Electric Socks - you own them, you wear them, which should I buy?

January 13, 2019 4:31 PM

Pretty much what it says in the title.. I have reviewed every cold feet/sock trouble shooting thread I can find on metafilter and still only came across one link from years ago to a product (thunderbolt socks) that had some questionable reviews. Turns out electric socks (or insoles) are actually fairly pricey ..

usually over $100 and sometimes nearly 200 bucks, so not a negligible investment. I've looked on cabela and dick's and so forth, and for a lot of them there's almost as many 1 star reviews as 4 and 5 star reviews. So.. anyone out there require battery operated warming socks find a product that lasted, that you can recommend? bonus points for a product that can be returned to a brick and mortar with a sorta lenient return policy. There's a gillion on amazon, I think this is one of those products that FBA sellers are buying en masse from various manufacturers overseas, and I don't trust the reviews are real sock-wearers/users. thanks in advance, chilly-footed-metafilter-friends!

posted by elgee to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

bonus points for a product that can be returned to a brick and mortar with a sorta lenient return policy

REI sells Hotronic warming socks and warming insole kits. An acquaintance has used their warming insoles for skiing and has liked them, but that's an intermittent rather than everyday use case and I can't speak to how long they'd last if you want to use them more frequently than that. Not the cheapest -- the socks are a little cheaper -- but REI's returns policy is good, and allows for returns either to a brick-and-mortar location or by mail.
posted by halation at 4:48 PM on January 13, 2019 [1 favorite]

I think the main issue is likely that it's just really hard if not impossible to have a reasonable-sized battery that can output a useful amount of heat for a useful amount of time. Resistive heating is fairly energy intensive, and people aren't going to want to deal with a huge honkin' battery pack strapped tontheir ankle.

Personally when I need a bit of extra feet heat, I use those disposable HotHands toe warmers. They last about six to eight hours and they get nice and toasty, and they're fairly inexpensive—$100 would get you about 160 pairs. I get that you may not be keen on the disposability aspect, but at least they definitely do work. I wear them for winter hiking.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:51 PM on January 13, 2019 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thank you for the REI idea! Re size of battery packs, apparently they aren't that prohibitively large, some go in a pocket high up on the sock, others attach to a belt, but.. either way, for me, if I could find a reasonably durable pair the battery operated variety would be preferable over the hot hands sort of inserts - those tend to get too hot. The source of my trouble is small fiber nerve injury and sympathetic (ie poorly / abnormally regulated vasoconsriction, dialation, and sweating) nerve differences in one foot. Both temps that are too hot and too cold trigger hyperhydrosis at best, and burning neuropathy, at worst, in the affected foot (it's quite curious and interesting, though i'd prefer it were an academic dillema rather than my own foot o_O ) , so the goal is to achieve a controlled climate. So far I have come across battery operated electric socks that have a temperature settings dial, so I'm really interested at least trying out this route ..
posted by elgee at 10:57 AM on January 14, 2019

I looked into this a couple years ago, and I ended up with this ~ $15 option: Cozy Feet battery heated insoles. I reinforced the fragile-looking connections with some electrical tape, and they've been very serviceable for the price. Many of the critical reviews complain that they don't get very hot, which might make them suit your needs even better.
posted by Corvid at 4:51 PM on January 14, 2019