Powerlet Heated Gear

[flagstaff]

When it comes to riding with heated gear I value wearing comfort equally important as warmth. Being warm is nice, but if you feel like a little kid stuffed into a snowsuit by his over-protective mother it takes away from the pleasure of the ride. I also feel that when I’m all bundled up the loss of mobility can be dangerous, especially when trying to look to the sides.

In an effort to find the right combination of warmth and comfort I’ve tried several combinations. My last, and best up until now, was a Gerbing’s microwire jacket liner and Gerbing’s microwire G3 gloves. That combination is one of the most popular around these parts and that is one of the reasons I purchased the Gerbing’s liner and gloves. While that combination kept me warm, it was at the expense of comfort and convenience. Basically, I really disliked the uncomfortably tight bands at the cuffs. Even worse was the band at the waist which always resulted in the bottom of the liner sliding up my back leaving the important area around the waist unheated. Another feature I disliked was the sheer bulk of the liner. When worn under my Olympia AST jacket I felt like that little kid bundled in the snowsuit.

As much as I disliked these other features, I reserve my hate for the Gerbing’s dual controller. It has always seemed like it was an afterthought with little design effort expended. It is a clunky, heavy, hard to connect pain in the butt. Getting ready to ride means putting on the liner, attaching the octopus-like controller device and letting it dangle as you put on and close up your outer jacket. Now it’s time to reach for the dangling controller and try to attach it to the belt of my jacket by means of the nearly worthless clip on the leather case which you had to pay extra for despite the fact that without it you were left wondering what to do with the wired octopus. If you are like me you might have even had the unpleasant experience of forgetting to connect the controller until you had the liner on and the jacket all closed up. Trying to find the coax connectors on the inside of liner when you already have your coat and liner on is a real pain. There has to be a better way, and of course there is, a remote controller.

This takes me to the real reason for my product review, the Powerlet jacket liner and glove liners with a remote controller. I had no idea Powerlet made heated gear. I was reading reviews about the Warm and Safe liner and remote controller when I came across a post mentioning Powerlet. I immediately read every review I could find, and it seemed to be exactly what I needed to address the concerns I have bored you with over the previous paragraphs.

I bit the bullet and ordered a Powerlet liner/dual remote controller combination from Revzilla for $350. I also ordered a pair of the glove liners, but split the purchase in order to use the $15 store credit I got from the jacket liner purchase. This dropped the price of the gloves from $100 to $85 with free shipping on both orders. Revzilla has an excellent return policy which is why I chose them for this trial. The trial did not last long. I already had the plug from my Gerbings attached to my battery, so a quick test with the tag still attached told me the warmth part of the equation was looking good. Now for the comfort. The Powerlet is much thinner than the Gerbing’s. In the Gerbing’s defense, they have additional insulation, hand pockets, and make a pretty good off the bike jacket. The Powerlet is a liner. No hand or wallet pockets, just a nice thin liner which also can be worn off the bike. It just lacks some of the jacket-like features of the Gerbing’s. When I geared up for a high 30s morning ride I was in heaven. The combination of the liner and my Olympia AST was super comfortable. It felt like I was wearing a thin bicycling jacket or a warm-up top, no binding, no stuffed feeling, no heavy controller dangling from an array of wires…just one single wire ready to plug into the plug by my seat. The dual controller receiver gets installed into the lining of the jacket. The only thing you see is the single cord needed to power the jacket and glove liners. The remote control part of the system can be velcroed to the bike or place in or on a tankbag. It sends a signal to the receiver controlling the amount of heat. This system is not unique to Powerlet. I know that Warm and Safe uses it and possibly others. I really like the system.

Back to the ride. I mentioned it was in the high 30s, but l live in an area where I can quickly climb from 3000 to 8000 feet. I headed up in elevation, getting down to the 20s in short order. This and some high speed runs in the 30s let me know that a long sleeve UA Cold Gear shirt, the Powerlet liner, and the Olympia AST outer jacket would not be quite enough for sustained riding in the 20s and 30s. This is not a big issue, since I’m a fan of layering and stopping to adjust the layers. My solution was already in the closet, a very thin Joe Rocket liner I use under my mesh jackets. It has a wind and waterproof outer shell and a thin fleece inner and no collar, which is important since I did not want another collar adding bulk. This extra layer added little to the total bulk, but helped hold in the heat of the liner and the total system is way more comfortable than just the Gerbing’s under my Olympia AST.

