Maplins foot warming innersoles

[oceanheadted]

Bought a pair of these on a whim and cold feet!

They use 3xAA batteries per foot. The batteries are held in a small box that straps to your leg with an elastic holder. The box has an LED on it so you can see if its on. This is an advantage as you can tell the foot warmer is on.

The warmer boasts "Volcanic Heat" on the top of the innersole, I'd be happy with toasty toes!

I tried running one of the foot warmers out of boot to see how much heat was being thrown off. I noted a slight increase in temperature somewhere in the middle.

As a controlled experiment I went out on a cold night with one foot foot warmer equipped and the other with an ordinary innersole for a walking boot. The warmer was powered with newly charged AA NiMH 2500 mAh Batteries.

After having the warmer switched on for 20 or so minutes I couldn't tell the difference between the heated foot and the non heated one.

The next day I put one of the warmers on my AVO and it measured the resistance of about 15 ohms. Assuming an output voltage of my batteries of 3x1.2V= 3.6 volts this would give a heat dissapation of 0.86 Watts, hardly noticable I should think. If I had gone for normal 1.5V batteries this would go up to 1.35W and improvement but I don't think that would be enough to keep my toes warm.

So if you tempted by these on the maplins' website I be tempted to look elsewhere! Thicker socks maybe?

cheers

Alan

[Coco]

hhaah...Lol... this one of the funniest this week..

Volcanic heat ..

[SteveL]

I think someone purchased one of their heated body warmers... cant remember if it was last year or the year before.... that got taken back to Maplins pretty quickly too!

[ollypenrice]

The foot solution is easy and cheap. Go to your nearest Cat Protection League (as a bird lover this rather troubles my conscience...) and sink a pound in a pair of Moon Boots of sufficient hideousness to have been discarded by their previous owner. If they are of the kind with a sort of miniature plastic beer crate for an inner sole you are in business already. It they don't, insert a layer of camping mat in the form of a sole and use the rest as a dewsheild for your scope. Trust in the darkness to preserve your reputation for elegance of costume.

It's a shame the Maplin things don't work because the idea is good. I had heated handlebar grips on my BMW motorcycle and these simply transformed winter riding at a stroke. I wonder if they make heated footware?

Decathlon have some good cheap polar fleece jogging bottoms which go under my ski salopettes and also work well. We are around nine below zero here at the moment at night. Good job my cameras have Peltier heaters....

Olly

[syd_malicious]

I too tried a Maplin body warmer (it was in the sale). It was broken when I got home but couldn't make it back to Maplin for a few weeks. I was talked to like a little boy and given a dressing down for not calling them on the 'phone and was offered a credit note. The only way to get a refund was to mention"sale of goods" and "trading standards". Maplins is so ridiculously overpriced (they have also not dropped their prices for the vat drop to 15%, and though I bet they raise it when it goes up again next year). They are on a par with Hellfrauds.

Anyway I have had good dealings with this company - Blazewear. They sell some reasonable heated items with decent rechargeable batteries.

[michaelmorris]

I think someone purchased one of their heated body warmers... cant remember if it was last year or the year before.... that got taken back to Maplins pretty quickly too!

T'was I. It was Rubbish!

[Wobbly Bob]

I stumbled across a nice hand warmer the other day, the mains transformer for the Laptop. I went to move it in me COLD obsy and it was HOT mmmmmmmmmm lovely.

Bob

[Peter Drew]

Suffering from poor circulation south of my knees I got quite excited until I read your report. I have improved matters at times by making insoles from 3mm polystyrene wall insulation. Another improvement, specially if you are in an obsy is to make a couple of platform soles from 25mm polystyrene and tape them to your boots.

[alfingido]

I never had warm feet in the winter till the '70s and I got my first pair of Platform Soles! Lovely.

I just wear really thick socks now and have Peacock handwarmer. HERE

They may be pricey, but they give you up to 24hrs of heat. Not tried one in my shoes yet!

Allan

[John78]

Peacock hand warmers are great and skee-tex boots are the absolute staple of any fisherman - bit ungainly to walk in, not worse than normal wellies - the only problem you'll have then is overheating feet!

Order them online or at any local tackle shop - I guarantee you wont be disappointed or have cold feet again.

[oceanheadted]

Their field boots look very nice. Thanks for the tip!

[Julia]

haahhahaha that is funny............

[adamsp123]

I have seen glider pilots using heated socks

[Brett]

I bought maplins pebble hand warmer and was equally disappointed. The area that got warm was about the size of a 50 pence piece.

[acey]

My feet-warmers (for astro and fishing) are Eiger Sirius boots

T W International limited OUTDOOR CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR

(Scroll down page of link). They're about £40, I've had mine for years and they're great. They have a removable thermal liner and are meant to be comfortable at -45 degrees though I've never observed in anything colder than about -10.

Anything that claims to keep you warm with AA batteries is a joke. A Mars bar works better.

[Sparrow]

I'm afraid my love affair with Maplins has ended - their after sales service is appalling - god help you if you buy faulty goods from them - what should be a straight forward refund turns in to excuses of having to return items to head office for testing etc. Their prices are now very uncompetative compared to the likes of CPC and they seem more interested in selling rediculous RC toys rather than their core business of electronic components.

As for keeping warm - forget all the technology - you can't beat a good old hot water bottle stuffed up you jumper - if your torso is warm it will keep you extremities warm too. I was out in January in

-8c imaging for hours and wasn't cold. Alternatively, one of tose mocrowaveable hot water bottles are good too - trouble is they tend to come in the shape of teddy bears etc.

[PhillyDee]

My feet-warmers (for astro and fishing) are Eiger Sirius boots

T W International limited OUTDOOR CLOTHING AND FOOTWEAR

(Scroll down page of link). They're about £40, I've had mine for years and they're great. They have a removable thermal liner and are meant to be comfortable at -45 degrees though I've never observed in anything colder than about -10.

Anything that claims to keep you warm with AA batteries is a joke. A Mars bar works better.

And tastes nicer. Trust me on this one

[Andrew*]

A Mars bar works better.

Tried this. What setting on the washing machine for chocolate stains?

Never tried most of these methods, but I didn't get TOO cold at Kielder last year with 3 pairs of socks in ordinary walking boots.

Andrew

[Brett]

Tried this. What setting on the washing machine for chocolate stains?

Never tried most of these methods, but I didn't get TOO cold at Kielder last year with 3 pairs of socks in ordinary walking boots.

Andrew

LOL:) Can you imagine warm chocolate squidging through your toes.......Nice.

[stuming]

I used to do motorcycle courier work. I soon discovered the meaning of cold after traveling 45 minutes up the M1 in freezing fog, to discover that when I got of the bike at the other end, sheets of ice were cracking off my bike gear a falling to the floor.

I invested in heated insoles, heated gloves and a heated jacket liner, all made by Gerbings. While I don't do the courier stuff anymore I still commute on my bike and through this winter I have been toasty. They connect to the 12V battery on the bike so could connect to a power pack. The insoles connect up to a socket in the jacket and the gloves connect via a plug in the jacket sleeve. The battery connects to another plug on the jacket liner. I've also got a dual heat controller which allows me to set the temp differently for my gloves and jacket.

I got mine from these guys:

Heated Clothing from Gerbings

I haven't got a power pack and I've only observed from my back garden so far, so I haven't used the heated stuff apart from every day on the bike. The gear isn't that cheap, but less than a new scope.

Stu

[steve_bham]

cant beat nice thick hiking socks