Boot heaters?

[big canuck]

Anyone use em? Success stories/ones to stay away from?

Looking for the battery powered variety

Thx

Kurt

[lowrider]

Family has 4 sets of Hottronic m4 distributer is Calgary based. Very pleased with performance.

[ursle]

Went to the Totem Pole ski shop in Ludlow, Vt delt with the owner, and bought a set of heaters, put them in and turned them on, the batteries lasted 5 minutes, the guy had sold me used batteries and when I went back he would't fix the problem. I have the pleasure of relating the story....

Anyway, to hot, they'll sweat out your feet then you'll have hot cold cycles.

I use the packets that go in your gloves and last 7 hours, a buck a day.

I put them under the shell above the liner over my toes, then I put on a bootglove?, neoprene sleeve, toasty toes and pliable boots.

No wires, nothing on top of my orthotics, no battery on the back of the boot to get smashed by the chairlift, and the boots are already heavy enough.

[Puddy Tat]

Anyone use em? Success stories/ones to stay away from?

Looking for the battery powered variety

Thx

Kurt

My kids and wife used Thermic heaters in their snowboarding softboots and had warm toes all last winter even out on days down to -26C. On the same day they were warm I got a bit of frost nip on my toes and had to head into the lodge. My wife has a remote control for hers that she can hang around her neck, she thinks the remote is awesome.

Because They had such success I decided to go with the Thermic RC 1600s also with a remote. I haven't installed them yet but am liking the look of the system. This is Thermic's highest end version so its a little pricey but there are other versions of it.

http://www.alpineaccessories.com/Therm-ic-SmartPack-1600-with-remote-and-Classic-Insoles/productinfo/TH16RC/

You can also buy these with a performance insole or a trimfit insole (great if you've got custom insoles)

BTW I've been told it's a bad idea to buy these because you'll never be able to ride without them again.

Corey_Dyck uses hotronics so he might have a comment on them.

Dave

[Pusbag]

Kurt,

Looking forward to seeing you @ wtf this year. Also hope you can make a trip to NICE @ schweitzer since it looks like we might end up getting 4 days of early load priledges before public. So I am tired of my bad leg and foot from being cold and am buying one soon. So I will be watching this thread for sure. Everybody seems to like the hotronics as long as you charge them during summer.

[dingbat]

I crank down the bottom buckle on my boots so my toes go numb and I can't feel the cold.

Doesn't cost a thing and the boots stay on real good.

[pcABQ]

been using them for about five years, and i'm a big fan

the local area has a tester and i've replaced some of the

cables (i have 2 sets), but the batteries are still good

my feet are not warm, but they are definitely not cold, and

i can ride as long as i want

good luck

[Corey]

Ursle, I think you got a seriously bum set. Mine are NOTHING like that. I'm using the Hotronics e4. http://hotronic.com/products/fw/index.html

I have chronically cold feet in every fall/winter/spring activity I do. Zero complaints with the e4s, though I've only had them since February. The cables may be delicate sticking out of the top of your boots, I take a few extra seconds to be sure I don't fold them when putting the boots on, pulling pant cuffs over the top, etc.

My legs and/or desire run out before the batteries do. On warm days you don't need full heat, so they last forever. On really cold days other parts get cold so I end up going in anyway and shut them off. One day it was around -35C so I added a set of boot gloves. I only had them on setting 3, my heels got cold so I had to go in to warm up. I've never had my heels get cold! I assume I was able to stay out long enough to get cold heels because of the added toe warmth.

I'm religious with following their battery charging recommendations. I've had too many other battery-powered things (bike headlights, RC cars, etc.) die a premature death so I'm going to follow Hotronic's instructions exactly. The battery packs are slightly annoying on the outsides of your boots. I offset them both towards the front of the board as I've heard of some of them getting smashed by chairlifts. (If my toes are at 12 o'clock, they're at 8 for a regular rider and 4 for a goofy rider, same both feet)

Best feature: Being able to adjust the heat level on the fly! I adjust up and down depending on how my toes feel. Don't want to sweat, I just want them comfortable.

I've heard really good things about Thermics too, and I was originally shopping for them. I got the Hotronics because of a great deal in Aspen. (on sale plus the Bomber 10% off card plus installed in my boots for free in about an hour = awesome!)

[ExcelsiorTheFathead]

Since the beginning of this season, I've been using Therm-ic Basix battery packs with custom install heating elements. The elements are installed into my footbeds with the cambrelle covers over them and the cables run out the back of the liner. The Basix battery packs are the 4xAA type. I chose these because it was the cheapest way to get into Therm-ic heaters without having to shell out for the proprietary rechargeable battery packs. Since all rechargeable batteries eventually fail, I wanted to start with the lowest replacement cost. The remote control Li-ion packs are pretty expensive, for example. On the bright side, I can upgrade to these packs later on because the cables that connect to the battery packs use a common connector, and the replacement battery packs are sold separately from the heater elements. My heating elements were professionally installed by a bootfitter and I can't feel them beneath my feet at all. I think that DIY installation is not a big deal.

