Winter gloves that keep fingers warm but allow use of cell phone

Submitted by eng33 t3_xta4e1 in BuyItForLife

Maybe not for life, but I've been looking for a lifetime. Durability is important though, some gloves wear out pretty fast. In the winter (freezing temperatures) sometimes I need to be outside all day. I need to be able to use my smartphone (ie. for google maps so I know where I'm walking) so mittens don't work. I've tried dozens of pairs but none of them can keep my fingers warm and they end up going numb. Sometimes, this even happens at room temperature when the fingers are too tight.

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KerseyGrrl t1_iqospe7 wrote

What about flip top mittens?

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JustAnotherOlive t1_iqosyg1 wrote

Was going to say this. Mittens are way better at keeping hands warm. All gloves do is allow each of my fingers to be individually frozen.

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eng33 OP t1_iqotlo5 wrote

I understand that mittens are better at keeping fingers warm. And I thought about flip top ones, but does that really work?

I've seen two types:

  1. fingers exposed, mitten top flips over them.
  2. fingers not exposed, so its like a regular fingered glove with a muffin flip top.

For either, I wonder how effective the flip top portion is since it's like an add on. Does it seal well? Once it open, all the heat it tripped escapes. Is it annoying to constantly flip it open where I'll just keep it open all the time. If I'm walking in an area I've never been before, I might want to look at my cell phone as often as every 30 seconds.

If you've had personal experience comparing, I'd be interested to hear

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JustAnotherOlive t1_iqou2f0 wrote

I use the kind that are like a fingerless glove with a mitten top that flips over.

The mitten top has conductive material on the index finger & thumb area, so you can use it without taking the mitten part off. But you can also just poke your index finger out, which is what I do.

I've worn them in some very cold places - Iceland in November, Amsterdam in February, Boston in January - and stayed warm.

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eng33 OP t1_iqovma6 wrote

oh interesting. which one do you have?

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JustAnotherOlive t1_iqowclw wrote

Honestly, I cut the tags off. I've had them for ages - I think from REI or Eddie Bauer?

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LazyClub8 t1_iqpl6qf wrote

I can confirm they work well, I’ve used them through several Canadian winters and they’re quite warm. The tricky part is that cheaper ones can start to unravel along where the flap attaches to the rest of the glove. So probably worth buying from a good brand.

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eng33 OP t1_iqqo424 wrote

and reccomendation?

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sloansabbith11 t1_iqsn4b8 wrote

I just bought some from Eddie Bauer that seem to be pretty good quality.

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Lemonyhampeapasta t1_irb8ksk wrote

The flip top mittens I have are thick felted wool with a leather palm. I would use my thumb to stretch the opening so just my index finger would pop out to tap my smartphone.

There are removable caps on the thumbs

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AsterBlomsterMonster t1_irmdc6w wrote

I would get a pair of knit gloves with touch sensitivity and layer then under flip top mittens.

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Foreign-Cookie-2871 t1_isb3hbn wrote

My combination for cold weather is flip top mittens, the ones that are fingerless gloves underneath, with an underlayer underneath. I really needed my fingers so the "touch" gloves didn't help, so I cut just the tips of the underlayer. You can try both ways and see with one is best. I would search for thinsulate material if you can.

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G_Peccary t1_iqp8vto wrote

Sullivan Glove Company will sew cell phone compatible tips into any of their gloves for $20. I bought my wife a pair of their lined gloves last year and added touch screen compatibility to hers. he loves them. These are as close to BIFL you'll get.

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housevil t1_iqouyid wrote

I've enjoyed my Head brand touchscreen gloves from Costco for several years now. They're a bit light for sub-zero temperatures but block the wind just fine.

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_yogi_mogli_ t1_iqovm9z wrote

I just bought some of these today, as I started biking to work a couple months ago and it's begun to be cold in the mornings. They were $10.99 today.

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floralwhale t1_iqovo93 wrote

I have a thin pair of liner gloves that work with tech. I wear mittens over them, and pull the mittens off if I have to use my phone. Not ideal if you need your phone constantly, but I'm so much warmer in mittens that I'd rather have warm hands most of the time than freeze all of the time like I do in gloves.

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OneMoment0 t1_iqoz9qh wrote

You coud get a stylus pen at Dollar Tree (for $1.25). I am not sure if they work well for the action of sliding a finger. And it is easy to misplace the stylus pen. I would try out the sliding finger action, except I don't remember where I put my stylus.

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eng33 OP t1_iqp2a9e wrote

Can one hold a phone and stylus while in mittens?

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OneMoment0 t1_iqp7k0a wrote

I found my stylus which was in a pencil caddy and the sliding/dragging action works fine.

I don't have mittens, but if I put my hand with the four fingers opposing the thumb, then I am able to hold the stylus in a winter glove. Feels a bit awkward, but definitely able to use the phone. You can't do multi-finger gestures though and that could be useful to zoom in/out on a map.

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Quail-a-lot t1_iqpprsh wrote

Oh yea, I do it all the time in the winter, no problem.

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eng33 OP t1_iqqnzrs wrote

well I guess I can do both. Get mittens like the other person suggested and then try a stylus.

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Quail-a-lot t1_iqoul54 wrote

In the shoulder season I like lined knitted fingerless gloves. Mine are alpaca with polar fleece lining and came from a fair trade store. You can use these longer than you think with a secret weapon...handwarmers. I have a few kinds. One is small stick kind I got from Lee Valley that is
small enough to slip into the mitts. These also fit well in mittens, but are a little bulky for gloves. Once it gets too cold for those, I often will do one hand in a mitten and one in a mitt and swap them when out using my phone. (If I want to play gps-based phone games when it is really cold, I wear mittens with handwarmers in them and use a stylus!). I also have larger ubs handwarmers that are more pocket sized. I have sometimes just held one though, esp when it is cold enough to make a phone battery drain fast! Usually I just use them to make my pockets all toasty so I can warm my hands up fast. The other game-changer was disposable handwarmers. You can actually make these last way longer if you put them away between uses! They are oxygen activated, so if I stick them in a loksak or even a good ziplock when I am done, I can happily open that bag later and have a new round of toasty hands! Not BIFL, but seriously improved my hand pain. Another type of handwarmer I have tried are reusable, but need to be boiled to re-activate. These are the warmest of all the options! For about 15 minutes or so. But they are small enough to slip into gloves and great for times when you aren't out very long.

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Electronic_Bird_6066 t1_iqp2xmy wrote

You can buy that special touchscreen thread at a sewing supply store and use it on your gloves. It can be tricky to see in, depending on the glove fabric, but works. I paid $6, and it’s enough for the rest of my life, likely. You don’t need much.

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Glait t1_irk36n5 wrote

I get cold very easily and get numb fingers too. The best thing that has worked for me for hiking in the cold is something like a pair of outdoor research gloves that have the tech touch so can use my phone, paired with some black diamond mittens that fit over them. I have yet to find any gloves that will keep my hands warm and still can use my phone.

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