[slamnationalley]

Years sgo I purchased some heated insoles from Bass Pro or somewhere like that. They worked, and still work, awesome. The only con is that there's a long cord that I have to run up my pants leg and into a battery pack. Plug them in and they heat up really quick. Well I go to thinking I wanted to find out what they were comprised off. Turns out they're 30 AWG teflon coated wire. I did some research and found that this is common in biker clothing. I bought me a spool and took a needle and woove about 30' into a fleece vest and attached a connector, then woove another 20' feet into my hand muff and added a connector. I replaced the D-cell battery pack with a small motorcycle battery that I can carry in my backpack. Made me a 5' connector with alligator clips and matching connectors for the vest and muff. Now I can plug myself in when I get a chill for those long sits. I didn't care for the hot hands and hot feet warmers because of having to make sure I had enough and the mess. All I can say, is it only takes about 10 minutes plugged in to make you start sweating. At the end of the day, plug the batttery into a charger and you're ready for tomorrow.

This was a way for me to utilize my current undergarments and not purchase new clothing.

Congrats to the electric genius that came up with the teflon coated wire idea to begin with. I hope he's laughing all the way to the bank.

 

[jrdrees]

Where do find this type of wire? Is it destructive to the garment to weave it through? Sounds promising though!

 

[beaverman]

How do you attach the 30 AWG to the battery? I may be thinking about the wrong type of wire but the stuff I was thinking about is single strand not paired so do you run one end to the positive and the other to negative and let the resistance in the wire create heat? I don't know much about wiring or electrical stuff so I'm just trying to picture how you would connect it to the battery. If I attempted to do something like that I would probably plug it in and have it catch on fire when everything shorted out haha.

 

[slamnationalley]

You're correct Beaverman. It is a single strand and I used a 2-pole connector to connect the vest to the battery tether. I have multiple connections on the tether for the muff, insoles and vest in case I need all plugged in at the same time. The wire needs to be at least 20' so it doesn't get too hot. Too short and it will get too hot and burn the clothing. Too long and it won't get warm enough. Here's a link that gives you about everything you need to know about "How-to". I didn't have this when I did mine. It was trial and error method. Good luck to all. It has been worth every penny and my time. All day sits can get brutal at times.

Peace!!!

http://www.commenthow.com/full_article/display/107825/DIY-heated-clothing

 

[Bad Juju]

Get a 12v pulse width modulator (PWM) from an electronics store and put it inline and you have a heat control.
Often these are around the led lighting section. A secondary advantage as it is switching the circuit on-off-on rapidly there is no energy wasted and your run time increases due to the % of time in the OFF mode.
They usually have either 2 in and 2 out connectors or a single in/out connector and a knob to control normally a dimmer or fan speed.

 

[jogr]

The wire needs to be at least 20' so it doesn't get too hot. Too short and it will get too hot and burn the clothing.

http://www.commenthow.com/full_article/display/107825/DIY-heated-clothing

How do you get 20 feet of wire in a sock?

 

[slamnationalley]

How do you get 20 feet of wire in a sock?

I wouldn't put it in a sock because the sock wears out pretty quick. The insole that I have just had the wire woven back and forth sandwhiched between 2 layers of heavy material. Just it in the bottom of any boot and go.


My equipments going to get some use this week with this front coming in.

 

[jogr]

It's gonna be a cold one for sure. Is this the right wire?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/M16878-4-Te...103?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8916b9bf

 

[Top Gauge]

Tagged

 

[FJGreg]

That is a great idea!

 

[NJlungbuster]

I WANT THIS FOR INSOLES! Please post pics of how to hook it up. I suck with electrical stuff lol. Thanks.

 

[slamnationalley]

It's gonna be a cold one for sure. Is this the right wire?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/M16878-4-Te...103?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8916b9bf

Looks like it.

 

[5 Lakes]

It's gonna be a cold one for sure. Is this the right wire?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/M16878-4-Te...103?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a8916b9bf

This wire is 30AWG solid. I'd like to suggest that stranded wire be used instead (link below). Stranded wire will be more flexible and less subject to damage. In an insole, as long as there is enough give, the solid wire should work fine if used in only one set of footwear. If the insole is moved to different boots/shoes, the flexibility of stranded wire would allow for a more comfortable fit along with being better able to adapt to variables such as arch height, etc. For use in pants, vests or gloves, you would definitely want the stranded wire for it's flexibility and lower risk of damage.

I design, build, test and support low voltage control systems. We never use a solid conductor wire for any application.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/M16878-4-Te...384?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item565dffcbc0

 

[fatcity]

like white on rice

 

[slamnationalley]

After looking at mine, you're correct. Mine is silver coated multi-strand.

Also, the insole is weaved about like the following image. Sorry about the artwork......... Put in as much wire as you can. The wires are only spaced about 1/8" apart in mine.

 

[ruffme]

You could very easily put a potentiometer into the wiring and adjust the heat level.
Using a potentiometer would also allow you to use less wire in the insole without overheating.

Or use a fixed resistor with less wire.

 

[Rolexdr]

Hmmmmm

I like the idea even if I only did for my hand muff

 

[fatcity]

This puts a damper on my plan to build a heated suit. Should have read further before ordering the wire.

A typical motorcycle battery may have an amp-hour rating of somewhere in the range of 10 to 20 amp-hours. For this example, we will assume our battery has a 15 amp-hour rating and that our heated vest is drawing 4 amps (as calculated above). So how long could we expect our battery (not being recharged) to last when used to power our heated vest? A general rule is to divide the battery's amp-hour rating by two (2) times the amperage of your heated clothing. However, the answer should be considered the maximum amount of time that your battery will last under perfect conditions, which of course never occur. To answer the question in our example:

(Battery Rating [amp-hours]) / (2 x Heating Clothing Amperage [amps]) =

(15 amp-hours) / (2 x 4 amps) =

(15 amp-hours) / (8 amps) = 1.9 hours

Remember that this is the amount of time the battery would last under 'perfect conditions' - so basically, don't count on it.

http://www.mototour.us/technical/electricclothes.htm

 

[ruffme]

This puts a damper on my plan to build a heated suit. Should have read further before ordering the wire.

A typical motorcycle battery may have an amp-hour rating of somewhere in the range of 10 to 20 amp-hours. For this example, we will assume our battery has a 15 amp-hour rating and that our heated vest is drawing 4 amps (as calculated above). So how long could we expect our battery (not being recharged) to last when used to power our heated vest? A general rule is to divide the battery's amp-hour rating by two (2) times the amperage of your heated clothing. However, the answer should be considered the maximum amount of time that your battery will last under perfect conditions, which of course never occur. To answer the question in our example:

(Battery Rating [amp-hours]) / (2 x Heating Clothing Amperage [amps]) =

(15 amp-hours) / (2 x 4 amps) =

(15 amp-hours) / (8 amps) = 1.9 hours

Remember that this is the amount of time the battery would last under 'perfect conditions' - so basically, don't count on it.

http://www.mototour.us/technical/electricclothes.htm

Why are they dividing by 2?

 

[Pittstate23]

Any pics?