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Volt Heated Gloves - $150! - opinions?

Old 01-09-17, 04:38 PM
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Volt Heated Gloves - $150! - opinions?

I've never worked out a good solution for really keeping my hands warm on the bike in winter. I just ran across these gloves and wondered if anyone has used them or something like them.

Volt Frostie Raynaud’s Heated Gloves - The Warming Store

Pretty pricey at $150, but I might be willing to try them if others have had good experiences.
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Old 01-09-17, 05:00 PM
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Wear wool or capilene inner gloves, then XL wool mittens, then XL mitten shells. I bike commuted through the winter in North Dakota and there are no gloves that are very warm. I think you should be able to put together a cold weather system for $60-$80 and there's no gadget to malfunction and no batteries.
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Old 01-09-17, 05:24 PM
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Originally Posted by Giant Doofus
I've never worked out a good solution for really keeping my hands warm on the bike in winter. I just ran across these gloves and wondered if anyone has used them or something like them.

Volt Frostie Raynaud’s Heated Gloves - The Warming Store

Pretty pricey at $150, but I might be willing to try them if others have had good experiences.
My wife has Raynauds so she always has cold hands in winter. I bought her earlier versions of both the gloves and mittens that she used while skiing. They work well and still work fine after 3+ years. I bought her the gloves first but she still had issues when the temps were in the single digits. The mittens worked great for those real cold days. She found these well worth the money. I paid over $150 for each several years ago.
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Old 01-09-17, 05:28 PM
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Have you tried poagies?
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Old 01-09-17, 06:17 PM
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I bought some Pearl Izumi Cyclones for 25$ and haven't ridden in weather cold enough to need more than that. When it gets down into the single digits I'd put arm warmers over top of them to cover the gap between my gloves and jacket. Haven't bike commuted below 0F though.
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Old 01-09-17, 09:41 PM
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Not sure about the Volt heated gloves, but I absolutely love my 12 volt Motion Heat glove liners.
I'm a bicycle commuter/ utility cyclist, ride year round which will usually include about 25 miles of cycling in the teens degrees Fahrenheit. The Motion Heat are designed to keep the tops of your hands and your fingers warm, not the palms of your hands. I also ride a motorcycle and the 12 volt Motion heat will plug right into the 12 volt electrical system of the motorcycle and I can leave the battery packs at home.
The Motion Heat are glove liners and they will require a decent water/ wind resistant outer glove. I have a medium weight pair of Pearl Isumi gloves that work really well with the Motion Heat.
I have had them 3 years now and have had no issues with them. One must remember that the Motion Heat liners does not get or make your hands hot, warm at best. At the end of the ride my hands are neither cold or hot, they are just right. They keep my fingers warm and I do not notice the cold temps like I normally would with gloves. A charge of the batteries last several hours.
I have tried wool, Goretex, ski and snowboard gloves but none have kept fingers nice and toasty like the Motion Heat. They work well and the retailer often sells out. My wife uses some electric Outdoor Research gloves that works pretty well for her.
https://powerinmotion.ca/Products/Hea...ncouver_Canada

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Old 01-09-17, 11:20 PM
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Bar Mitts plus ski mittens have worked fine for me... last week was in the 0 to -10 F territory.
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Old 01-10-17, 04:41 AM
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Originally Posted by grizzly59
Wear wool or capilene inner gloves, then XL wool mittens, then XL mitten shells. ....

Not a sufficient solution if you have Raynaud's.
If there's not enough blood flow, there's no warmth coming in there.
w/o warmth generated, it doesn't matter how well insulated a body part is.
What's cold remains cold.


Medication or added warmth is required - then good enough insulation to keep that warmth where it's needed.
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Old 01-10-17, 04:52 AM
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I've used Zanier heated gloves. These didn't heat the thumb, which was a downside. Otherwise OK WRT battery life, power etc.


The Volts claim to make 8W at full power. Since IMO 3W is sufficent for a heated sole, this seems like a reasonable output even if the surface is bigger.
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Old 01-10-17, 07:41 AM
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Originally Posted by dabac
Not a sufficient solution if you have Raynaud's.
If there's not enough blood flow, there's no warmth coming in there.
w/o warmth generated, it doesn't matter how well insulated a body part is.
What's cold remains cold.
Sorry, I should have read the description better. Raynaud's, now I understand what that is.
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Old 01-10-17, 08:36 AM
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Originally Posted by grizzly59
Sorry, I should have read the description better. Raynaud's, now I understand what that is.


No worries.
Not being familiar with Raynaud's is normal, and something to be thankful of if you live in a place where winter means snow and ice.


