why to stay away from electrically heated clothing

THE HUNTER MODEL RECTANGULAR BAG

Great bag to have for all seasons particularly for those not acclimated to the cold!

I lay on top of it in the summer for extra padding, unzip it and use it like a comforter if it’s a little cold at night and I will just zip up about a 1/4 of the way when it gets around freezing. Colder than that and it is all the way in the bag for me (I get cold easy) but there is still plenty of room to lie on your side or keep your legs from touching. It is nice to be warm and have a little freedom of movement. The bag is super durable and you can tell that it is meant to last a lifetime just by the thickness of materials, size of the zipper, and quality of the stitching. The fact that it can be washed after every use is seriously underrated, wash any other bag and it falls apart, smells funny, and clumps. Just ordered a comforter for my bed that will probably end up camping as well, because you can machine wash it!

– Joe Cooper

Sales of the Hunter model bags primarily temperature rated for – 20 and -60 degrees has been greater than ever.

Joe thanks for your comments!

ELECTRICALLY HEATED CLOTHING IS NOT A GOOD IDEA, UNLESS YOU ARE IN A SPACE SUIT IN SPACE!

I believe the companies like bean are exploring selling outerwear garments that have a heating system incorporated into the garments because they more than likely are getting winter garments returned to them that are not keeping the individuals who purchased them warm. I suspect this has been going on for more than one winter season.

I am also sure that there are many retailers experiencing the same return activity.

The question you can ask is why this is happening? After all the companies that have been viewed as the premier producers of cold weather clothing are supposed to know whatthey are doing when it comes to making cold weather clothing. They make garments that are based upon information they receive from the “expert” outdoor testers who applaud the products they have been given to test.Of course the expert testers are “paid” by these companies that is their job; it is how they make a living. It would not be a surprise to me to find out the testers told the marketing people they were cold. By this time the marketing people probably had the garments costed so they just put a spin on the information received from the testers.

These testers are experienced mountaineers and that tells me they like to brutalize themselves for one reason and that is to summit whatever they are climbing regardless of the cost to themselves. A perfect example is their use of down sleeping bags. All of the down bags acquire ice crystals in them which markedly reduces their efficiency. When I suggest to the mountaineers I have had communication with I tell them that will not happen with a Wiggy’s bag, they just say they are too heavy. Sleeping because one is warm is not their concern.

For the past 10 years or so the outerwear being offered and sold to the general public has been woefully inadequate for the normal cold weather generally throughout the USA and the rest of the world where these garments are sold. The reason is the desire to make garments attractive fashionable and that means the look is not the “Michelin man” look. But quilting the shell fabric has also been rampant. The smallest patterns became the look so the least amount of fill, synthetic or down was put in them. Is it any wonder why these garments do not keep one warm? 

Using a heating system means that you do not have to bulk up the garment or so they think. I mean you have electrical-wires giving off heat, but for how long?

Before I continue I copied the following headline from an article in the Daily Mail a British newspaper December 23 issue date.

ICE AGE EARTH: Global FREEZE lasting 120 YEARS threatens ‘more intense’ winters from 2019

A GLOBAL cool down lasting 120 years will trigger “more intense” winters that threaten months of freezing temperatures and snow “within a few years”, climate scientists have warned.

TO CONTINUE

The people from companies like LOOMIA, see the prior article, do not have any knowledge of insulations to begin with let-a-lone how insulations work. They believe by putting in a heating system that will make things better. They do not know that the heat will move away from the source very quickly which if the heating system is working will cause it to generate more and more heat as it is lost to the outside temperature quickly. They do not know that the greater the thickness of the insulation will slow down the movement of the heated air. But since they are working with very low loft quilted fillers heat will be lost quite rapidly. When this happens and the heat source ultimately stops producing and now the body that was getting the heat will find that it has to really start producing more of its own heat. The outside heating system had taken over some of the need but now that the body had been fooled into thinking the ambient temperature was higher than it really is the body is incapable of making up the difference. Since the garments using this technology are about one quarter of an inch thick the ability for the garment to retain heat is insignificant. You see these are the same garments that for the past 5 or more years have not worked as winter garments, and since the manufacturers have chosen not to increase the insulation but instead via for supplementary heating via an electrical method. They simply ignore the need for greater thickness of insulation.

The prevailing view in the outdoor industry is to make clothing that is as fashionable as possible and outerwear that uses lofty insulations is just not fashionable. Hence what you see in stores or on the internet is very thin garments. This attitude opened the door for the electricians. If the electricians had any foundation in the field of insulation they would know the importance of starting with a lofty material but they have no foundation. They are in their late 20’s and early 30’s and have been educated if you want to use that word to seeing the very thin quilted jackets for years. Then one or more of them gets the idea that they can improve the insulation with electricity, because they are computer geeks. Of course when the bean “innovation specialist” saw the LOOMIA concept he was hooked. He needed something new to present to his superiors (are they actually superior).

As I have reported the military is actively looking at or possibly experimenting with electrically heated clothing for the arctic; VERY BIG MISTAKE; my knowledge tells me you need as much as 4 inches of covering around your body when the temperatures are in the minus 50 degree F range.

Another bit of information that they are without is the need to wear lose fitting clothing. At this time the garments sold are close fitting knitted types which basically cling together. They do not allow for an air space between each layer, so heat lose via conduction is prevalent. Materials that touch each other will conduct heat from the warmer layer to the colder outer layers. That is to say the heat will move from your body away from you. Since the person dressing in this manner is not wearing fishnets as a base layer they are also trapping their own sweat in the close fitted knit garments which will cause chilling.

When people buy my fishnet first layer garments they are guided to getting loose fitting sizes and they are then told to wear loose fitting layers over them. The purpose is to have air spaces between the layers. Conductive heat lose is almost totally eliminated because the layers of material are not mashed against each other. Because you are wearing the fishnets as a base layer the sweat from your body moves away from you so you do not experience a chill.

If the article that I read in the Daily Mail is close to being accurate Wiggy’s will be around for many years to come since I proudly state I make the warmest clothing in the world.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ONE AND ALL FROM WIGGY AND COOKIE