DIY heated clothing

[smegballs]

Anyone had a go making heated clothing?

I'm gonna buy some nichrome wire and have a play. I'm thinking of making some heating "pads" up, then sewing pouches on a old top to slide the pads into. Designed to be worn over T-shirt but under fleece/softshell/bike jacket so hopefully it should keep the heat in.

Gonna start with something in the range of 25-30w to begin with and see how it goes

[Commuter_Tim]

No I haven't sorry, but I've noticed over past posts, there are a few medical types on here for when you set yourself on fire and need treatment for burns.
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The above post is most likely nonsensical.

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[grr666]

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[Wonko The Sane]

if it's any help, my Keis heated gloves draw 12v at 2amps
they advise for each additional garment to up the fuse by an amp or two.
So adding heated insoles and body warmer would put you to a 5amp fuse
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[Beehive Bedlam]

I've got a keis heated vest which is very good.

I wouldn't exactly call it freezing yet however I've not even fitted muffs yet. Saying that I'm a hardcore until I die all weather biker unlike a lot of folk on this forum.

[Rogerborg]

Not made, but I did score a 9V battery powered vest from Maplin and wired into my 14V+ bike electrics with some scorching of nipples.

https://i.imgur.com/E1yxdua.png

I later wired in a 10V regulator (rather than a resistor, ain't technology marvellous?) bolted to a piece of PSU heatsink, which brought the pain down to merely eye watering.

I mention this to remind you that you don't have to stick to the 12 (or more like 14.5) volts coming out of your bike.
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[BTTD]

Yes.
I've made heated gloves using beadalon stainless wire. Been using them for four years or so.
I also made a heated jacket, but used copper strand wire which after 3 years has started to suffer breaks. The copper wire just doesn't last it seems. I'm going to do a new version using beadalon wire with 9 sections. That way if there is break, I only lose one section not the whole jacket. Basically going to follow this guy's version:

https://www.k11og.org/phpbb3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=8572

I got the wire in the post today, and and waiting on the crimps to come. I'm also going to use a couple of pwm controllers. I did put a switch on the gloves to run them in parallel or series, but really they need to be full power, 3/4 power or off. Half power seems be barely noticeable.

[BillyJ]

I bought 2 pairs of these, one to see how much current i can put through it and one to install.

I'm gonna add a variable constant current module off the bike battery and ta-da, heated feet

However they are from china, so hopefully they arrive before next summer
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[Nobby the Bastard]

I tried insoles powered by the bike and had the pleasure of riding down the M5 in monsoon conditions with the experience of riding in a hot bath.

The connections to the bike were temperamental and the insoles fucked up after a few weeks use.
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[-]

I wonder why manufacturers don't divert coolant through the bars to heat them if needed. It wouldn't be too hard to regulate or shut off flow.

Cars use engine heat for all sorts, yet bikes just use it for cooling.
My modern VW Camper conversion even has an auxiliary diesel powered coolant heater, which I have plans to convert into a night heater.
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[M.C]

[iooi]

[Suntan Sid]

So, what are you going to call it, "BrassmonkeyPal®" or "ColdPal®". and how are you going to fund it?
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[stinkwheel]

A friend of mine set fire to both handlebars, while riding, by making his own heated grips out of recovered electric blanket resistance wire. Wrecked a pair of gloves and burned both hands in a really sore but ultimately not too serious way (Mmmm, melted plastic on skin to peel off) and managed not to crash.

He's an electronics engineer. Quite a good one by all accounts.
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[Islander]

Apparently not such a good one then

I've made dew heaters for telescope and camera lenses, and the principle is pretty much the same although somewhat scaled up.

You'd need to think carefully about how much power you intend to dissipate as heat, a bit of Ohms law and a PWM controller will see you through.

Oxford grips as an example, present a resistance of around 6 ohms. At 12V that draws 2A and that equates to 24W albeit concentrated in a relatively small area, I'd probably be looking to try around 30-40W in total for a vest and the same for trousers - remembering that you're also producing heat and you're wrapped in insulation. Using nichrome wire this should be easily achievable although it's a bastard to work with. Remember that the strands are going to get hot - you'll need to make sure that the pads or clothing enclose the heated areas in heat proof material.

The most important part of this is the ability to control the output and for this you'll need a pulse width modulated (PWM) controller. They aren't difficult to design and build and there are also units available commercially - remember it has to be rated well above the potential maximum power draw.

I used to know a rather eccentric, interesting and friendly old chap in the 80s who made his own heated clothing - proper shed and pipe type of fellow. He had Reynaud's and was forced to develop it out of necessity - he powered it from his old BSA and used to punt it around to despatch riders in London.

Having said all that, by the time you've done all the work, it might well be cheaper to buy commercial clothing.

[Hong Kong Phooey]

You'll be wanting to pre order my latest invention.
Nutroast-pal. It's basically a hot water bottle for your sack... But once I've come up with a fancy website also to be translated into Arabic and all African languages it'll be selling all over the world. Don't forget it can also be filled with crushed ice!

Seriously if your journey isn't more than 1 hour a hot water bottle in your jacket will have you sweating more than a football coach.
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[kramdra]

Would not use nichrome wire. In gloves, if you crash, it will be very good at cutting your fingers off. Would not use even in jacket.

China is churning out a lot of very cheap and good heated clothing, they already make it, and it is cheaper and better than anything you could do. They also sell components for it, carbon printed sheets and carbon fibre string probably the best option.

Controllers are very cheap, either PWM or if lots items in series an xl6009

Just got some heated grips from china, in my opinion much better designed and higher quality than the oxford shit available over here.

[tactical_pancake]

[grr666]

[raesewell]

This may be of interest
https://advrider.com/index.php?threads/35-00-heated-jacket-liner-diy.514532/
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[BTTD]

[Islander]

There's nothing wrong with nichrome wire - apart from being a bastard to work with. It has the advantage of being relatively cheap and very predicatable. It does need enclosing in heat proof material though.

Cutting off fingers? I seriously doubt it.

[Freddyfruitba...]

[smegballs]

I've been playing around with ohms law and looked up the temp vs current characteristics for nichrome. What seems to be way forward is several elements in parallel, each with a relatively low current to keep the temps down but keep the overall power up.

Apparently a 0.32mm nichrome wire will heat to 205C at approx 1.24A and has a resistance of 13.6ohms/metre.

A element 2m long will then be about 27ohms and have roughly 0.5A current on the bike, temps should be kept considerably lower than 205C, while dissipating about 6ish watts.

Four of these elements then should give me a total of 25-30 watts power while keeping the temperatures within reasonable limits.

As for packaging, I'm planning to get some kind of plastic, drill holes and thread the wire through then wrap in gaffa tape to make a heating pad. Said pad will the slot in pouches sewn to a jumper. So the wire will be sealed up and certainly not wrapped around me.

[BTTD]

I think commercial jackets are around 80watts, including the arms.
I may be wrong, worth checking. I think my jacket was around 60 watts, although I never measured the final values.