Easier to deal with than say diabetes or severe asthma, it's still a bloody nuisance.
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Old 01-10-17, 08:59 AM
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Thanks, everyone. This is very helpful. I'm intrigued by the glove liners @2 Piece mentioned.

I should clarify: I've never been diagnosed with Raynaud's.
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Old 01-10-17, 07:21 PM
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Originally Posted by Giant Doofus
I've never worked out a good solution for really keeping my hands warm on the bike in winter. I just ran across these gloves and wondered if anyone has used them or something like them.

Volt Frostie Raynaud’s Heated Gloves - The Warming Store

Pretty pricey at $150, but I might be willing to try them if others have had good experiences.
They should work well and I would buy them in XXL. Why?

You need another set of gloves to put underneath them in case you run out of batteries or if it's really cold! The second pair of gloves should be a thermal glove liner. I don't know if those electric gloves block the wind but if they don't, you'll need to buy another set that can go on the outside of them that will!
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Old 01-10-17, 07:25 PM
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$150 can buy a hell of a lot of chemical glove-warmers

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hot-Hands...-10pk/17808715

Also, you can buy reusable warmers that are filled with a special solution so that you can boil the pouch to cause a chemical reaction that stores potential heat energy, and then "click" an activator inside the pack and that starts a reaction that slowly releases heat back out.

There seem to be many companies that make these, all with "click" in their name:

https://www.google.com/search?q=reus...ing+pack+click
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Old 01-10-17, 07:27 PM
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Originally Posted by kingston
Have you tried poagies?
Originally Posted by Gresp15C
Bar Mitts plus ski mittens have worked fine for me... last week was in the 0 to -10 F territory.
This is really the answer.

I get cold hands easily after having repetitively frostbitten my hands over the years. Yet, with pogies I can ride even at cold temps (i.e. near zero fahrenheit) with a light glove and have hands that are very warm.

J.
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Old 01-10-17, 07:28 PM
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Flannel gloves were fine in -5 to -11 last week.
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Old 01-10-17, 07:45 PM
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Originally Posted by RubeRad
$150 can buy a hell of a lot of chemical glove-warmers

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hot-Hands...-10pk/17808715

Also, you can buy reusable warmers that are filled with a special solution so that you can boil the pouch to cause a chemical reaction that stores potential heat energy, and then "click" an activator inside the pack and that starts a reaction that slowly releases heat back out.

There seem to be many companies that make these, all with "click" in their name:

https://www.google.com/search?q=reus...ing+pack+click
That's why I went with electric liners, those hot hands do not work well keeping your hands actually warm unless you are inactive. They only heat the top of your hand and have no benefit for your fingers. Well, I'll usually put a couple of the hot hands in the toe box of my sleeping bag to try and heat the area up a bit.
I wonder how well the poagies will warm my hands while I do other outside cold weather activities like shoveling snow, walking my dog. My Motion Heat do a fine job.
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Old 01-11-17, 09:25 AM
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Originally Posted by 2 Piece
...I wonder how well the poagies will warm my hands while I do other outside cold weather activities like shoveling snow, walking my dog...
Pogies don't work for shoveling snow or dog walking or a million other things that are not riding your bike. They are just for bike riding. Battery powered glove liners may work too, but they are significantly more expensive, need to be recharged and don't last forever. If you are looking for a way to keep your hands warm while you are riding your bike, pogies are the best. You will never hear people who use pogies complain about cold hands. If you are looking for a way to keep your hands warm while you are doing things other than riding your bike, electric heaters sound like an option worth considering.

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Old 01-11-17, 10:11 AM
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Back in the Coast Guard days, we had knit gloves that we wore underneath another pair of gloves with insulation and that were waterproof/windproof. Kept me plenty warm offshore in winter as we did our patrols out on deck, a number of times after my drysuit and me were covered in ice.

If you can just get a pair that has some insulation and blocks the wind out, I'm sure you will be warm. My cold weather riding gloves have a mitten cover on them and they were comfortable down 20 degrees. Cannondale made them.
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Old 01-11-17, 10:24 AM
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Originally Posted by Giant Doofus
I've never worked out a good solution for really keeping my hands warm on the bike in winter. I just ran across these gloves and wondered if anyone has used them or something like them.
Originally Posted by kingston
Poagies don't work for shoveling snow or dog walking or a million other things that are not riding your bike. They are just for bike riding. Battery powered glove liners may work too, but they are significantly more expensive, need to be recharged and don't last forever. If you are looking for a way to keep your hands warm while you are riding your bike, poagies are the best. You will never hear people who use poagies complain about cold hands. If you are looking for a way to keep your hands warm while you are doing things other than riding your bike, electric heaters sound like an option worth considering.
Exactly right. The OP's request was to keep hands warm on the bike. For that, pogies are hands down (no pun) the best solution. They work and they work very well.

