Friggin cold weather again

[Dave B]

I am lucky as never suffer with cold
No gloves and shorts quite often also
I know about layers and being warm from the army days and have seen bad cases of hypothermia on exercise but never had a problem myself
Even in winter I have a fan on by my bed as hate to feel stuffy

 

[ched999uk]

One other thing to mention, if your gloves are too tight they might be reducing your circulation which won't help. Maybe go a size up in gloves?

 

[Chris34]

right, just an update and think there might be light at the end of the tunnel, and no I don't mean like a near death experience or anything

Today I just booked in 5 jobs that is about 2 hours work, just to play it safe and see what I could do. The plan was to test my theory of not using the nitriles and instead using some like synthetic mit type gloves that I've never really used as they're very thin and wear them underneath the fleece lined showa's.

My neighbour wanted her windows giving a quick clean, so at about 12:00 with the sun fully up and the frost melted before I went out I decided to do hers, like a test. It was only a 10 minute job, I wore these blue mits underneath my Showa's and I couldn't believe how bad it was. In just 10 minutes, I started off thinking there shouldn't be any issue for such a short time but by the end of it, once I got in the van I couldn't believe how bad my fingers were hurting, they were already tingling and going numb. I was so disappointed and thought there can't be any chance of me attempting to do my 5 jobs booked in and I started to wonder whether I could ever clean in the cold ever again.

Anyway I decided to go and get the rest of my kit and loaded the van up, as I was doing that my hands recovered and I remembered that during the Indian summer around about October I had bought some Karrimor gloves from Sports Direct, I was in there looking for trainers and stumbled across them and they were advertised as being thermal gloves. I didn't think much of it at the time, they are very thin and I thought they probably won't keep the warmth and won't be waterproof but they might come in handy if all else fails. So I decided to go and attempt the first job with those underneath my fleece lined showa's.

Get to the first job and start it expecting to feel my hands start to go numb but after 5 minutes they didn't feel bad, I could feel a bit of cold on the tips but it wasn't anything like when I did my neighbours. I ended up doing the whole house (35 minutes) without any problems, they were not toasty warm, I could feel a little cold but it was bearable.

The next job, same again, at this job I had a brew though and my fingers started to tingle a bit when I wasn't using the pole. I always wipe down all my sills with a microfibre when I've finished and when I was doing this I felt a bit of water between wear your thumb and finger is, there was a pin hole split letting a tiny bit of water in. This can't be helping I thought.

So I then thought about using a trick that Steve Garwood mentioned last year. He said to use rubber gloves as the outer and use an inner glove. Now I tried it last year but it didn't work, but I thought I'd try it again. My theory is that the outer layer needs to be completely water tight and the inner layers need to be just warm, insulating warmth from the hands but not having nitriles disrupting the insulating effects.

So the 3rd job I was using a decent pair of rubber Showa gloves with the Karrimor thermal gloves underneath. Hoorah!!!!!!! unbelievable, I couldn't believe it there wasn't any cold any more. They are a bit bulky but still enough movement to do the job and more importantly they were 100% water proof.

The only problem was though by this time it was nearly 15:00 and a lot of the frost had gone where I was so I thought it must be warming up a bit and maybe that's what it is. However the last job with my hands actually getting quite toasty and me thinking that it's probably just got warmer. well it was a bungalow and obviously plenty of sill to wipe down, got to the first window that I had cleaned only 15 minutes earlier and went to wipe the sill, it was completely frozen over. So it was still freezing. What's more I was wiping over it and couldn't feel any cold at all.

So I think I've made some progress and hopefully the info will help those of us who are suffering the same issue. I don't expect not to have issues in the coming weeks but I think the idea of thin layers and using the correct material for those layers is correct. The blue mit type gloves are some sort of synthetic and although you would think they should be reasonable, well they were probably worse than the nitriles. The Karrimor gloves didn't seem like anything special, they are well made but the material is very thin, almost like a silky type feel but whatever it is made of it's certainly worked wonders.

