I purchased these gloves for cold-weather commuting on my motorcycle. The grippy palms are fantastic for this! I travel one hour each way to and from work each day, and some drawbacks I have seen are due to the fact that I am really testing them with this kind of use. (For example, 70mph wind-chill!) I have found that they will keep me very toasty indeed if the ambient temperature is around 40F and I am only moving at about 50mph. They have kept my hands in the safe zone, even during brief periods at higher speeds, with ambient temps down into the lower 30's F. At that air temperature we're not talking toasty anymore. My hands get uncomfortable, but, not frozen stiff like the first time I used my insulated leather riding gloves in really low temperatures.
ActiveForever's price was the absolute best that I found anywhere. As I checked product reviews on the 'net, it became pretty obvious that these gloves were likely to be the best battery-powered ones availabe.
I do have one caveat about their overall capabilities; I think that Epic is taking the currently available battery/heating element technology to it's limit. The claimed battery life is optomistic, especially on high power, but with rechargeable batteries I expected this to be the case and I have been able to deal with it by charging them at work. Anyone wanting to use them for much more than an hour on the "high" setting, would be advised to go ahead and buy extra batteries when you first purchase the gloves.
I don't want to sound overly critical; I would highly recommend these to other people looking for battery-powered gloves. As with anything that is at the edge of current technology, there are performance limitations that should be pointed out.
Irrespective of any performance issues, though, I agree 100% with the previous poster on the size of the guantlet. I can not get the cuffs to go over heavy clothing because they just aren't big enough. I have to put them on and then put my coat or coveralls on over them. This can be a real P in the A if I need to take a glove off for some reason and then put it back on. If ActiveForever can give feedback to Epic, this is the one thing that you should tell them they *really* need to change in their design ASAP.
Another item that needs improvement by Epic is the amount of heat provided to the fingertips. It's really just not enough compared to what the rest of the glove is capable of. Fingertips are the most important and most difficult thing for any type of glove to keep warm.
I have been a little surprised and disappointed in the insulating ability of the gloves without the batteries. When they run out of juice, my hands get COLD very quickly. Extra Thinsulate would be highly desirable.
The only other thing I would like to have the gloves do better is to resist the effects of heat loss from wind-chill. Obviously, this is a big deal to me because I use them on a motorcycle.
Overall, they are a great product and I would buy another pair for my spouse in a minute if we were sharing a touring motorcycle.
Thank you very much for providing such a good set of gloves at such a great price!
1/9/2013 7:28 AM
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