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How can I keep my hands warm?
mr henderson - 30/1/09 at 11:21 AM

It's very cold in my workshop at the moment, and likely to remain so for some time. I've solved the problem of keeping my body warm by wearing electrically heated hot pads, and I can cope with the trailing cable. Unfortunately my hands are still very cold, to the point where I find it difficult to keep going.

Of course I wear gloves, and have become quite adept at doing quite fiddy things whilst wearing them, but after an hour or so the cold soaks through and the discomfort gets to the point where I can hardly keep going.

Maplins do electrically heated gloves (or used to, last time I looked they only had small sizes left) but they use 3 aaa cells and so obviously don't provide much heat. Also, I would need to wear them all the time. What I really need is a way of warming my hands every now and then, then continuing with normal gloves.

Electric fan or radiant heaters don't warm my hands quickly enough, and are very 'dry'. What would be really good would be a pair of mittens that I could warm in a microwave, slip them on for a couple of minutes when needed. My wife could make something like that, but the big question is what to use as the water containing (for the microwave) inserts? I've experimented with a damp cloth in a plastic bag, which worked surprising well, but would like to come up with something better.

Any ideas?

John


Fozzie - 30/1/09 at 11:25 AM

http://www.amazinghealth.co.uk/hand-warmers.htm

HTH Fozzie


Bluemoon - 30/1/09 at 11:29 AM

You can get chemical heat pads that can be re-generated in hot water (not all of them are reusable so check!). You put them in you mittens when going skiing.. They have a click pad to start the heat releases last about 40mins.. So you might need a few. Take a look at ski shops..

Dan


Bluemoon - 30/1/09 at 11:30 AM

Just cant type quick enough! ^^


mr henderson - 30/1/09 at 11:36 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Fozzie
http://www.amazinghealth.co.uk/hand-warmers.htm

HTH Fozzie


The 'Cozy Mittens' look interesting. Bit concerned about the 'one size fits all' though. I see they are using wheat as the insert. I'll have to see if my farmer landlord has any wheat left over and get my wife to make me something. She's well into quilting so ought to be able to produce something usable.

Thanks

John


mr henderson - 30/1/09 at 11:38 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Bluemoon
You can get chemical heat pads that can be re-generated in hot water (not all of them are reusable so check!). You put them in you mittens when going skiing.. They have a click pad to start the heat releases last about 40mins.. So you might need a few. Take a look at ski shops..

Dan


I was looking onto those this morning, and didn't come across any that we reusable though. There are some boiling water rechargeable types but although a microwave would be OK in my workshop, boiling a pan for 5 minutes would be awkward. Thanks for the suggestion, though

John


MikeCapon - 30/1/09 at 11:39 AM

What about something like these heated glove liners John?

Just watch out you don't get wet because with all those electrical cables you're likely to get a lot warmer than you want


Mr Whippy - 30/1/09 at 11:39 AM

yeah my mum has pillow things full of wheat that can get absolutely roast hot in no time from the microwave. Hold the heat for ages and safer than a hot water bottle, quite heavy though. What you need though is a heated hat! As if you keep your head warm the rest of you is warm too.

[Edited on 30/1/09 by Mr Whippy]


Dangle_kt - 30/1/09 at 11:53 AM

you can get a small metal disc thing, in which the fuel contents smolders slowly.

My firend who's hands go blue in the cold and end up in a very bad way, uses it all the time. It sorts her hands out fine - and sounds exactly what you need.

Search for METAL hand warmer - they stay hot for hours and hours and only need a bit of lighter fluid to keep super toasty (50 degrees ish)

- EDIT

FOUND ON EBAY!

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/METAL-HAND-WARMER-OUTDOORS-CAMPING-WALKING-FISHING_W0QQitemZ360127077659QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Antiques_Woodenware_RL?hash=item36 0127077659&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1683%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318


nick205 - 30/1/09 at 11:53 AM

back to basics here I think - you need a tea urn. Warm your hands on the sides when needed and drink plenty of hot tea to keep the internal heat up

Ta Da....!



mr henderson - 30/1/09 at 12:19 PM

quote:
Originally posted by MikeCapon
What about something like these heated glove liners John?




Look good, shame they are in the USA, by the time I got them the weather will probably have warmed up a bit. Might think about them for next year, though. 27 watts is a lot, hope they are controllable.

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
yeah my mum has pillow things full of wheat that can get absolutely roast hot in no time from the microwave. Hold the heat for ages and safer than a hot water bottle, quite heavy though. What you need though is a heated hat! As if you keep your head warm the rest of you is warm too.


That's never worked for me, the hat thing, but I like the confirmation about the wheat.

quote:
Originally posted by Dangle_kt


you can get a small metal disc thing, in which the fuel contents smolders slowly.

My firend who's hands go blue in the cold and end up in a very bad way, uses it all the time. It sorts her hands out fine - and sounds exactly what you need.

Search for METAL hand warmer - they stay hot for hours and hours and only need a bit of lighter fluid to keep super toasty (50 degrees ish)





I've come to realise that to be really effective, for me, I need something that will warm both sides of my hands at once. I reckon those things would be good if I could keep my hands inside thick gloves, though.




quote:
Originally posted by nick205

back to basics here I think - you need a tea urn. Warm your hands on the sides when needed and drink plenty of hot tea to keep the internal heat up



I hate tea!. Hot Chocolate would be good though.