So I'm cautiously optimistic. I think even if I've not quite cracked it, well having a thin rubber outer is the way to go. Essentially it's a bit like putting a nitrile glove on the outside.

I've attached photo's of the gloves I've used today. The Showa rubber gloves are large, I normally use medium so they fit over a thin medium glove. I've also got extra large rubber showas. They're very good quality and are 100% water proof, but they would be useless without under gloves.

Apologies for the essay ?

 

[Chris34]

And the Karrimors

 

[Chris34]

Karrimor inner label

 

[ched999uk]

That's great news. Maybe some merino wool inner gloves would be perfect.

 

[Chris34]

When I was trade I used magic gloves inside a pair of marigolds for dishwashing always had a few pair of each handy
Now don't wear any as have hot water and hose and pole heat

Definitely seems to be the best method, it's a case of waterproof outer and as thin as possible but warm enough inner. I think the moving of fingers helps create warmth so a very thick inner glove might actually not be ideal as it restricts finger movement meaning less friction / energy. So it's probably a trial and error to find the perfect liner glove. Only thing I would add, if there is a 100% thin waterproof material that isn't naturally cold to touch like rubber then that would probably be a better option then the rubber marigold type glove.

If I recall correctly, you wears shorts all year which is daft. You’ve got no chance of staying warm.

If your body is cold it restricts blood flow to your extremities, so your hands will never warm up. Likewise when it’s hot it does the opposite.

Gloves certainly help but are no substitute for being nice and warm all over.

Apologies if I’ve mixed you up with someone else.

Yes you're correct I do wear shorts all year. I've never felt the cold on my legs but your point is a good one that Ched has mentioned in the past and it's something I've considered. If I can cure the hands without wearing trousers then that's my preferred option as I just don't like wearing trousers but if the problem persists then I'm going to look at those tight like joggers. I was speaking to a DPD driver earlier who had shorts but with the tight things underneath and he didn't look like a ballet dancer, actually looked pretty cool so I might give that a go if I have to.

One other thing to mention, if your gloves are too tight they might be reducing your circulation which won't help. Maybe go a size up in gloves?

This is something that I've been thinking. My fleece lined Showa's are a tight fitting and I don't think it's helping. I don't think having baggy gloves is good but if they're too tight then like you say they could reduce circulation, especially for me with the blood pressure being lower.

 

[THL4KEL]

If you dont like wearing trousers wear these - Montane Men's Terra Pants

And shop about as you can get them a lot cheaper.

 

[BigFoot]

Cheers for that Ched. Been looking for about the past hour or so... so much choice and it's hard to know what's best. Even the ones that are £250 get negative reviews about cold fingers... One thing I've come across though is glove liners. It's not something I've really thought over in my head about how it might work. I researched cold water diving as that probably most resembles the conditions we work in and they tend to have the same issues.

They seem to talk about having liner gloves but as with everything, there are different levels of liner gloves... anyway thin wool liner gloves seem to be the most recommended and they're not expensive... but anyway what got me thinking is that I have worn the fleece lined Showa gloves for the past 4 winters and although my fingers are bad well they are the best gloves I've found that stop me keeling over and dying ? ... but what I've just thought I've always worn nitriles underneath them. I've never given it a second thought but I've just wondered, could the nitriles be the problem?

When you wear nitriles and turn on a hot tap and put your hands under it, well you don't feel the hot water, you feel it warm but not hot, in water that would normally be too hot to touch well with nitriles on you can leave your hands there pretty much as long as you want. So this has got me thinking, if my hands are already cold and I've got the nitriles on, then putting the outer glove on might not make much of a difference? If you can't feel the heat from a hot tap then the possible warmth from an outer glove might not be felt in the same way?

