingers from the heat, I guess. In the end the 6.0’s work great without needing liners.

The quality of Lenz products is outstanding, from the battery and connectors to the mitten itself. I’m not surprised as I have enjoyed their heated socks for years.

I’m probably going to use the Lenz 6.0 from this point on, and maybe keep a spare set of RCB 1200 batteries in my jacket on colder days.
 

AngryAnalyst

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I’ve now had a few days this year to compare using my OR Capstone gloves to my new Lenz 6.0 mittens, which I acquired late last spring but didn’t get the chance to test in colder weather until this early season in the PNW.

As previously noted, I sometimes use the Capstones with a shell mitt over them. Being a diabetic with Reynaud’s results in cold fingers, particularly my fingertips. Having a shell makes a diference, though I sometimes remove the shells once things warm up a bit in the afternoon.

The Capstones with two batteries per glove can produce more heat overall, however the heat is distributed the back of the hands and thumb. Even with the shell mitts, I find myself sometimes balling up my fists inside the glove to warm up my finger tips. The Lenz 4.0 mittens that I got a year ago were not much different, with the heat on the back of my hands, and while their battery technology and secure connections are better, the one battery per glove didn’t last all day.

The Lenz 6.0 are a different story. Heat is directed to the fingertips, and there are individual fingertip pockets inside the mitten, you barely notice they are there but they definitely surround your finger tips with warmth. I have yet to need to keep them on high, alternating between low and medium heat. If I wanted to refine the temperature setting more I can use the same Lenz app for my heated socks, with settings for heat level from 0-9, intervals for heat (for instance, 5 minutes on/5 minutes off) to save battery power, etc. I acquired a set of the RCB 1800 batteries for longer lasting power.

I have also tried using glove liners inside the mittens. I couldn’t really feel the heat as much as the liners were insulating my fingers from the heat, I guess. In the end the 6.0’s work great without needing liners.

The quality of Lenz products is outstanding, from the battery and connectors to the mitten itself. I’m not surprised as I have enjoyed their heated socks for years.

I’m probably going to use the Lenz 6.0 from this point on, and maybe keep a spare set of RCB 1200 batteries in my jacket on colder days.

Thanks for this! I have a friend with very cold hands, we bought her some heated gloves from Costco that failed pretty dismally. So are you using these? Any thoughts on them vs. activated charcoal packets, liners and something like the BD Mercury mittens?
 

AngryAnalyst

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I don't happen to have heated mittens/gloves yet, but as an old guy, just in the last two years I can see their value: with circulation problems fairly common these days, these make good sense.

Down mittens seem warmest w/o heaters, but most of these no longer work on the coldest days for me. (Previously, I've had a great pair but almost never had to use them; alas, no longer.) And the Hestra, etc. warmest mitts w/o heaters are heavy, huge and bulky - they barely if at all fit inside pole straps on those coldest days.

That said, I found a work around for my own circulation problems. Last season, inside a pair of down or fiber mittens designed for warmth but still not bulky, and not super warm for such as myself, I put hands with two layers of extra thin, black silk liner gloves on already, in large and in extra large inside of one another.

It turns out this combination is warmer than the bulkiest Hestra, etc. mitts, by a lot. And it is not bulky at all. In addition, the silk liners come out of the mitts really easily, and allow for really fine motor tasks, like picking things up, adjusting masks and adjusting goggles, etc. without the silk protected fingers getting cold on those short periods out of the warmer mitt. (And they would thus work for smart phone stuff too, though I don't use them for that on the slopes.)

In my case, I took my n95v and/or surgical mask off while skiing and put them back on at the bottom for the lift line each run, and this was possible with this super warm mitten/double silk glove liner setup because of those layered thin silk liners.

The final bonus to this is that with three layers, one can come off if things warm up, then go back on if it gets colder.
(I was good to more than minus 20 degrees with wind blowing on multiple days last season.)

The one drawback to this setup that I have experienced is that the bare silk liners are at risk from velcro and such - it grabs them and starts to unravel/rip them, and would wear them out fairly quickly (one to three seasons maybe), if one is not careful. I had to develop routines that kept them away from the velcro, so that they would last longer. I anticipate that unavoidable contact with such velcro stuff will mean that every two to five years I will have to buy replacements, or at least backups.

What is the warmest brand of down mittens in your experience? I tend to be a bit skeptical of battery pack based heaters as I feel like I've seen them fail by end of day almost all the time, but perhaps I'm missing something.
 