With the Basix packs I install four AA NiMh rechargeables into each of the pair. There are three heat settings, and I normally use medium. This produces a modest amount of heat that keeps my toes from numbing over when it is maybe 5-10F outside. If it gets colder I'll use the high setting. On medium I can't really feel the presence of heat, but only the absence of cold discomfort. With 2000 mAH NiMh rechargeables, I can get two morning's use on one charge (maybe 2 days of 3 hours use each day on medium heat).

NiMh AA rechargeables are pretty cheap these days, so that's why I went this route. They do have a disadvantage of having a lower nominal voltage than alkaline AA batteries. If one uses alkaline AAs, I suppose that quite a bit more heat could be generated. So every two riding days I have to take all eight AA batteries out of their cases and put them into a charger. I have sixteen batteries on hand so that I have a spare charged set and rotate through them. If I get into a bind, I can go to a store and just buy alkalines.

I have also tried NiZn rechargeable AA cells and found that they completely crap out below freezing. All batteries lose voltage as the temperature goes down, but NiZn batteries are useless. NiMh are ok. Li-ion is much better in the cold.

When I was using disposable heat packs, I would place the packs on top of my foot, between my feet and the ice-cold shells. This is actually better than having heater elements beneath your feet. When running my electric heaters I still feel the tops of my feet and toes being really cold, but the heat from the bottom keeps the circulation going and I don't numb out. If it was super-ultra cold I might still put disposable packs on top of my feet for the first part of the morning, then turn the electrics on later.

As for placement of the battery packs on the boot, I am using the built-in belt clip devices on the back of the packs. Therm-ic sells some hard mounting points that attach to the boot with screws, but I haven't tried them. I first clipped the battery packs onto the backs of the top of the cuff of my UPZ RC-10s because there is a carry loop molded into the plastic. This worked, but I found that if I washed out on heelside the packs would slide off and flop around in the snow cuffs of my pant legs. They were also in a bad spot on the back of the boot where a chairlift could crush them on loading. I now clip them onto the front inboard sides of each boot's velcro top strap where they stay on no matter how I crash.

An internet search just now shows that Therm-ic just released a new rechargeable battery model. If I get tired of swapping out eight AA cells into a charger every two days I could blow the bucks and upgrade.

I'd like to hear from people who have used Therm-ic's Li-ion packs for more than one season of many, many days of riding. If I blow the money on them, I'd like to know that I'll get a reasonably long lifetime before they ultimately fail.

Hotronics? I have heard good things, but they don't seem to sell an AA battery pack. You have to buy their proprietary rechargeable packs or nothing. Therm-ic seemed more flexible in this regard, so that's why I went with them.

[GeoffV]

Boot heaters really? Am I on the wrong forum?

This is sooo OT

[Corey]

I'm interested to hear anyone's experiences with any of the systems in the long term. I hated the extra bulk of the heat packs in my boots, but hopefully these last a few seasons at least...

Boot heaters really? Am I on the wrong forum?

This is sooo OT

Boot heaters let me carve an alpine board in hardboots on days when I'd otherwise be in the lodge after an hour or two trying to warm up my toes again. Sounds pretty darn on-topic to me! If you don't ever get cold feet, congrats! Don't click on this thread. ;)

[Hilux]

For those who have them, are they easily interchangeable between boots? This thread came up at a good time b/c my girlfriend has really poor circulation and Raynaud's and I'm looking at getting her some for XMAS instead of a bulk pack of heaters. She skis now but I've got her some harboots to try alpine this year so we might be swapping back and forth. Is it a matter of just pulling the insoles out and fishing the connecting wire?

I understand the convenience factor but do you find these are more effective than the single-use packs?

As Corey mentioned, I'm also interested to hear longterm reviews of users.

[Corey]

If you can use the same insoles, it's really easy to swap back and forth. If you use different insoles, you could buy a second set of the heater pads to get installed in the insoles.

[Puddy Tat]

What Corey said. The heating elements or insoles are the cheapest part of one of these units. Thermic insoles run about $50. On the other hand the battery packs are typically at least three times that. And they get really expensive when you step up to Lithium Ion types (if you've ever replaced your laptops battery pack you get the idea)

I actually bought two sets of trimfits for my two sets of boots and one set of battery packs.

[BobD]

If you have custom or other good footbeds, you can cut the heaters into them yourself. A dremal would be perfect, but I've done it with a scalpel. Cheap heater units (in crap shoe insoles) sell for about ten bucks or less on ebay.