My thinking is that maybe once a glove has a bit of warmth then it will keep some heat in the glove and your hands keep adding a bit of lost heat from your hands to the glove, this heat then helps keep your hands a certain warmth. But maybe with nitriles on, that heat isn't lost as such but when your body decides not to heat your fingers well the nitrile doesn't provide the return heat like the outer glove would do... in effect a nitrile glove is always cold to touch.

I've just booked a few window cleaning jobs in tomorrow to just see how I get on but I'm going to try not wearing the nitriles to see if it's anything like I've been experiencing, because what I'm experiencing just doesn't feel normal, I mean there's cold hands but this is just ridiculous. Not expecting miracles but I'm going to give it a try.

I've already got synthetic underliners but I'm also going to order some wool thermal underliners, a new pair of showa's and also keep researching the battery heated options.

my fingers were freezing after an hours work to the point I had to go back to the van and sit on my hands for 20 mins I had on three gloves 1 Moreno wool glove from seal skin, 2 black nitrolight glove like the garage use, 3 Showa fleace lined gauntlet glove. I changed over to a heavy duty thermal glove and kept other two on underneath and there was a huge improvement! 6 layers of clothes on top today, very very cold ?
I think I’ll invest in the usb hand warmers too. Didn’t enjoy that today, hope you can sort something workable ?

 

[Iron Giant]

One other thing to mention, if your gloves are too tight they might be reducing your circulation which won't help. Maybe go a size up in gloves?

You're correct in that tight gloves aren't good, but it's not about someone's circulation in their hands if someone has bad circulation then their fingers will go ice cold quite quickly just wearing a thin pair of gloves, ski gloves are worn not just for skiing they serve a better purpose because they have a good amount of filling which means a bigger gap between someone's fingers and the outer of the glove which also means those warm hands will stay warm,

when me and my wife went to Finland and it was -16c my hands only ever got cold once and that's because my fingers weren't getting used. no different when we are working we don't move our fingers very much at all, most work gloves are completely useless when you have bad circulation, I have tried every recommended glove and almost none of them have stopped my fingers from going ice cold and dead,

The best gloves would be ski gloves cheap enough to buy, but they ain't waterproof and that's one issue the other is they can be too bulky to open and close pole clamps, these are the best for warmth and if you buy a larger size you can also wear a thermal glove liner Skytec Argon Waterproof Thermal Gloves - SafetyGloves.co.uk only negative about these is they wear between the fore-finger and thumb so aren't the most durable, Screwfix do copied versions of these but the lining inside is half the thickness or it was when I've tried screwfix gloves.

I also bought some of these MaxiDry Zero Thermal Waterproof Gloves 56-451 - SafetyGloves.co.uk last year unfortunately going off someones word who said they were roomy I found out they aren't as roomy for someone like me with bad circulation they are too tight a fit, I'll be ordering some in a bigger size as they are warm and fully waterproof

 

[steve garwood]

right, just an update and think there might be light at the end of the tunnel, and no I don't mean like a near death experience or anything

Today I just booked in 5 jobs that is about 2 hours work, just to play it safe and see what I could do. The plan was to test my theory of not using the nitriles and instead using some like synthetic mit type gloves that I've never really used as they're very thin and wear them underneath the fleece lined showa's.

My neighbour wanted her windows giving a quick clean, so at about 12:00 with the sun fully up and the frost melted before I went out I decided to do hers, like a test. It was only a 10 minute job, I wore these blue mits underneath my Showa's and I couldn't believe how bad it was. In just 10 minutes, I started off thinking there shouldn't be any issue for such a short time but by the end of it, once I got in the van I couldn't believe how bad my fingers were hurting, they were already tingling and going numb. I was so disappointed and thought there can't be any chance of me attempting to do my 5 jobs booked in and I started to wonder whether I could ever clean in the cold ever again.

Anyway I decided to go and get the rest of my kit and loaded the van up, as I was doing that my hands recovered and I remembered that during the Indian summer around about October I had bought some Karrimor gloves from Sports Direct, I was in there looking for trainers and stumbled across them and they were advertised as being thermal gloves. I didn't think much of it at the time, they are very thin and I thought they probably won't keep the warmth and won't be waterproof but they might come in handy if all else fails. So I decided to go and attempt the first job with those underneath my fleece lined showa's.

