Best heated jacket liners, gloves and apparels

Hi all
I know I read some bits and pieces of Electric-vests and electric-gloves for cold days in the forum here.
I thought I would start a proper thread here.

I am in the search for an electric vest/ jacket-liner (full arms and collar) and perhaps a pair of heated gloves as well.
My requirements are:
1. Good build quality (can last a few years at least)
2. Good heat (fast to heat up and heat lasts)
3. Long battery life til empty
4. Battery-powered (detachable from bike and still heating, for those coffee-breaks and maybe a walk in winter forest)
5. Can charge up battery and power the heating with bike battery while riding

Please share your experience and product-reviews. If possible, please name exact model.
Also please list downsides of products, etc.

So far the brands I know of:

Gerbing
Warmnsafe

Thanks.

Those are the two brands that caught my eye, when I was researching my gear.

Beemerphile swears by electrics in his posts. Cold Weather sucks.

My wife and I who both use our bikes to commute all year round swear by our Gebrings both liners and gloves

I have the warmnsafe stuff which is brilliant. Off the bike I power it with a Keiss rechargeable battery - it's expensive but it comes with a built in 5 stage controller which you will need or you will fry in the coffee shop. Problem is that no-one seems to make a 12v charger for these lighweight Li ion batteries so you can't charge them while riding the bike. I just take the mains charger with me if I'm going on a trip and make sure I recharge it every night.
Mike

I'm a satisfied Warm-N-Safe customer, jacket liner and gloves. Still happy after two full winter seasons, I've used 'em down to about 30F under a Roadcrafter suit with only a thin long-sleeved cotton T-shirt between the heated liner and my skin.

The heated gear really reduces fatigue and make the whole winter riding experience MUCH more fun in comparison to bulky layered clothing. Not to mention being so much more practical for packing when travelling across different climate zones.

I do not use any off-bike power.

If you go with two pieces of heated gear I strongly recommend separate Heatrollers for each, the different items need different settings for max comfort.

I chose to use the in-dash Heatrollers with jacks installed remote so they're convenient to where the cords exit my riding suit.

The two knobs to the left are the heat controllers with a tiny LED (included with the controller) above each that blinks to indicate heating rate. The red square is a digital voltmeter (Google "Datel voltmeter"). The 3-position toggle switch controls aux fog and driving lights. This installation is on an '04 Concours.

warm-n-safe has a 2 channel wireless controller that is the real deal. Simple and clean to operate and it moves quickly from bike to bike.

Big fan of Gerbings here. I have ridden at 16 degrees F with a gerbings Union Ridge 3/4 length jacket and the "old style" Gerbings heated gloves. The jacket felt as if the Summer Sun was shining upon my back and the gloves were not hot but did not allow my hands to become cold.. This was with 10 year old technolgy so they may have been bypassed by others.

mike5100 said:

Problem is that no-one seems to make a 12v charger for these lighweight Li ion batteries so you can't charge them while riding the bike. I just take the mains charger with me if I'm going on a trip and make sure I recharge it every night.
Mike

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Hey, one thing I've always wondered- can you UK dudes use Inverters to go from 12VDC to the appropriate AC voltage needed to run your electrical things?

I carry a little 75W inverter with me on my bike to charge or power electrical devices that I don't have a 12v source for. I just plug in my inverter to the 12V power socket, and then plug in the normal 12V AC charger or cord from whatever thing it is I need to power.

Is there such a thing, or is it possible to go 12V to 230V (or whatever it is) ?

Just curious.

I've got some Mobile Warming gear that mostly does the job for my winter commute, but I don't recommend it for touring use. It's heavy on the mobile, light on the warming.
Mobile Warming Longmen Shirt Base Layer Top Men's Undergarment Winter Sport Snowmobile Body Armor - Black with Battery / Large : Amazon.com : Automotive
Amazon.com: Mobile Warming TX Men's Snow Snowmobile Gloves - Black / Large: Automotive

Beemerphile said:

warm-n-safe has a 2 channel wireless controller that is the real deal. Simple and clean to operate and it moves quickly from bike to bike.

Click to expand...

Yep got mine last week and only tried it once so far, but it's great not to have the heatroller dangling down from my jacket. It's velcro'd to the top of my speedo binnacle at the moment (because I need to change to other bike sometimes). The problem with the single controller was that the socks got too hot if the jacket was right. I was able to turn the socks down independently on the last ride.
Would love to try some more tomorrow but I think there's going to be too much ice about.
Mike

L.B.S. said:

Hey, one thing I've always wondered- can you UK dudes use Inverters to go from 12VDC to the appropriate AC voltage needed to run your electrical things?

I carry a little 75W inverter with me on my bike to charge or power electrical devices that I don't have a 12v source for. I just plug in my inverter to the 12V power socket, and then plug in the normal 12V AC charger or cord from whatever thing it is I need to power.

Is there such a thing, or is it possible to go 12V to 230V (or whatever it is) ?

Just curious.

Click to expand...

Yes plenty of inverters available for 12v to 240v ac
Mike

mike5100 said:

Problem is that no-one seems to make a 12v charger for these lighweight Li ion batteries so you can't charge them while riding the bike.
Mike

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Actually, you should look at the model airplane websites for chargers. Some are very small and will charge from 12V or 120.
You need to know how many cells your battery has and what the max charge rate (need to know what the rated milli-amps of the battery if you do not know charge rate) is for most chargers. 1 cell = 3.7V, 2 = 7.4V, etc.
I have a Triton that will charge lead, NiMhd, LI-ION. I also have an FMA direct that will charge A123 batteries and once initially set up does everything, just plug and go.

ed

Big Tom said:

Big fan of Gerbings here. I have ridden at 16 degrees F with a gerbings Union Ridge 3/4 length jacket and the "old style" Gerbings heated gloves. The jacket felt as if the Summer Sun was shining upon my back and the gloves were not hot but did not allow my hands to become cold.. This was with 10 year old technolgy so they may have been bypassed by others.

Click to expand...

My Gerbring jacket & Gloves are just under a year old and I can echo your comments exactly exactly