Every activity in the winter is going to require some tweak to optimize keeping appendages warm. I spend a lot of time outdoors skiing in the winter in both a winter professional role (any weather down to deep subzero) and in support of alpine racing programs. I can tell you that what I do for that role is very different from what I use for cycling. Those gloves while working outdoors skiing would not work cycling (they would be too warm) and, obviously, using pogies skiing is impractical. So there is not going to be one solution that fits all applications, it's just not going to happen.

J.
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Old 01-11-17, 10:41 AM
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Originally Posted by JohnJ80
Exactly right. The OP's request was to keep hands warm on the bike. For that, pogies are hands down (no pun) the best solution. They work and they work very well.

Every activity in the winter is going to require some tweak to optimize keeping appendages warm. I spend a lot of time outdoors skiing in the winter in both a winter professional role (any weather down to deep subzero) and in support of alpine racing programs. I can tell you that what I do for that role is very different from what I use for cycling. Those gloves while working outdoors skiing would not work cycling (they would be too warm) and, obviously, using pogies skiing is impractical. So there is not going to be one solution that fits all applications, it's just not going to happen.

J.

No.. The OP original request was for Volt heated gloves- $150.00 opinions?
Pogies may be great, and that is OK. They cost half the price of a decent set of electric liners, but they also greatly limited as to how and when they can keep your hands warm. I personally like all the additional outside benefits I can get from electric liners and not limited to just bicycling.
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Old 01-11-17, 10:43 AM
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The price in the title seemed high but it's fairly consistent with motorcycle products.

I found on my motorbike that getting the fingers warm with grip heaters and getting the fingers out of the wind with the windscreen or handguards were both effective. I suppose the Bark Busters with added spoilers would look sort of silly on a bicycle, though. I'm sure pogies would work, too.

You can get grip heaters for a motorcycle and they're very nice. But it's funny, the right always works better than the left. The right one is wrapped around the plastic throttle tube under the grip and it's not directly on the metal handlebar, which is a huge heat-sink for the one on the left. Grip heaters are sometimes made twice as powerful on the left but it still doesn't work as well.
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Old 01-11-17, 11:05 AM
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Originally Posted by 2 Piece
No.. The OP original request was for Volt heated gloves- $150.00 opinions?
Pogies may be great, and that is OK. They cost half the price of a decent set of electric liners, but they also greatly limited as to how and when they can keep your hands warm. I personally like all the additional outside benefits I can get from electric liners and not limited to just bicycling.
Semantic games you play.

You want to keep your hands warm on a bike you do pogies. You want to keep your hands warm skiing, get high grade mittens and use heater packs. You want to keep your hands warm cross country skiing, you do something different. There is no one solution that is optimal for all of these applications. The request was for keeping hands warm on a bike.

So to be explicit, I wouldn't spend $150 to keep my hands warm on a bike. I also am about 90% sure that they wouldn't work for me. Either they are inadequate in the wind proofing (the problem with the vast majority of gloves) and/or I would be warm until my hands sweated from exertion and then they would be cold. So, my answer to all questions by the OP is "no, these would not be a great choice. There are much better choices for a lot less money to keep your hands warm on the bike. For the bike, look at Pogies first."

FWIW, I bought one pair for $35 (bar mitts) on sale on Amazon. I bought another pair for $45 not on sale at the time. You can get them pretty inexpensively if you shop around. Here's a pair that look decent for $19.

I'm glad you enjoy your gloves.

J.
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Old 01-11-17, 11:54 AM
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While many of us believe that pogies are the best way to keep your hands warm riding bikes in cold weather, they aren't the only way. I appreciate that people with real world experience using electric heaters responded to the post. My only experience with electric heaters is those socks that take a d-cell battery and are completely useless. It's good to hear that people are having some positive experiences with the electric products. I've also heard good things about some of the electric insoles, and there are no feet pogies that I know of. As with most electronics, I would expect the prices to continue to drop on the electric warmers.
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Old 01-11-17, 12:20 PM
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OP, how cold does it get in Memphis, TN? I'm doubting there are many days below 20F like my hood. If so, then just two pair of gloves (heavy and light) should be good enough for cycling. If you also have a motorcycle, then the electric gloves may make more sense like a poster above mentioned. But I think they are over the top for cycling in your area. I get by with Perl Izumi Thermal Lite and amfib gloves.

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