Get to the first job and start it expecting to feel my hands start to go numb but after 5 minutes they didn't feel bad, I could feel a bit of cold on the tips but it wasn't anything like when I did my neighbours. I ended up doing the whole house (35 minutes) without any problems, they were not toasty warm, I could feel a little cold but it was bearable.

The next job, same again, at this job I had a brew though and my fingers started to tingle a bit when I wasn't using the pole. I always wipe down all my sills with a microfibre when I've finished and when I was doing this I felt a bit of water between wear your thumb and finger is, there was a pin hole split letting a tiny bit of water in. This can't be helping I thought.

So I then thought about using a trick that Steve Garwood mentioned last year. He said to use rubber gloves as the outer and use an inner glove. Now I tried it last year but it didn't work, but I thought I'd try it again. My theory is that the outer layer needs to be completely water tight and the inner layers need to be just warm, insulating warmth from the hands but not having nitriles disrupting the insulating effects.

So the 3rd job I was using a decent pair of rubber Showa gloves with the Karrimor thermal gloves underneath. Hoorah!!!!!!! unbelievable, I couldn't believe it there wasn't any cold any more. They are a bit bulky but still enough movement to do the job and more importantly they were 100% water proof.

The only problem was though by this time it was nearly 15:00 and a lot of the frost had gone where I was so I thought it must be warming up a bit and maybe that's what it is. However the last job with my hands actually getting quite toasty and me thinking that it's probably just got warmer. well it was a bungalow and obviously plenty of sill to wipe down, got to the first window that I had cleaned only 15 minutes earlier and went to wipe the sill, it was completely frozen over. So it was still freezing. What's more I was wiping over it and couldn't feel any cold at all.

So I think I've made some progress and hopefully the info will help those of us who are suffering the same issue. I don't expect not to have issues in the coming weeks but I think the idea of thin layers and using the correct material for those layers is correct. The blue mit type gloves are some sort of synthetic and although you would think they should be reasonable, well they were probably worse than the nitriles. The Karrimor gloves didn't seem like anything special, they are well made but the material is very thin, almost like a silky type feel but whatever it is made of it's certainly worked wonders.

So I'm cautiously optimistic. I think even if I've not quite cracked it, well having a thin rubber outer is the way to go. Essentially it's a bit like putting a nitrile glove on the outside.

I've attached photo's of the gloves I've used today. The Showa rubber gloves are large, I normally use medium so they fit over a thin medium glove. I've also got extra large rubber showas. They're very good quality and are 100% water proof, but they would be useless without under gloves.

Apologies for the essay ?

View attachment 29440View attachment 29441View attachment 29442View attachment 29443

I’ll pm my bank details ready for my commission ?

 

[spruce]

What happens in the first stage of hypothermia?


Symptoms of hypothermia

For mild hypothermia (35 to 32oC), signs and symptoms include: pale and cool to touch as blood vessels constrict in the skin. numbness in the extremities. sluggish responses, drowsiness or lethargic.

Does this make sense!

That's what I experience in the summer!

Seriously, when you get older, you become aware that there are conditions we don't work in. A slip can have really long term consequences, so the risk of serious injury is just too great.

 

[Part Timer]

Bad up here this morning.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

Hope you are feeling better soon.
I have a pair of these usb heated gloves . You can remove the heated elements and put them in any gloves, might be a bit of a pain putting on or taking off but the heaters do work well. You will need a usb power bank to power them. I haven't used them for work, just used to use them when flying quadcopters in the winter.

I bought a pair of 15000mAh power banks for £22 would this be enough for 6hrs heating gloves?

 

[ched999uk]

I bought a pair of 15000mAh power banks for £22 would this be enough for 6hrs heating gloves?

