The Greatest Hand Heaters of 2024-2025

If you happen to plan to spend time outdoor this winter, solely the very best hand heaters ought to make your gear checklist. With higher run time, warmth retention, settings, and reusability, hand heaters have advanced from easy single-use pocket heaters to rechargeable electrical heat machines.

We’ve ordered up the top-selling and most promising hand heaters and in contrast them with some good old school hands-on testing. We’ve unpackaged these gadgets and assessed their efficacy with a stopwatch and a thermometer so we are able to confidently say which of them will do the trick, the place every falls brief, and what to advocate for tailgating, sitting in a looking blind, or simply staying toasty whilst you’re out and about this winter.

Whether or not you want 12 hours of dependable warmth from a chargeable hotter just like the OCOOPA UT3 PRO or the traditional ease of our prime choose, the disposable Ignik Hand Hotter, our checklist of the very best hand heaters has you coated. For extra info on totally different sorts of hand heaters and the way to decide on between them, take a look at our purchaser’s information, our comparability chart, and our value and worth part.

Editor’s Be aware: We up to date this purchaser’s information on October 8, 2024, by retesting and rewriting our Zippo 12-Hour blurb and including a value and worth part.

The Greatest Handwarmers of 2024

Hand Heaters Comparability Chart

How We Examined Hand Heaters

Our editors and equipment testers aren’t any strangers to lengthy winters, and we eagerly anticipate ski season each fall. Nevertheless, we’re about as antagonistic to numbed-out, chilly fingers as anyone on the market, so we’ve spent appreciable time discovering and testing out the greatest winter gloves and the greatest winter mittens along with the very best hand heaters.

Hand heaters have a easy job to do, and whereas they’ll’t change your individual physique (Eat! Hydrate!) as a warmth supply, they’ll present a little bit reduction when it’s essential be out within the chilly and stationary. 

To seek out the very best hand heaters, we ordered a wide range of disposable and digital heaters, together with one catalytic mannequin, and examined them with a stopwatch and a thermometer. We positioned every hotter within the pocket of a extremely insulated down jacket and measured the ambient temperature within the pocket after half an hour.

Whereas this gave us a little bit numerical knowledge, we additionally thought of the general person expertise. The HotSnapZ Hand Heaters, for instance, delivered warmth on command however didn’t final for greater than two hours. The digital heaters don’t carry out as properly in tremendous chilly environments, so we are able to’t advocate them for lengthy days within the backcountry.

Editor Matt Bento is the lead hand hotter tester for this Purchaser’s Information. He introduced every mannequin mountaineering and climbing within the Excessive Sierra, even leaving an Ignik Hotter in his chalk bag for some on-demand warmth whereas sport climbing. He additionally enlisted mates to make use of them whereas watching the native soccer video games and dealing on their autos within the chilly.

Purchaser’s Information: Select the Greatest Hand Heaters

Varieties of Hand Heaters

We’re now not restricted to simply disposable heaters, as there are actually a number of alternate options to the previous standbys, together with the very efficient rechargeable electrical hand heaters. It’s by no means a foul thought to have a couple of disposable hand heaters in your glove field for emergencies, however when you’re somebody who makes use of them regularly through the winter, a chargeable electrical mannequin just like the Zippo Warmth Financial institution 9 or the OCOOPA UT3 PRO Magnetic Rechargeable is a worthwhile funding, as they each present extra warmth for longer durations than the disposable sorts, and also you’ll create much less waste. 

Some people are simply in search of added consolation, however for folks coping with Raynaud’s syndrome or poor circulation, holding your palms heat is vital in day by day life throughout colder months. Sustaining dexterity is vital for a lot of out of doors actions, from tying on a fishing lure to common automobile upkeep. So contemplate this while you’re taking a look at what you want and the way a lot you’re trying to spend.

Rechargeable Electrical

Rechargeable electrical hand heaters are often powered by a lithium-ion battery. These fashions warmth up rapidly, usually have a number of heating ranges, can get highly regarded, and might final a very long time in the fitting situations. Some electrical heaters additionally double as a helpful battery pack you should utilize to cost your cellphone on the go. Downsides embody susceptibility to moisture or influence harm, potential decreased battery life within the chilly, and longer recharging intervals. Rechargeable electrical hand heaters are additionally often a bit dearer than than conventional disposable fashions.

The OCOOPA UT3 PRO Magnetic Rechargeable is our favourite rechargeable electrical hand hotter. It features a set of two models, so you may maintain one in every pocket or maintain one in every hand. The models warmth up in a short time and have 4 totally different heating ranges, with the highest stage reaching as much as 136 levels F. The 2 models additionally magnetically stick collectively to create one bigger unit, which may turn out to be useful in sure conditions. This mannequin has an enter port to recharge however doesn’t embody an output prot to cost different gadgets like your cellphone.

Different rechargeble electrical fashions just like the Zippo Warmth Financial institution 9 and the OCOOPA Rechargeable Hand Hotter each embody output ports, permitting these gadgets to double as a battery pack to your cellphone or different small digital gadgets, making certain they’ll have the ability to be used year-round.

We love utilitarian, multi-use gadgets like electrical hand heaters since they’re efficient and allow us to minimize down on our waste stream. Nevertheless, there are a couple of benefits to disposable, chemical-powered hand heaters. They’re typically smaller and softer, permitting them to be shoved right into a glove or a sock. They arrive in pairs so you may have one for every pocket, and relying on what number of hand heaters you undergo in a yr, they could be a a lot inexpensive possibility.

