Gerbing Heated Gloves

Just a quick product review on heated gloves. I purchased a pair of Gerbing gloves in 2012, a month before the company was sold out, along with a duel heated controller. I've gotten about a year and a half of actual use out of the gloves, due to the controller going bad last year where it took about a month to get it replaced by the company, and now, as we go into another winter, the gloves shot craps. Their repair cost was communicated to me to be $45 and change (US) which doesn't seem to be too bad until you figure the initial $179 cost and the $16 postage to send back for review. So, if I agree to the $45 repair cost, I will have $230 bucks into a product that has disappointed me for 2 years in a row. I recently purchased a Powerlet jacket and their glove liners (the jacket replaced a Gerbing jacket I purchased on the second hand BMW forum; also broken, but I assumed that risk by purchasing used) and find the Powerlet product to be holding up well, with a much lower initial cost than Gerbing. The glove inserts, which I paired with a set of extra large waterproof gloves from Cabela's are warmer than the Gerbing, and at a cost of just $67.00, I can throw away 4 sets of new ones before incurring the cost of the Gerbing....Now, it should be noted that I use the equipment almost every day during the winter as long as it's not snowing or freezing rain, so I probably use the equipment more than the average customer, which is why I originally went with the Gerbing equipment as it used to be the industry standard. Not so much anymore nowadays.....
So, best of luck to Gerbing in the future, but for my money, I'll move on to another manufacturer as I think there are better products and better warranties out there than what Gerbing has been noted for in the past.... YRMV!

I have never been satisfied with the heat from my Gerbings gloves, and the replacements are no better.

Their quality control seems to be somewhat deficient, returning a repaired jacket, but missing a seam that needed to be re-stitched. As well, their shipping prices, even for small articles, within the US, are exorbitant.

Thanks for the heads up on the Powerlet product.

I have a Gerbing heated vest, and my son, a Gerbing heated jacket - both work quite well.

Cabela's offers a gray/black, waterproof, insulated, micro-wire Gerbing gauntlet glove that is heated by ion-lithium batteries in the gauntlet sleeves - no wires to anywhere.

Work great (bought two pair - me and the boy) and though they retailed for $249/pr., they were on sale before Christmas for $199 and now are at the post-holidays price of $124.

If you have a Cabela's near you - check them out ASAP!

Powerlet...
Isn't that the name of the power outlets that mount to motorcycles? And if it is, do Powerlet's heated gloves/gear jack right into the outlet?
Been considering heated gloves etc but always wondered how the power connects to the bike.

Ultimately power comes from the battery. Some wire a pigtail directly to the battery. Some wire a pigtail to a controller that switches power on and off with a key. Others use the existing accessory socket. There are pros and cons of doing it each way.

Powerlet is the name of a company that makes BMW/Hella style plugs and sockets. The plug/socket has an official DIN number but most seem to know them as BMW, Hella, Deere, or Powerlet connectors. Before Powerlet started business people would go to a John Deere store to get connectors at 1/4 the price BMW was charging. Then Deere caught on and raised their price.

bmwrider88 said:

Powerlet...
Isn't that the name of the power outlets that mount to motorcycles? And if it is, do Powerlet's heated gloves/gear jack right into the outlet?
Been considering heated gloves etc but always wondered how the power connects to the bike.

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I use the pigtail that came with my Gerbing duel controller to plug my Powerlet jacket controller into. The pigtail is directly connected to the battery. I've retired the duel controller for the single that came with the new jacket. It works great on Level 2 for both the jacket and the glove inserts. When I was using my Gerbing gloves, I had to switch back to the duel controller from Gerbing, to manage the heat to the gloves separate from the jacket. Now. Level 2 is good down to about 28 degrees, and anything lower (it's been in the mid teens a couple of times recently) and I bump it up to Level 3. I'm pretty sure that at the maximum level, I would probably experience heat stroke.

Gerbing and Powerlet electrics are interchangeable if your using their newer products.

bmwrider88 said:

do Powerlet's heated gloves/gear jack right into the outlet?
Been considering heated gloves etc but always wondered how the power connects to the bike.

Click to expand...

Gloves connect to the jacket sleeves and jacket connects to a cable that you plug into the accessory outlet on your K100, R100, and K1200RS.
Here's what the cable looks like.


On canbus bikes you can't plug into the accessory outlet, but you can wire a pigtail direct to the battery.

Some interesting reading about who makes what for who...


http://www.warmnsafe.com/we-invent-they-copy-why/

http://www.warmnsafe.com/more-copying/

henzilla said:

Some interesting reading about who makes what for who...


http://www.warmnsafe.com/we-invent-they-copy-why/

http://www.warmnsafe.com/more-copying/

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info.

Lee said:

Thanks for the info.

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Thanks for the information. While my original post concerned Gerbing ( and not necessarily an endorsement for Powerlet), its interesting to see some more background of the product development of heated clothing. I remember attending a seminar at the Salem National, where (I think) the previous owner of Gerbing made a presentation about their product and it seems that I recall him/her and someone from the new ownership talking about how they were the first ones to develop heated clothes for MC riders, so I took it that they were the leaders in innovation. Sounds like that may not be the case. I will say though, that although its sad to see your work copied, it's the nature of business to do so. In the automotive business that I was in, it was standard practice to purchase the competitions vehicles, completely disassemble and reverse engineer new innovations. I seem to remember an article somewhere that talked about Sam Walton copying his business plan from a company out in California back in the day. So, the one truism in a capitalistic society based on competitive advantage, is that you always have to be one step ahead of the herd, or be one heck of a copy artist, to remain in a competitive position.

As far as Warm and Safe, although I've heard of them in the market, I can't say that I had much of an impression of them being a leader in innovation. I thought they were more of a knock-off (copy) company, so their not doing a very good job (IMO) of selling themselves in the market, especially to new customers like myself, willing to spend good money for quality products. At this point, Gerbing has failed miserably, and I'll keep Warm and Safe in mind if my Powerlet equipment bites the dust in another year.....Always good to have an alternative Plan B, eh!

I have Warm n safe gloves, jacket liner and pant liners. They work very well and they are very easy to deal with.

henzilla said:

Some interesting reading about who makes what for who...


http://www.warmnsafe.com/we-invent-they-copy-why/

http://www.warmnsafe.com/more-copying/

Click to expand...

I wish I had looked into it farther before buying the "G" product this fall as I assumed that it was now being made in the USA.

weschmann said:

I'll keep Warm and Safe in mind if my Powerlet equipment bites the dust in another year.....Always good to have an alternative Plan B, eh!

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Wasn't he saying the Powerlet are Warm n Safe technology with a different label? I have read so much today, I do not want to retrace my reading. I believe they directly supply First Gear.

Have a mix of brands, the newest stuff is Warm n Safe and they have been good to work with in upgrades and the few warranty issues.

I recently acquired a Widder harness to run just the gloves on the airhead, talk about cutting edge.
Not to mention the old BMW vest with that 1950's waffle iron connector to the vest Spent half my ride trying to keep that plugged in a few times.

henzilla said:

Not to mention the old BMW vest with that 1950's waffle iron connector to the vest Spent half my ride trying to keep that plugged in a few times.

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To poor in younger days to afford heated gear. Used a WW2 Navy wool pea jacket with a lot of Sunday papers in front and stuffed down my pants to break the wind. Only could ride the 30 inch Triumph in cold weather cause it didn't have enough compression in warmer weather to fire. The "good old days" weren't that great. Like my heated clothing, seat and grips now days a lot better.