I would have thought so. When I used to use mine for quadcopter flying I only used a homemade battery pack of 4 x 18650 cells ( about 1,500mAh each (old laptop battery pack cells) but 3.7v so probably about 4,000mAh total at 5v) and they used to last a couple of hrs no problem. I ran out of flying batteries before the gloves got cold.
Also you might not need them on 100% of the time, maybe just as boosters, you will probably have to give it a try, You can also charge your power banks in the van to top them up.

 

[Markuz]

This year I was using pressure washer for 3 houses in a row, so was using the lance for a long time. My hands went numb and then painful. Took the gloves off and the fingers were white. It's happened several times since the summer so I went to GP and they suggested it's a condition called Reynauds. It doesn't even need to be when using vibrating tools, just the cold can trigger it. I've now started to wear a cheap pair of synthetic wool gloves under my rubber dipped gloves and it has helped massively. Thick socks a good idea too. I also wear an extra base layer top and bottom in colder weather to keep the general body temp up a bit. I can always remove layers when needed. The gloves help reduce vibration as well as keeping them warmer. I also remind myself to take breaks from using the lance by having a sweep up or using the flat surface cleaner for a bit, have a quick cuppa etc.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

This year I was using pressure washer for 3 houses in a row, so was using the lance for a long time. My hands went numb and then painful. Took the gloves off and the fingers were white. It's happened several times since the summer so I went to GP and they suggested it's a condition called Reynauds. It doesn't even need to be when using vibrating tools, just the cold can trigger it. I've now started to wear a cheap pair of synthetic wool gloves under my rubber dipped gloves and it has helped massively. Thick socks a good idea too. I also wear an extra base layer top and bottom in colder weather to keep the general body temp up a bit. I can always remove layers when needed. The gloves help reduce vibration as well as keeping them warmer. I also remind myself to take breaks from using the lance by having a sweep up or using the flat surface cleaner for a bit, have a quick cuppa etc.

I was selling my bungalow 20 years ago and I had many tree stumps to grind. Mate worked in hire place and got me a stump grinder down from up North. I must have been 6 to 8hrs in total grinding those trunks. Lying in my bed that night felt like I was on a vibrating table, worse sleep I ever had. I would have been better doing it over a few days rather than trying to rush it. Live and learn.

 

[THL4KEL]

This year I was using pressure washer for 3 houses in a row, so was using the lance for a long time. My hands went numb and then painful. Took the gloves off and the fingers were white. It's happened several times since the summer so I went to GP and they suggested it's a condition called Reynauds. It doesn't even need to be when using vibrating tools, just the cold can trigger it. I've now started to wear a cheap pair of synthetic wool gloves under my rubber dipped gloves and it has helped massively. Thick socks a good idea too. I also wear an extra base layer top and bottom in colder weather to keep the general body temp up a bit. I can always remove layers when needed. The gloves help reduce vibration as well as keeping them warmer. I also remind myself to take breaks from using the lance by having a sweep up or using the flat surface cleaner for a bit, have a quick cuppa etc.

Use a tennis ball.

 

[scottish cleaning service]

I would have thought so. When I used to use mine for quadcopter flying I only used a homemade battery pack of 4 x 18650 cells ( about 1,500mAh each (old laptop battery pack cells) but 3.7v so probably about 4,000mAh total at 5v) and they used to last a couple of hrs no problem. I ran out of flying batteries before the gloves got cold.
Also you might not need them on 100% of the time, maybe just as boosters, you will probably have to give it a try, You can also charge your power banks in the van to top them up.

Got 16 solar panels so handy for charging anything during the day. Not turned a light on for months now because I have plenty of Festool battery lights in every room. Charge all my batteries during the day when its sunny. ?

 

[Yogi1872]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0CJ6JYBGQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_image

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[scottish cleaning service]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0CJ6JYBGQ?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_image

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0CFFY7YNH?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_image

Bought the socks to see how they hold up. Cheers