Vintage BMW heated vest question?

Hey gang,
Does anyone have a 85 vintage BMW heated vest they can tell me about?
First, just how warm are they supposed to get?
Second, what is the ohm resistance between the two connections for the plug on the vest itself?

I picked up a used vest and it just does not seem to work as well as I expected.

I have an old Widder vest that is way too small now and when I measure the Ohm resistance of the vest, I get a reading of 6 Ohms. The BMW vest only reads 2.5 Ohms.

Does any of this make sense? LOL. St.

I don't have an answer to your question, but a suggestion so you can still use your Widder vest.
I had one that had shrunk over the years.
We have a seamstress in town. I took my vest to her and said what I needed.
She used a stretchy piece of material that color matched and a matching zipper to the vest.
The zipper was split and mated with the matching parts on the vest. The zipper head of one side ended up on the inside of the garment, but this is no big deal as only one is needed to open the vest.
She made it about 3 inches wide for most of the piece, but tapered it down where it gets to the top of the chest and neck.
She did a nice job and it does work quit well.

Yes, I have one of those and no, it doesn’t heat worth a darn. I could go measure the resistance but what do you do about it, anyway?

I’d suggest you look instead at hitting http://warmnsafe.com and trade it in on a Gen4 or Gen3 liner. That dead vest is worth $60 discount on the price of a new Gen4 liner and you’ll end up with heated gear that really, really works. Wife and I already have the Gen4 gear but I’m trading in the BMW vest on a Gen4 xmas present for our son.

No affiliation with the company, just a very satisfied customer...

Best,
DG

Thanks for the replies

Well, a couple of ways to go here. It sounds like my BMW vest is not all that much of a heater system.
Thanks for the replies, St.

3.5 ohms

Your vest's ohm reading is "in the ballpark" and should work OK. My non-BMW heated jacket liner (which has heated arms, too) reads 3.5 ohms (which means that your vest with less resistance--2.5 ohms--and therefore more current, should be significantly warmer than mine. I get plenty of wonderful luxurious heat, and rarely have it set over 50%. It is important to just put the vest over a light garment, such as a tee-shirt, as they won't heat well thru more layers than that.

I use the EZCan as the controller. Maybe your controller is the problem?? Try wiring it straight without a controller. It should get "too hot" quickly.

jkjohnson said:

Your vest's ohm reading is "in the ballpark" and should work OK. My non-BMW heated jacket liner (which has heated arms, too) reads 3.5 ohms (which means that your vest with less resistance--2.5 ohms--and therefore more current, should be significantly warmer than mine. I get plenty of wonderful luxurious heat, and rarely have it set over 50%. It is important to just put the vest over a light garment, such as a tee-shirt, as they won't heat well thru more layers than that.

I use the EZCan as the controller. Maybe your controller is the problem?? Try wiring it straight without a controller. It should get "too hot" quickly.

Click to expand...

All I have is a straight connection with an off and on switch. I have 13 volts at the plug going into the vest. The vest does not get warm. I traded it in for a new jacket liner at Warm and Safe.