Heated waistcoat ??? Thoughts/experience please

sarabande

sarabande

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Banggood seems full of heated waistcoats but with a wide variety of tech specs.


Any suggests based on experience for a decent reliable item please ?
 
Used a Keis one on my motorcycle for years in the UK and South America. Was brilliant up at 4,500m in strong winds. Really took the edge off. Used correctly on top of a base layer, underneath a down or other mid layer, then a waterproof outer-shell, you can't go wrong.
 
My Musto kit keeps me perfectly warm & I sail a cruiser in the UK from May to October.
I do crew a safety boat for the club polar series, So wet suit bottom (I have to get in the water for launch & recovery) & double layer of base layer on top plus fleece, Old Musto waterproof trousers & waterproof jacket.
Musto is expensive, but it works Ok .
So I would not feel the need for anything else unless it greatly improved freedom of movement.--- Does it??
 
Not helpful to the OP, but amusing:
I once had cause to visit a pioneer of heated motorcycle clothing in the UK. He was a bit of a toff and very eccentric. His large, draughty house had no heating and no mains power, but had 12V sockets in every room. His guests felt the cold. He didn't, but had to remember to disconnect himself as he moved from room to room...
 
I had electrically heated inner gloves on my motorbikes - very good for the weekend trips from West Sussex to Somerset where then girlfriends' family moved to.

When I got a new to me Z650 I bought another set of ' glo gloves ' and fitted the leads to the battery and socket, then set off - only to do an emergency stop before I'd covered a mile - turned out I'd been sold 6volt gloves in a 12volt packet - the shape of the element was burned into the back of my hands for weeks.
 
Seajet said:
When I got a new to me Z650 I bought another set of ' glo gloves ' and fitted the leads to the battery and socket, then set off - only to do an emergency stop before I'd covered a mile - turned out I'd been sold 6volt gloves in a 12volt packet - the shape of the element was burned into the back of my hands for weeks.
Click to expand...

My dad was a saturation diver in late 60s / 70s. They experimented with electrically heated suits before moving to pumped water after roasting a few people, including him.
 
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Since we're all ignoring the OP's question in favour of electrifying anecdotes... ;)

I recently fitted a shore power inlet on my car, and an outside socket on my house connected to a timer inside. The car inlet supplies a small fan-heater screwed to the side of the centre console, and the timer arranges for it to run for an hour or so (I'm still experimenting with exactly how long is needed) before I set off for work in the morning.

The engine's an oldish diesel and takes a long time to heat up enough for warm air to be coming out of the vents. In the meantime, I was cold and the windows were misted up or frozen.

We haven't had the weather yet to really test the new system, but the car is certainly pleasantly warm when I get in. My hope is that once we start getting proper frost, the heat will be enough to melt and clear the windows as well, greatly improving safety as well as comfort.

Pete
 
PRV

I like that idea, I know in places like Canada one plugs the car in as soon as parked to keep the oil warm and I presume heat the car for the windows and people when they get back in, I've often wondered why this isn't standard or at least an option in the UK.
 
Can't comment on the Bangood stuff, but I bought electrical heated gloves and shoe liners a few years ago for the First Mate (who suffers from Reynauds). My conclusion from my limited experience was that the cheap stuff was a waste of time.

Also a waste of money, because having bought the rubbish cheap stuff, I still had to pay the higher price for the decent stuff on top of that.

I bought her some pukka motorcycling heated gauntlets (actually bought from a flying suppliers who had the best stock and/or prices at that time) that run off either 12v socket via wires, or a rechargeable battery which zips into the 'sleeve' of the gauntlet, heat adjustable either way. Brand name began with G. . ., and was American, I think. (Gerbing?). Expensive but pretty good. Bought some cheap heated insoles from (IIRC) Maplin, and soon threw them away. Later bought some heated soles and other 'G????' gear, and cables and control to run the gloves and heated boot liners (can also do trousers and jacket) off the same lead. I envisaged fitting a 12v socket in the boat cockpit, but herself never much took to the idea and was content with using the internal batteries in the gloves, together with those self heating packets in her boots.
 
When I was a technical photographer at Hawkers / BAe Dunsfold in the 80's we had trouble with some of the camera pods we were presented with for recording drop tank and weapons releases - 16mm Photo Sonics cameras as used in the film ' Top Gun ' but some of the 16 cameras onboard were very exposed - and it gets to minus 40 degrees C very quickly at altitude.

The cameras had 100 watt heaters next to the film magazine but the most exposed ones often failed, the film became brittle in the cold.

I tried taping on ( very securely with speed tape and tywraps ) the type of thermal heat packs just becoming available for sailors and hiker / mountaineers, the type one bends a red bar on to activate, I tweaked the activation on the heat packs just before takeoff.

Amazingly it worked well, all cameras coming back with results - though I was never sure if it was the half hours' heat from the packs or the extra insulation which did the trick.
 
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prv said:
Since we're all ignoring the OP's question in favour of electrifying anecdotes... ;)
I recently fitted a shore power inlet on my car, and an outside socket on my house connected to a timer inside. The car inlet supplies a small fan-heater screwed to the side of the centre console, and the timer arranges for it to run for an hour or so
Pete
Click to expand...

When we moved into new house 30 years ago it had no garage or carport and it was winter. Yes we do get some ripper frosts in NZ.
The car i drove to work was a mini with no heater(try telling young folk that heaters used to be an optional extra!) I put a fan heater in the car with extension lead tied to string out the window. When i came to breakfast i would pull the lead in through the window and plug it while I had breakfast. Not only defrosted the car but retained enough heat to get me to work in some sort of comfort!
 
IIRC the VERY early VW Beetles had a petrol powered heater in the front of the car.

Quite close to the fuel tank as well.

A good incentive to avoid a collision!

I dont motorcycle any more, but my mate Bob is a 12 months of the year leisure motorcyclist who also trains for ROSPA and rides a Blood Bike to deliver/collect blood and samples to and from hospitals.

He swears by his heated inner jacket, heated grips and boots insoles.

He admits the wiring is a pain!
 
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