Using vinyl gloves under your dry gloves

[blackfin]

A friend of mine started wearing vinyl gloves (medical type) under his dry gloves and swore it kept his hands warmer.  At first I kind of laughed at him until I tried it myself.  We did a pretty deep dive at Lake Wazee (below 200 ft) this past weekend and normally my hands would have been pretty chilly.  Wearing these vinyl gloves under my dry gloves my hands were never cold.  I guess the concept is that the vinyl gloves hold the moisture next to the hand so it doesn't permeate the rest of your glove.  The latex gloves will do the same thing but they are not quite as durable. Anyway it really works...try it. 

[LKunze]

Interesting.  I would have thought it would be the other way around in that the trapped moisture next to the skin would cool and make your hands colder.  I have noticed that my hands become extremely dry inside the dry gloves probably due to the moisture being wicked away from the skin.  I usually put hand lotion on my hands before donning my dry gloves which does help.  I haven't noticed that hands felt any warmer as a result of this though.

[mrweekend]

While in Colorado I learned from the mountain climbers that they were using a cotton sock first, then a nylon/plastic sock then a wool sock over the top.  I've used this numerous times and have survived -40  before Gortex and the other membranes came out that allowed moisture to be trapped but air molecules to pass through.  The idea really is to create a vapor barrier next to your skin and then keep it warm. Wool loses some of it's ability to provide warmth when wet, but it's not nearly as bad as others.
The Cotton Sock was for comfort as well as soaking up the moisture.

I've never thought of applying this technique to dry gloves, but it should work rather well.  I'd personally wear a thin wool liner over the latex/gloves to warm the moisture trapped against the skin by the vapor barrier.

I'll have to give it a shot if I can get out Diving before the Iceman commeth!!

[josh b.]

That is very interesting, I guess that sounds like it acts like a wetsuit does; warming the moisture (in a wetsuit's case, water) between the skin and the whatever is on top of it.  I'll have to try that sometime.  Thanks for the post

[eelpout]

Our group from Rochester started using latex/vinyl gloves after attending the GUE conference last year. I will be honest and say that I was daydreaming and did not pay attention to the details.

The idea is to keep the moisture between your hands and the glove, prevent it from getting into your liner which would make the insluation factor of your liner loses efficiency.

We came home and started using them with our dry gloves. They work. The will definitely keep your hands warmer. It is better to use the vinyl gloves becauser they don't tear as easily. We now carry vinly/latex gloves with our P-valve catheters too.

Jim

[MAXFACTOR]

Hi,
  I just saw this post.  THis sounds very interesting to me.  I think I will give it a try with one hand on each of the 3 dives I plan up in Crosby this weekend. 

I will give the board a report.  Of course to keep it "scientific"  I will switch hands and report my findings. 
I hope this works.  Although I usually don't get to cold. 

When I did ice diving I dipped them in hot water before I geared up and that works pretty well too. 

Maxfactor

[wtdrm]

A couple things come to mind.
1st Cotton. Cotton is the absolute worse thing to wear next to your body when layering. For the exact reason people say the latex gloves work. The difference is that the cotton will wick the moisture to the 2nd layer losing any insulation factor. The latex will hold it in and it certainly seems reasonable.

2nd. A wetsuit does not work the way Josh B. described. it is the air cells that are the insulating factor in a wetsuit. No matter how good a wetsuit fits there is still some flushing effect. The air cells hold some heat. However as we pass through the pressure column the wetsuits loses its insulating factor. Because the air cells become smaller.

[mrweekend]

Wtdrm--  I should have mentioned that we put a polypropolene sock on first to wick the moisture away from the skin, cotton to absorb and comfort, plastic or vinyl to hold, then wool to insulate. You are correct that you don't want the cotton next to the skin.

Anyway, I think I got my point accross. And it does work.