Thanks for all the suggestions, everybody


afj - 30/1/09 at 12:21 PM

how about a microwave, when your hands are cold, throw your gloves in for a 60 seconds and your toasty again, works for me


Mr Whippy - 30/1/09 at 12:23 PM

a big bottle of Scotch is what you need, you can even burn the stuff if things get real bad


mr henderson - 30/1/09 at 12:34 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
a big bottle of Scotch is what you need, you can even burn the stuff if things get real bad


Nice bottle of vintage port, yes.

Scotch? :hurl


mr henderson - 30/1/09 at 12:36 PM

quote:
Originally posted by afj
how about a microwave, when your hands are cold, throw your gloves in for a 60 seconds and your toasty again, works for me


The sort of gloves I need to wear while working can't really hold enough heat, but I will definitely experiment with that.


paulbeyer - 30/1/09 at 12:49 PM

My neighbour owns a company that does a wide range of heated clothing for bikers. Here is a link to the gloves he sells.......

Hot Hands

He also supplies Aerial with the heated clothing range they sell to all their new Atom customers.


craig1410 - 30/1/09 at 01:05 PM

Have you tried heating your wrists using some sort of heat source down your sleeves? I have used the technique of cooling my wrists under a running cold tap when I've been too hot so I would expect the reverse would also work. The idea being that you heat the blood as close as possible to the hands without actually having to wear anything on your hands (except perhaps some tight rubber gloves). The blood flow should transfer the heat to your hands.

Might be worth a try...

Cheers,
Craig.

ps. The other thing to do as already suggested is to "overheat" your core using hot drinks. This will encourage your body to send heat to the extremities rather than shutting down the extremities as it would normally do in cold weather.

[Edited on 30/1/2009 by craig1410]


BenB - 30/1/09 at 01:05 PM

I just wear some Ringers Original gloves. Keep my hands nice and toasty and pretty heat proof too. Not welding proof though, the splatter will still go through to your skin. But for average garage use they rock.....


martin1973 - 30/1/09 at 02:03 PM

friend of mine used to use deepheat cream on his hands to keep them warm when working in canada.


James - 30/1/09 at 02:33 PM

I wonder if you're going about this the wrong way. You're trying to warm them up which is never gonna work too well.

You wanna cool them enough so you don't feel it.

You know the feeling I mean? When the exterior of your hands is freezing but you can't feel it unless you put them on your face.

I remember a bricky telling me once that they can't wear gloves as they get in the way when laying bricks. In the winter the method is to break the ice on the water butt and plunge your hands into the water.
They then stay warm all day.


HTH,
James


RK - 30/1/09 at 02:49 PM

Head cold?: get a toque. I think you can order them from Ireland, from a Mr. Edge.

Hands: Thick construction gloves.

Still cold?: move faster.

Believe me, it's not cold there. You do get used to it once you start moving fast enough.


David Jenkins - 1/2/09 at 02:28 PM

quote:
Originally posted by mr henderson
quote:
Originally posted by MikeCapon
What about something like these heated glove liners John?




Look good, shame they are in the USA, by the time I got them the weather will probably have warmed up a bit. Might think about them for next year, though. 27 watts is a lot, hope they are controllable.



You can get them in this country - do a google on "Gerbing". Make sure you're sitting down before you look at the price!

(I have the leather bikers' version, rather than the liners)


Meeerrrk - 1/2/09 at 02:45 PM

maybe thinking out of the box a little here, but how about trying to heat the workshop ?!


rusty nuts - 1/2/09 at 02:50 PM

I tend to find if I can keep my feet warm and wear several layers for the body I don't tend to get cold hands . I have been working in cold or no workshops for years and suspect that it is something you just acclimatise to .Saying that all the guys I work with complain about working in my section of the workshop. Remember seeing a programme years ago that took people from the audience and and some fish filliters who work with their hands in freezing water all day , they all put their hands in ice water with the non filliters removing them very quickly


mr henderson - 1/2/09 at 03:23 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Meeerrrk
maybe thinking out of the box a little here, but how about trying to heat the workshop ?!


It's quite big at 1500 sq feet (could easily accommodate 8 cars or more if they were closed up, and the ceiling is high, with a single layer of asbestos type corrugated stuff. I've experimented with a space heater but no discernible temperature increase after an hour on full blast. I could try a bigger unit but one of the combustion products is water, and I would prefer to avoid extra dampness

Anyway, with my electrically-heated jacket I am actually warm enough (apart from my hands!)

Over the weekend, using information gleaned from this thread, my wife has been making me some mittens with a good quantity of wheat sewn into the lining front and back. The idea is to carry on as I am, then, when my hands get too cold, to microwave the mittens and wear them for a few minutes until my hands warm up, then put my normal gloves back on and continue.

Experiment has shown that this particular problem is one that some people have and others do not. I had someone here on Saturday who was not wearing gloves, and who was handling bare metal etc without any apparent problems, whereas my hands felt F cold.

I'll check out the new stuff on Monday and let you know how I get on

John


Simon - 1/2/09 at 07:10 PM

John

Our workshop is a similar size, but from the sounds of it, more insulated. We use a large space heater and have to turn it off quite regularly - would it not be worth spending some time insulating as it'll also make things more bearable once summer arrives?

ATB

Simon


mr henderson - 1/2/09 at 08:03 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Simon
John

Our workshop is a similar size, but from the sounds of it, more insulated. We use a large space heater and have to turn it off quite regularly - would it not be worth spending some time insulating as it'll also make things more bearable once summer arrives?

ATB

Simon


It's only rented, and I wouldn't mind being able to move to something more suitable. Investing that much money, or that much time, is out of the question at the moment. I've got three cars in which need to be got ready for SVA before the IVA thing comes in.

John

[Edited on 1/2/09 by mr henderson]