Electrocute your hands with this new gadget!

OK we’ve all read stories now about exploding cell phones and fires. Thus we know that lithium-ion batteries can deliver a lot of current in a short interval. Usually there are safety tools in place to prevent this from being an issue.

So I bought a device that not only removes those safety tools, but leverages them for its functionality. Its… a set of battery-powered heated gloves. That’s right, these ‘warmspace’ gloves (you can buy them here!) have a pair of lipo batteries ‘very comfortably stuffed’ into them. And when you press that little red dot you get 3-levels of heat (42-55C they say).

See hot-shots-part-deux/ for the next in the saga where they turned out to be not great.

Now… Do they work? Yes. They heat. Comfy. Even without the heat they are OK gloves.

Are they comfortable? Not bad, a bit bulky, the battery on the top of your rist is a bit ‘not great’.

The sum total of documentation (and ‘regulatory statement’) is this doc below. The product packaging was a plastic bag with a sticker saying “GA800A”, so lets go w/ that. I think it means ‘5W heating’ from ‘7.4V/4000mAH’, 2 somethings(?charging time in hours?), 3-5 hours of run-time @ 42-55C. The last column seems to be ‘fever area’ according to google translate, so i think that means heating zones. And mine has ‘four’ so I think it means my thumbs are not heated.

The astute amongst you will notice the unusual charger. Its a dual-outlet, which are tied together in parallel. This means you take each battery pack and plug it into the charger at the same time. No problem, right? Well, what if one pack is near discharged and one is near full? Then suddenly a lot of current will flow from the ‘full’ to the empty battery. Hmm. So yes, parallel lithium packs are a thing, but you must make sure they are near the same voltage when connecting to avoid that inrush.

Fortunately if these catch fire while I’m wearing them, the combination of plastics, polyester, spandex, etc… should melt down nicely onto my skin. Safety first!


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3 Responses to “Electrocute your hands with this new gadget!”

  1. Jayme Snyder

    Wait so it is expected that the wall wart itself provides the correct charging current and if you accidentally use an incorrect, better one, the battery will quickly overcharge?! That doesn’t seem likely or safe at all…

    I’d expect/hope the battery packs themselves have some battery management which prevent overcharging and incorrect charging which would also make such parallel charging safe(r)/possible… and in an ideal world the part that plugs into the wall should have an ETL/CSA logo on it which would mean making it a common 12v/5v DC output would be cheaper than making it a specialized 3.7v smart LiPO charger thing.

    Anyway I’d still not want to fall on the battery in such a glove anyway… try some heated grip ends for your fever zone loving.

    1. Jayme Snyder

      Further, rule 34 has just proven to me there are worse places you could wear a rechargeable lipo battery pack. Yes, rechargeable jock straps already exist.

    2. db

      the battery would have a BMS or protection often, not always, often just for over-discharge. 18650 for ex are commonly ‘unprotected’. The charger is responsible for switching from constant current to constant voltage.
      But no-one recommends you suddenly parallel two lipo of unlike voltage.
      as for a ‘safety logo’. you must be new here 🙂

      https://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

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