Noodler

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I posted here that I actually went with the Chaval gloves in the end (instead of the Seirus). What I've noticed just testing the Chaval gloves indoors is that they deliver the heat much more evenly across the whole hand and into the finger tips. You also cannot feel the elements like I can with the heated liners I have. Looking forward to testing these on-mountain...
 

James

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What is the warmest brand of down mittens in your experience? I tend to be a bit skeptical of battery pack based heaters as I feel like I've seen them fail by end of day almost all the time, but perhaps I'm missing something.
Not down, but synthetic-

OR has changed the name of the liners he shows. I’d have to dig them up to find the name.
 

David Chaus

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Thanks for this! I have a friend with very cold hands, we bought her some heated gloves from Costco that failed pretty dismally. So are you using these? Any thoughts on them vs. activated charcoal packets, liners and something like the BD Mercury mittens?
Yes, those are the ones I’m using.
 

ski otter 2

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What is the warmest brand of down mittens in your experience? I tend to be a bit skeptical of battery pack based heaters as I feel like I've seen them fail by end of day almost all the time, but perhaps I'm missing something.
I have two that are warmest, and they are not the expensive brands, which I found out the hard way were dismal failures: just expensive and expensive looking (Hestra and Baist - what a crock).
One pair is fifty year old Holubar mittens. The other of almost the same warmth, but more resistant to getting wet in a blizzard, are a pair of relatively cheap down Gordinis - maybe $100 plus or minus, can't recall. Leather exterior.

For me, the trick is to get them on the larger side, so that they can take two thin silk and/or merino wool liners, for me large and extra large (mittens also extra large). By themselves, the down mitts are only good, for me, to maybe fifteen degrees or so, because I'm older. With the liners, both pairs, they work to minus temps, maybe minus 10 degrees, but I've used them to minus 20 and been fine, as long as I don't try to last all day.

P.S. Actually, I realized that maybe the reason I need such warm mitts is that I've had my finger tips frost bit a few times, and the last time that sensitive slight soreness to cold lasted for most of a season, the finger tips being noticeably more sensitive. That may have had lasting effects, not sure. The frost bite wouldn't have happened if I'd had on my two now better down mitts, instead of more expensive, ineffectual gloves or mitts with a lot more hype.
 
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Rdputnam515

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I’ve found the all leather kinco work mittens, cooked in the waterproofing wax and layers underneath work extremely well for me. I’m talking down to a little below zero.

work well in storms too. And you can afford to get about 8 pair for the cost of other gloves so change out as needed
 

ski otter 2

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So Baist wasn’t warm?

There’s also these, they were about $80 last summer. Now $115. Primaloft.

No, Baist was relatively cold. awkward, and bulky. Hard in and out of ski pole straps also on cold days when those get stiffer.

In my experience, down is noticeably warmer than primaloft. I have a few primaloft versions that did not make the cut, for me, for coldest days.
 

Noodler

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So I have a couple days on the Chaval gloves now so I thought I'd post some thoughts.

First, this glove is bulkier than what I would normally use, so dexterity is not its forte. It was also challenging to get a LEKI glove strap adapter fit around the gloves mid-section due to all the control circuitry and batteries.

I really like that they each have a pull loop and wrist harness (prevents loss of the gloves being accidentally dropped). The gauntlets aren't too crazy long and fit well over my jacket, but I'm not a fan of gauntlet style gloves. Unfortunately all the heated gloves available are gauntlet style.

But of course the most important part is the warmth. Today was a single digits very cold day on the mountain and they kept my hands perfectly warm and lasted for about 4 hours. So I haven't really "pushed" them yet on battery life or heating performance, but normally I would have been very uncomfortable with any of my unheated gloves on a day like today. So that's a big win for them.
 

ski otter 2

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Just a warning. I ordered a pair of heated mittens from a website called "thewarmingstore.com." I got odd gloves (on the inside) instead, and when I tried to return them, they talked with me until I said I wanted a return to get a refund, and then they hung up on me. They seem to have my phone blocked now, into a deadend loop. I should have just bought from a known store, a known brand.
 

David Chaus

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I've gotten stuff from the Warming Store before, usually not a problem to deal with. But that was in the "before times."
 

James

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Just a warning. I ordered a pair of heated mittens from a website called "thewarmingstore.com." I got odd gloves (on the inside) instead, and when I tried to return them, they talked with me until I said I wanted a return to get a refund, and then they hung up on me. They seem to have my phone blocked now, into a deadend loop. I should have just bought from a known store, a known brand.
Ah the Warming Store. Last year a simple in stock item took over a month to come. Never again with them.
 

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