My DIY Electric Glove Liners Work Great

[Gryphon Rider]

Over the winter I made myself some electric glove liners.  I finally got to test them out Monday evening, on the highway in the dark at 0°C (32°F) with wet snow flying.  They plug into the sleeves of my old Gerbings heated jacket liner, and when I turn it on, I get virtually instant heat to my hands.  I had non-insulated leather motorcycle gloves over them.  The heat is like holding the backs of your bare hands up to a campfire about 2 or 3 feet away.  Very nice! 

I used Beadalon stainless steel 19 strand 0.015" nylon coated wire in three 45" parallel circuits per glove.  Final specs are 16.1 Watts and 1.2 Amperes per glove at 13.4 Volts.

Click http://photo.vrccservices.com/thumbnails.php?album=788 for a detailed description with photos.

[BonS]

Wow! Quite a project. Did the wattage of the gloves (and thus the heat) balance out well with your heated jacket liner? Is you jacket connection a direct connection to 12 volts or is it in series with other jacket wiring? I surprised that the stainless wire is such a poor conductor at the relatively moderate temperatures that these liners experience i.e., three parallel circuits and all. Very interesting, I may have to try this someday. Thanks for the great post!

[Gryphon Rider]

The jacket's glove connectors are wired in parallel with the jacket's heating circuit.  The heat is just right at the temperature I was riding in.  In warmer temperatures they may be too warm, but my hands were usually only needing extra heat when the temperature dipped below 5°C or so.  Above that, good gloves and the heat from my jacket liner were sufficient to keep my hands comfortable.