Need help with electrical stuff

[Eric]

My fiancée has Raynaud's disease (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynaud%27s_disease), which ends up turning her fingertips white when they get cold. In other words, cold weather is tough because her fingers start to hurt.

I have thought about making some mittens with a heating element built in and powered by something like a 9V battery, but I'm not sure how to go about doing that. Any thoughts? In its ultimate form, it would have some sort of thermostat in there too, but I'd be fairly content with an on/off switch for the time being.

A quick google search gave me a couple of patents and a product or two, but nothing that useful in DIY terms. We seem to have a pretty sizeable knowledge base here when it comes to electrical concepts, so I thought you guys might have some ideas on where to start.

[M29]

Hello Eric,

There are hunting gloves that do this but if you are targeting the fingertips only, it might be tough to find or do.

[bcdon]

It's not electric but you'd be hard pressed to run a warmer on a 9v battery for 24 hours.
http://www.zippo.com/products/handWarmer.aspx?bhcp=1

[Eric]

Hello Eric,

There are hunting gloves that do this but if you are targeting the fingertips only, it might be tough to find or do.
Hmm. Some of those are pretty close, and I won't rule them out, but am still interested in making my own, if only for the customisability and DIY learning aspects.

These would be more or less everyday mittens, not just something meant for single-use (i.e. the hot-pack ones probably wouldn't work). The heating won't be on all of the time, but part of the reason for making my own would be so that I could make them somewhat normal and non-hunting-like.

[hubberjub]

Hmm. Some of those are pretty close, and I won't rule them out, but am still interested in making my own, if only for the customisability and DIY learning aspects.

These would be more or less everyday mittens, not just something meant for single-use (i.e. the hot-pack ones probably wouldn't work). The heating won't be on all of the time, but part of the reason for making my own would be so that I could make them somewhat normal and non-hunting-like.

Are you saying you couldn't see your girlfriend walking around the streets of Philly in camoflauge gloves?

[Eric]

Are you saying you couldn't see your girlfriend walking around the streets of Philly in camoflauge gloves?
Umm...yeah that's probably what I'm saying.

[ted s]

Maybe check out motorcycle acc. ?

[Eric]

Sorry, perhaps I should be more clear: I want to make some mittens with a battery-powered heating element. Any thoughts on what sort of heating element to use, how to wire it, etc.?

[bcdon]

The real issue you are going to run into is making it battery powered. A heating element is a large resistive load and so will drain your battery pretty quickly. What you could do is use one of those zippo gas powered devices for the heat, and make the igniter battery powered which is controlled by the temperature setting.

[bcdon]

Okay, this might help you out. These are USB powered heating gloves. All you will have to do -- aside from figuring out how to order them from Japan -- is to make a battery to power the USB interface.

http://www.thanko.jp/product/hot_gloves/

More here: http://www.popgadget.net/2005/10/usb_gloves_1.php

[Bloozcat]

Simple, relatively inexpensive solution available from Wallyworld. Heats from fingertips to wrists:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10664965&sourceid=1500000000000003260410&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=10664965