 Poster: A snowHead
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I just wanted to put in a word for Hestra the company.
I had a pair of their battery heated gloves because I tend to suffer with cold hands. Frighteningly expensive but liberating. Unfortunately my first pair packed up after a month of use, and they were replaced under warranty by Sail and Ski. The replacements did a three-month season and the first month or so of the following season before they too stopped working. Only one hand, to be fair, but that isn't really any consolation. Of course, by now they are well out of warranty.
Even so I was pretty miffed, to be honest; they were expensive and now my hands were cold. So I sent an email to Hestra telling them I wasn't happy and I wasn't convinced about their technology. I never got an answer so I went higher and then got a nice email from the MD in person, who told me that they had responded (I'm not entirely sure about that, but I bet it's what he was told…). After a fairly protracted but friendly email conversation with him he thought it would be nice if they sent me a couple of pairs of their warmest passive products once we got home. Sure enough I got a new pair of gloves and a new pair of mitts for my trouble, along with a handwritten note from the boss.
I've been a fan of the gloves for a long time, but it's good to know that the company stands so proudly behind its product.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@DJ, I love my Hestra gloves, but it does give you a nice warm feeling that they have good customer service. 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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@DJ, good. Makes me wonder if they've abandoned the heating technology?
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@under a new name,
It's not their own, of course, the heating system seems to be bought in. He did say that there had been a few problems initially, but the later design is better. My experience seems to have been with v1 originally and v2 as a replacement. He doesn't use electric himself, and I imagine he can have anything he wants, but I guess that is just a personal preference.
We know of one shop in Kent that is running down stocks of all brands of heated gloves and keeping well clear of them until the reliability improves, because they don't need the hassle. This didn't seem to be Hestra's approach, though. On the other hand  I did like not feeling like my fingers were about to drop off. I will have to learn to love mitts, I guess.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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@DJ, The OH uses www.blazewear.co.uk liners with "ordinary" Hestra mitts. She's formally diagnosed with Reynaud's so absolutely can't ski without heated hands and feet.
Blazewear were similarly helpful in replacing the original pair out of guarantee (actually their customer service so far has been brilliant and she's now up to 3x battery sets, 2x chargers, etc.) Similar comment that there had been manufacturing "issues" - which had been solved.
And, patently with original season 2011, ~60 days per winter, they have been solved - can hardly fault that.
Worth having a look at.
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Yep, as UANN says, Blazewear are great. Mrs Doc uses them, her 1st pair are still going strong though only do a week or 2 a year, but iirc are a year older than UANN's.
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Whereas I contacted customer service regarding a broken zipper on mine, it took two weeks for them to reply and they told me that they didn't have the spare part, sorry and that was that.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Not sure I'd be so chuffed after two failures, no response from customer services prompting me to have to go to the MD direct, to whom the staff had given false information...
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Layne - don't suppose you could PM me the MD's contact details?!
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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As a cold hand sufferer I've bought and had replaced all the major brands. Most of the early ones rarely lasted 2 weeks, and at most 4. All the manufacturers replaced the failing gloves sight unseen, so I guess they failed so often they didn't question it. Black Diamond actually sent the replacements direct to my holel in the Alps.
They all used the same Thermic elements, these included SnowLife, Hestra, Black Diamond. Black Diamond then released there own updated version ( I think they had just bought Pieps, so had access to their Engineers). I still have these, as they are the only original pair that haven't failed.
I now have the Outdoor Research Lucent gloves which are much warmer than the Thermic based gloves, but even with these, I'm on the third pair. These fail on individual fingers, rather than the whole glove.
Maybe it's time to try the much recommend Blazewear.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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| sethpistol wrote: |
| Layne - don't suppose you could PM me the MD's contact details?! |
It wasn't me who emailed them, it was the OP.
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@PowderAdict, must be said that Blazewear don't have the liners available on their website at the moment - although, given their main efforts, one might think they'd re-appear.
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You know it makes sense.
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| under a new name wrote: |
| @DJ, good. Makes me wonder if they've abandoned the heating technology? |
Hestra still have their heated gloves and mittens on the website, they are described as "A further development of our popular ski glove with heating loops.", so maybe they have been fixed. But then again, many of the Snow Sports related manufactures seem to give up updating their websites out of season.
https://hestragloves.com/sport/en/gloves/alpine/30440-power-heater-man-woman-five-finger/100/
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FAQ
