5200 mAh isn’t that much, but it gets the job done in a pinch. Still, it’s frustrating to be uncertain when your hand warmer will give out.Īs a small bonus, the electric warmers can be used as battery packs to charge devices. This is a quirk of electric warmers, and Human Creations acknowledges the fact with an asterisk in their marketing. Human Creations advertises a 6.5-hour lifespan at room temperature, which I found the Ellipse could routinely exceed.īut outdoors in the cold, it struggled to break 6 hours and sometimes died an hour or two earlier. Where the electric warmers struggled was consistency. The controls are simple: hold the power button for heat, tap it again to enter the High setting, and hold again to turn it off. The EnergyFlux Ellipse is the more diminutive of the two, but it’s a nice shape. The Human Creations warmers were usually the quickest way to warm up numb fingers. The conductive metal surface dissipates heat quickly, but warmth always returns after a moment or two. Outside in the cold, they were hottest to the touch. The best part about electric warmers is the heat. As a result, it takes home our award for the best electric hand warmer. It’s just as hot, a couple ounces lighter, and retails for a little less. With remarkable consistency, the smaller Human Creations hand warmer would outlast its sibling by thirty minutes to an hour. I don’t know the answer, but that’s what happened in our testing. Here’s a riddle: why did the electric warmer with the smaller battery last longer? Best Electric Hand Warmer: Human Creations EnergyFlux Ellipse 5200mAh The Zippo is messier than most hand warmers, but it makes up for it with enduring heat and excellent reliability. Those virtues overcame the inconveniences and won our hearts. To cap it all off, as of this writing the Zippo is the cheapest of the reusable hand warmers. The Zippo was simple, reliable, and supremely durable. The electric hand warmers couldn’t handle cold, had inconsistent battery life, and had to be protected from falls. Heat can be roughly adjusted by how much oxygen the burner receives.Įven better, the Zippo isn’t fragile. When my hands were severely cold, I preferred to take the chrome hand warmer out of the pouch, where it became one of the warmest devices in the test. The Zippo’s soft diffusive pouch is comfortable to hold. Placed inside, it emits a gentle glow of heat. It comes with a fabric pouch to spread heat during use. That’s the longest in the test, and the Zippo remained at a consistent heat. It didn’t quite live up to its name, but I got about 11 hours worth of heat from a tank of fluid. If you want a warmer that requires no effort, this is not the one.īut once lit, the Zippo was the most reliable and useful hand warmer in the test. These are minor inconveniences, but they add up. The catalytic burner will eventually need to be replaced (Zippo sells extras), and you have to buy lighter fluid separately. The Zippo is messy to fill, smells a little like lighter fluid, and requires filling before each trip. Once lit, the (flameless) combustion cannot be stopped or turned off. You must first fill the small plastic fuel funnel, remove the device’s catalytic burner, fill the tank, replace the burner, and use a lighter to begin the catalytic process. Top Pick: Zippo 12-Hour Hand WarmerĪt the beginning of this test, I was nervous about putting a device that burned lighter fluid in my jacket pocket.īut by the end of testing, the Zippo was my favorite warmer.

They all have pronounced strengths and weaknesses, which lend themselves to different styles and activities.Ĭurious which will work for you? Read on. This is a sentence I don’t get to write often, but every product made a strong argument for itself.

In this test, I was out to find the best hand warmer for as many outdoor applications as I could. On ski days, mountain trips, or even just chilly cookouts, hand warmers are a major quality-of-life upgrade. The utility of hand warmers isn’t limited to climbing. Fall brings the best climbing temperatures, but it means battling numbness with every outing. This poses a challenge because, as a climber, I often find myself outdoors in cooler weather. I have a mild case of Raynaud’s Syndrome in my fingers, which means that my arteries don’t circulate efficiently to the extremities. Warming up hands is a topic near and dear to my heart. The overall winner was the Zippo 12-Hour Hand Warmer, which runs on lighter fluid (sold separately). We used them in daily life, measured their runtimes and heat output, and took them outdoors for some climbing and hiking to see how they hold up in the cold. We bought six of the best hand warmers on the market and tested them over the course of a month.

Grabber hand warmers