How to Prevent Heat Loss by Wearing the Right Gloves
Whether it’s for work or for play, it’s absolutely important to keep your body at a balanced temperature (+37°C or +98.6°F). That’s easy enough until Winter hits and your body has to manage preserving heat while being challenged by the low temperatures, wind and wetness that cold Winters bring. And at the most extreme, your hands and body can fall prey to hypothermia or frostbite and you absolutely don’t want that. Let’s first understand how our hands and body can lose heat.
4 Reasons Why Our Hands & Body Lose Heat
Radiation
Heat loss occurs from radiation when your hands and body are exposed to the cold. It’s the difference between the temperature of the air vs. the temperature of your body, hence, during cold weather, you better wrap those hands up! That means putting warm Winter gloves on so your hands aren’t exposed to the cold Winter air. And if you don’t, the heat generated from your hands and body would be given off to the surrounding atmosphere. The body loses 65% of its heat through radiation.
Evaporation
Heat loss occurs from evaporation when water is converted from liquid to gas. When we’re talking about the human body, you lose heat when you sweat, as the sweat would evaporate from your hands or body to help cool you down. If you’re doing rigorous activity outdoors that can lead to overheating and sweating, then your body temperature can drop quickly right after. To prevent this, you’d want to wear gloves that can keep your hands warm but also breathable so your hands don’t uncomfortably overheat and sweat. Another tip is to make sure to always stay hydrated. Keep a water bottle on you so you can always rehydrate.
Conduction
Heat loss occurs from conduction when your hands or body gets in contact with a cooler surface or object. When touching a cooler surface or object, heat is transferred from the hotter area (you) to the cooler area (the object). And in work environments that are outdoors, that’s a lot of conductive heat loss if your hands aren’t properly protected. This is why looking for insulated, lined gloves will ensure there is little to no heat transfer and heat loss when operating with cold surface and objects.
Convection
Heat loss occurs from convection when the surrounding cold air displaces the warm air around your hands or body. Similarly to tackling heat loss from conduction, you want to be looking for insulated, lined gloves. Additionally, to make sure heat doesn’t escape away from your hands, look for a snug-fitting cuff so heat is retained inside the glove and cold air doesn’t enter your hands.
Watson Gloves
Your Source for Cold Weather Protection
At Watson, we use a variety of innovative materials to reduce heat loss, which can be found in many of our Winter gloves. Polariz™ is our latest answer to heat loss – it is microfleece lining that’s coated with mini aluminum dots. This innovative material helps reflect radiant heat back towards your hands to keep them warm while allowing your hands to be breathable. This helps combat heat loss from radiation, which is the most significant source of heat loss. You can now say goodbye to both cold hands and sweaty, hot hands and say hello to comfortably warm hands. You can find Polariz™ lining in our high performance 9585 Commander glove, and recreation 9500/9499 Sno Job gloves.
Keeping your hands warm and dry should not always mean accepting the bulk that comes with it and the sacrifice in dexterity. Our Cold MX™ insulation ensures that jobs involving a lot of dexterity can continue without much restraint thanks to the extremely thin, compact insulation that keeps your hands warm without any of the added bulk. And just like Polariz™, we think this is a real game changer. You can find Cold MX™ insulation in the 9585 Commander and 91051 The Breakdown.
For Work
Whether it’s working in construction, in cold storage or anything else in between, your hands are an extremely important tool to your work. And when temperatures fall, you don’t want to let the cold working conditions impair your work performance.
Uncomfortably cold work conditions can impact your job productivity in two ways:
- Impact on manual tasks due to loss of coordination and loss of dexterity in your fingers. And in extremely low temperatures, the cold can affect your core muscles, which means reduced strength and stiffened joints.
- Impact on your mental ability due to reduced mental alertness and concentration from cold-related discomfort.
9585 Commander
Equipped with both Polariz™ lining and Cold MX™ insulation, two innovations that smartly keeps your hands warm, breathable and dexterous.
9403 Stealth Stingray
Don’t be deceived by this lightweight nitrile glove. Water resistant Hy+Dry® barrier provides a breathable barrier designed to provide ultimate protection from wind and water.
95782CR Storm Trooper
Heavy duty flame resistant and impact protection rubber on back of hand and thumbs make this a sturdy, reliable glove.
95785 Shock Trooper
3M Thinsulate™ lining and high quality Dryhide™ leather that’s water and oil-resistant. Gauntlet version: 95785G
91051 The Breakdown
Lightweight glove with Cold MX™ insulation, Hy+Dry water resistant barrier and touchscreen conductive fingertips.
9392 Stealth Cold War
Double layer seamless knit shell with a heavy napped interior for exceptional comfort and warmth.
9200i1f Moscow Mule
One-finger mitt design adds dexterity for various applications, while providing greater warmth distribution between your fingers inside.
94002 Red Baron
An all-time favourite. Lined with heavy Sherpa, which helps keep hands comfortably warm.
For Play
When you’re heading outdoors for some recreational Winter fun, it’s still important to keep your hands warm – especially if you’re out for long hours. Take a look at our glove recommendations for casual and recreational wear:
North of 49° Mitts
Cozy and water-resistant, hockey fans can stay warm while cheering on their favourite team!
9381P Fleece Navidad
Great comfort and warmth with Cold MX™ CS55 lining.
9500 Sno Job
For high intensity Winter activities, this glove will keep your hands protected and warm.
9897 The Duke (Black)
Stay classy and warm with our popular Winter leather gloves. For men. Gold version: 9597
9596 The Duchess (Gold)
Stay classy and warm with our popular Winter leather gloves. For women. Black version: 9896
9502 North of 49⁰
Embrace the Canadian North weather with the tough North of 49⁰
Dress Warmly – From Head to Hands to Toes
Whether you’re out in the Winter cold for work or for play, don’t let cold fingers stop you from what you’re doing outside. Whatever Winter glove you’re looking for, we have a wide selection of Winter gloves to suit your every need. Stay warm, stay hydrated and stay safe this Winter season.
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