Rechargeable or disposable, and how long the heat lasts
Hand warmers, compared
Two entirely different products answer the same problem here, and the choice between them is about a day out rather than about heat. A disposable air-activated pad is opened, shaken and dropped in a glove: the listings state 55 °C and twelve hours of warmth, and sell five pairs at 5.99 € and forty pairs at 24.99 €, which is between 60 cents and 1.20 € a pair. It cannot be switched off, it weighs nothing, and it is waste at the end of the day. A rechargeable electric warmer is a battery in a shell with a heating face: 4 000 mAh and 8 000 mAh in the listings, two or three heat settings, and 19.99 € for the one rechargeable pair kept here, whose three steps are stated as 37–43 °C for up to eighteen hours, 42–48 °C for fourteen and 47–53 °C for eight. It pays for itself in a season of regular use and it is dead weight once the charge is gone. So the figures to compare are these: the capacity in mAh, the settings, because a warmer with one setting runs hot until it is flat, the stated maximum temperature — which every maker prints and which belongs against skin only through a layer — and the run time at each setting, which is the figure most likely to be optimistic. Then the practical details: magnetic halves that clip together in a pocket, the shape, and whether one is small enough to sit inside a glove rather than only in a jacket pocket. We compare type, capacity, heat settings, stated maximum temperature, stated run time, pack and weight.