The Powerlet glove liners are very thin and comfortable. It is hard to believe there are actually heating elements in them, they are that thin. The liners slipped easily into one of my favorite pair of cool/cold weather gloves. This combination addressed another issue I had with the Gerbing’s gloves…bulk. The Gerbing’s gloves did a good job of keeping my hands warm but their bulk hindered my use of the hand controls. I would never do any spirited riding when wearing the Gerbing’s gloves. The Powerlet liners and my gloves gave me a great feel for my hand controls. As I previously mentioned the controller is light and mounts easily on the bike on in a tank bag.
Powerlet uses a very different type of heating, but rather than try to describe it to you I suggest you just read a much better explanation on their website. https://www.powerlet.com/product/rapidfire-heated-jacket-liner-dual-wireless-heat-controller/556

So far I am totally pleased with this system. It keeps me nice and warm while being comfortable and adding to my safety by not limiting my movements. However, with only a couple of short rides so far I’ll need to report back after I’ve had more experience with the system.

 

[07FJRVegas]

Nice review. Thanks for sharing.

 

[JamesK]

Nice writeup, but just to correct you on a minor point. The Powerlet gear is made by Warm-n-Safe. The dual remote controller is the re-badged Heat Troller made by WnS

I've been using WnS gear for a number of years, and originally went with WnS vs. Gerbings because of similar reviews people posted up about the bulkiness of the Gerbings stuff. Of interest might be the new Ultra Touring Gloves WnS have just released, as my UT1 gloves were had seen better days I took the opportunity to upgrade for this coming winter. They feel nice, are waterproof and have pretty good protection. A really cool feature is a squeegee on the left thumb, it's doesn't get in the way, but works amazingly well.

Another great new feature that will eventually trickle down to the white-label products from Powerlet and FirstGear, is the new version of the Dual Controller. A thing that's always bugged me about the remote controller vs. the wired controller has been the need to reset the settings for the jacket and gloves anytime you unplugged. Sure it doesn't take that much time, but it's a PITA when you do it often enough. Well the new v6 Remote Controller will remember your settings for up to 30 mins and will automatically resume your heat settings within a max of 10 sec if you "plug" yourself back in within 30 mins of unplugging.

 

[flagstaff]

I'd come across some sources that make the claim that Powerlet is made by WarmNSafe, and others that said they are not. According to this Warmnsafe webpage, . https://www.warmnsafe.com/more-copying/ they were selling the controllers to Powerlet. They make no mention of making Powerlet's liners. The heating methods seem to be quite different.

Here is a post from a vendor who sells Powerlet and states that the controller is made by Warmnsafe, or at least that was the case in 2011, but he confirms that WarmNsafe does not make the Powerlet liner. Here is the link: https://www.bmwmoa.org/forum/showthread.php?56346-Heated-Gear/page2

 

[Ted230]

Just recently bought the Powerlet jacket liner from Revzilla myself and agree 100% with your review. Never used heated gear before so I can't compare it with anything else but so far, I love it.

 

[graler]

Ok this might be a stupid question -

Can you use one brand of glove with another brand of liner? This powerlet liner looks great thin and not bulky. I don't think I would be a fan of glove liners. It seems like I would be doning gloves all day long and would surely get a twist in a finger or something that would be annoying. Can you use the G3 with the powerlet liner. They are all coax connectors right? It is a voltage thing? Would the powerlet controller flake out the G3s? Yes I realize that there would likely be issues regarding warranties if you had trouble.

 

[flagstaff]

I tried the individual wired Powerlet controller with the Gerbings G3 gloves and the combination worked very well. I also tried the wireless Powerlet controller with the G3 gloves, and that combination also worked well. While doing my research prior to buying the Powerlet I read several examples where product lines were mixed. In all cases they combinations worked. The jacket liners and gloves all seem to be using coax connectors everywhere except the connector to the bike itself. That connector could be coax, Powerlet, or SAE, but seems to be mostly coax.

 

[TomInPA]

Another point of view from WarmNSafe. It is a great design, but is it a ripoff?

More Copying?
We were just in Shenzhen to talk to the owner of the factory that makes our heated glove liners and socks, because we found out that he was also making a 90% copy of our liner, we do not make heated liners in China, and a copy of our glove liner for a company we were already selling too and one that owes us a bunch of money. So we are sitting in his show room and there is the liner and there is an exact copy of our gen 4 heated pants. The glove liner and the pants also have copies of the labeling that Sue designed. In November of 2009 we did happen to sell them one of each size of our glove liner and one each of each gender of our Generation 4 liners. The Taiwan guy that runs the factory is a really good guy and did not go and get our stuff to copy, it was sent to him. This is pretty upsetting to Sue who designs all our gear to see it hanging in a Chinese showroom for anyone to buy. While the glove liner is a copy, the heat level is not and anyone using them will find out soon enough. Since we sell this American company our heat-trollers that they deny that it is just a relabeled warm & safe product, it is getting confusing as to what is our design and made by us and what are copies made in china or what is our products but private labeled.