Catalytic

Catalytic hand heaters run on liquid gasoline and require a flame to begin flameless combustion. As a result of these heaters generate warmth through combustion, they by no means should be charged and work properly even in very chilly temps. Although catalytic heaters present a constant warmth supply for longer intervals of time, they are often messy and considerably sophisticated to fill. This actually solely applies to the Zippo 12-hour Hand Hotter.

We expect the vast majority of people received’t need the effort of needing to maintain lighter fluid available and the potential mess of refilling the unit, so they need to go together with the rechargeable electrical mannequin. However the Zippo may very well be helpful for people at looking camps or in different eventualities with out entry to electrical energy, the place the reliability of utilizing lighter fluid outweighs the potential downsides.

Disposable

Disposable hand heaters are the most affordable, best to make use of, and often probably the most dependable. They take some time to warmth up however have a reasonably constant temperature for his or her run time. They will solely be used as soon as, so when you want hand heaters usually, both buy them by the pack or contemplate one other sort of hotter.

Our favourite disposable hand heaters by far are the Ignik Hand Heaters. Not solely did they get hotter than the opposite disposable heaters we examined, in addition they are available in a resealable baggie, so If you happen to use them for 5 hours of their 10-hour runtime, you may put them again of their bundle. This cuts off the oxygen, stopping the oxidation course of and successfully “turning them off” till it’s essential use them once more. The insides are compostable, and we’re typically psyched in regards to the model’s dedication to creating a disposable product as environmentally pleasant as they’ll.

Warmth Output

When searching for efficient hand heaters, warmth output is most individuals’s prime precedence. If a hand hotter isn’t heat sufficient, it’s rendered ineffective. Nevertheless, it’s necessary to know the connection between warmth output and different elements together with run time, reliability, and value.

As a common rule, lithium-ion-powered heaters have a tendency to supply the very best most temperatures.

Whereas battery-powered heaters are nice, they are typically much less efficient in chilly situations. It’s necessary to notice most temperatures are typically solely achievable for many hand heaters in comparatively reasonable situations.

Different varieties of hand heaters, together with catalytic and most disposable heaters, are often in a position to carry out at their most temperature regardless of the encompassing air temperature. Whereas most of these heaters could not boast the identical most temperatures as battery-powered heaters, they’re much less condition-dependent and maybe extra dependable.

Ideas for Getting the Most Out of Your Hand Heaters

Whereas all of the hand heaters on our checklist are fairly straightforward to function, we’ve discovered a couple of tips that may make them go farther. 

Disposable heaters take a couple of minutes to warmth up as they depend on oxidation to catalyze the chemical response that generates warmth. So, when you’re trying to get them cooking extra rapidly, maintain them outdoors of your pockets initially, and provides them a great shake to get the method going.

Digital gadgets like cellphones and cameras can endure from excessive chilly, as their batteries can wrestle to carry a cost. You’ll be able to take a disposable hand hotter just like the Ignick Hand Hotter and tape it to the again of your system or chuck a couple of in an insulated pouch together with your digital camera batteries to get higher efficiency within the wintertime.

Value & Worth

Hand heaters usually value between $10 and $60. Cheaper choices are most frequently disposable and are available in a pack. The bigger the pack, the dearer will probably be. Options like heating time and whether or not they’re reusable enhance the value. 

Price range

Most finances hand heaters are single-use however nonetheless ship dependable and enough heat. It’s possible you’ll not get as a lot longevity, and also you’ll sacrifice eco-friendliness, however finances hand heaters are extremely handy and sensible.

Our finances choose for this information are the HotHands Hand Heaters, ranging in value from $10 – $15 – $10 for a pack of 10. We discover these a superb possibility for brief journeys in late fall and early spring, however within the useless of winter, we gravitate to one thing with an extended warmth period. For a similar value, our total choose, the Ignik Hand Heaters are $10 for a 10-pack. Whereas each choices have a 10-hour heat time, the Ignik might be “turned off” by eradicating them from oxygen, extending their lifespan for use once more later. Each are disposable, finances hand-warming choices if comfort is your prime precedence.

Mid-Tier

Spending just a bit bit extra money is prone to get you a product with higher warmth retention and extra options. Mid-tier hand heaters value wherever from $20 to $40, and heat occasions are 15 or extra hours.

The Zippo 12-Hour hand hotter is a reusable possibility that runs on lighter fluid and is barely $25. In some instances, it might run greater than 12 hours, and the reusability is extra dependable than an digital battery out within the chilly. It’s barely much less handy than a disposable, and refilling it may be a ache, however if you would like one thing that packs warmth all day and can be utilized many times, it’s definitely worth the funding.

Premium

One of the best hand heaters value round $40 – $60. It could appear tough to justify paying upwards of $50 for hand heaters, however premium choices present higher expertise and prolonged heating occasions. They’re a superb funding for critical cold-weather out of doors fans or those that want a lift of warmth on a blustery job website.

The OCOOPA UT3 PRO is a chargeable hand hotter priced at round $40. In comparison with our different picks, this runs hotter and longer, plus you should utilize fast recharge capabilities. Whereas we really feel the added options outweigh the cons, rechargeable hand heaters are typically much less handy than single-use alternate options.

Regularly Requested Questions