So I am asking to please let people know that if it does not have the Warm & Safe name on the product then the chances are it is not ours no matter how much it looks like it. that is why the First Gear Heated Products have Warm & Safe on the label and while the heat-troller sold at this point by Powerlet are just relabeled heat-trollers, other products may look like ours but are not. There is a lot more to this. I am actually working on a bit about the gloves and why they are a copy. But there is a bit more to that as anyone buying them will find out. We are also asking people to file a complaint with customs on the fact they put the country of origin, China, on the back side of a label rather than the front where it can be seen. The website to do this is https://apps.cbp.gov/eallegations/allegations.asp The RN of the importer is 121937 both Powerlet and Active Heat. Addresses can be found on the internet.

Is the powerlet jacket a copy of the Warm & Safe Heated Liner? Let me count the ways. In November 2009 we shipped powerlet samples of our heat glove liners in each size and a men's and women's generation 4 liner.
1. When we made our first liner for testing we put a zipper in the bottom, back, inside to access the inside of the liner. No one did that before us. And frankly it was there only for working on the liners as we developed them. When we started manufacturing it was left in by accident. Since it was in the first batch of liners, we left it in. Sort of like adding a useless part to a circuit board to prove that it is a copy. Since the part does nothing, there would be no reason that someone developing and not copying would put the part in. So given it is in by mistake, it is interesting that it is in the powerlet one. So since there is no real reason to have it except to get inside the liner to do repairs something our liner does not need but when you hand the liner to some one in China and say copy, it gets copied, even the parts left in to prove it is a copy.
2. The zippers on the sleeves for the glove plugs is a copy of what we have done from the beginning.
3. The zippered hand pockets, the location of the panels, the sleeve ends and the stretch panels. The stretch panes that are identical to what we have been using from the beginning. All of these features are ones we developed for our liner.
4. The upper back neck panel was a design we created to deal with the stretch panel. Open our oldest liner and you will see it. and they copied it.
5. The slash chest pocket that we were releasing this year came from the softshell jacket we sell and sold to powerlet. We told them that we were adding this to our new liner design.

How is it different?
1. The outer shell is a urethane coated, non-breathable, moisture holding material. In an attempt to not pay the duty rate of non-waterproof jackets, they decided, like others, to use a cheap way of waterproofing. But the problem is that customs should ask for a sample and investigate the fact that it does not meet the lower duty rate since the panels are not waterproof. We do not claim that our liner is waterproof and when we do come out with one that is, we will make sure it meets the rules and it is fully breathable.
2. Packs bigger, heavier, bulkier than our liners. Is the powerlet glove liner a copy of the Warm & Safe Heated Glove Liner? Let me count the ways. Let me give you all a little background on the glove liners we sell which they say is not a copy or rebrand. In November of 2009 we did send one of each size glove liner to powerlet. We ran into these gloves in a discussion with a Taiwanese guy who is running a factory in China. Nice guy actually. He was doing heated glove liners and heated socks for Japan. We liked them but there was a few changes we needed to make. So out of respect for him having come up with the product, which seems a bit humorous now, we decided to work with him.

So tell me if these changes are not in their glove liner.
1. First we changed the plug. The original was side to side, we had him change that to straight on and changed the size to a 2.5mm to be compatible with all the heated liners we make.
2. We had him turn the fabric inside out so the smooth side of the fabric was on the outside so that it would go into a glove easier.
3. Then Sue designed the labels. The care and content, the country of origin, the size and most important the L & R tags for left and right. That was all Sue's idea.
4. The fit and sizing is the same as we designed. Oh yes and the color. The original for japan was two color. We choose the present one color. The same color they use.
5. The new sewing of the heating element is the design of the manufacturer and is in all his glove liners now.

How is it different.
1. The resistance is related to the heat. We use 18 ohms which we feel is a safe heat. They use 10 ohms with heat on the top of the hand. We feel that is not right but only time will tell.

You also have to wonder about their packaging for the gloves. "This item may be covered by one or more patents...". Very good. They are not actually lying. It may be covered. It may not be covered. The fact that the glove liners are not covered by any patents listed misses the point. It does say "may be". But it sounds good. Sort of like saying, "As seen on TV". It gives you a feeling there is something special about it when it is just another Chinese made product. Something the Chinese make for others. Something we had them make for us and now it is copied.

Then there is the copy of our heated pants. In 2008 we developed heated pants for Powerlet based on the heated pants we were selling. They were sent a prototype for feedback. They said it did not meet their requirements and yet they sent it to China to be copied.

Powerlet claims that the heat-trollers they sell are made in the same factory as ours but to a different spec. Since we make them and just stick their name on it we know the truth and the truth is that yes it is a different spec. an old one. they got the old design because they wanted a private label and to do that we require them to buy 1000 units. But in the time it takes to sell that many by them, we have moved on to newer designs.