WarmNSafe Remote Heat-Troller

[krussell]

A couple of months ago I purchased one of the latest generation Gerbing jacket liners. I am a year round rider, often both wet and cold in the winter here in the Pacific Northwest. I've been getting by with 3-4 layers but knew that a liner would be a big improvement in my cold weater riding. Of course, once I had the liner, and a taste of that comfort, I had to add gloves too. I purchased a portable dual controller, and wired up both of my bikes with a battery harness. I've been enjoying the setup, but have a found a few challenges. Those challenges led me to look at some other options, and I've started using the WarmNSafe Remote Heat-Troller as a result. So far, I'm very happy with the product.

 

Between the bike and your gear, you need some sort of temperature control. In the simplest case, some riders use a manual switch. Turn it on, the gear generates full heat, turn it off, you get none. Most consider this a back up solution only, not practical for every day use. The recommended solution is a controller that allows you to vary the temperature of the heated gear depending on the environment it's used in.

 

Both WarmNSafe and Gerbing offer variable controls. There are portable models, designed to be attached to clothing or some other convenient location, hard wired models that place the controls on the bike itself in a permanent fashion, and from WarmNSafe, a remote control model that has a control unit separate from the electronics themselves. In most cases, temperature is controlled by simply turning a knob, some recent products are using buttons to select a few preset temperatures. There are single control models, designed for controlling a single item or set of connected items, and dual control models, allowing two different settings. I've got a liner and gloves, and wanted the flexibility of having dual controls, one for the liner, and one for the gloves, so I use a dual controller.

 

I've been using the Gerbing dual portable controller since I got the liner a few months a go, and it has worked fine. I purchased a belt holster for it, and I attached it to my belt, put on the jacket liner, connect the wires from the liner to the controller, and then zip up my jacket and get ready to ride. Once on the bike, I connect the remaining cord from the controller to the bike power harness. The trouble with this setup is that unless you put the controller somewhere outside of your jacket, it's not possible to adjust it while underway. When wearing my Darien, there was no way to reach up to under the outer jacket to get to the controller. I could reach them with another jacket I had, but if I had gloves on I couldn't feel the knobs to adjust them. Ultimately, temperature adjustment became a pull over, unglove, find the controller, adjust, re-glove, and then then rider off operation. Still better than adding and remove layers, but far from what I had hoped for.

 

Another problem with the belt clip mounting of the controller was that sometimes by moving on the bike, the controls themselves would end up being accidentally rotated. The knobs don't have detents or any sort of stepping mechanism, so they are very easy to accidentally change. This led to more than one occasion where I'd be enjoying a great ride and all of a sudden a large accidental temperature change would have me pulling over to reset the controls, hopefully getting them close to where they were before they got bumped.

 

Finally, one of the goals of the heated gear for me was to reduce layers. One part of this is sheer bulk, the other is having to pull stuff off and on etc. With the belt mounted controller, it's like I had another layer. If I wanted to take my jacket off at a stop, I'd either have to disconnect the controller and leave it on separately, or leave it connected but pull it off my belt with the jacket. And there was more than one occasion where I had the heated liner on, then maybe an extra layer on top, then my Darien. Right after the last zipper, I would find that I didn't hook up the controller. So unzip, unzip, unzip, hookup, zip, zip, zip, etc. There had to be a better way.

 

I started looking at bike mount permanent controllers. These would solve many of my issues. I would have the knobs where they would be easy to reach with my gloved clutch hand and operate on the fly. I wouldn't have the controller clipped to my belt so things wouldn't accidentally adjust. And I wouldn't have to worry about the other 'layer' than the controller adds when taking things on and off. I saw three downsides to the the permanent approach. First, I'd have to install the controller on the bike. This meant finding a location, drilling, running cables, etc. Instead of one wire between me and the controller, there would now be two, one more to hook and unhook. Finally I'd have to purchase and install a controller for each bike.

 

There must be a better way! Turns out there is. A friend suggested I have a look at WarmNSafe, so I had a look at their Heat-troller line. They have a model that uses a remote control for adjusting the temperature. You place a small module in the pocket of the jacket itself, and you mount the remote somewhere convenient on the bike. No wires required, it comes with velcro to attach. I used to zip ties to secure mine to the handlebar for evaluation, but will move to velcro so I can move the remote between bikes easily. Because the guts of the controller are in the jacket, you have only one wire leading to the bike. There is a simple step for training the remote and the jacket module to work together. After that, you simply turn the knobs on the remote to adjust the temperature, and the module in your jacket makes the adjustment. The jacket module is small, so you don't notice it in the pocket. The remote is battery powered, the battery is a CR2032, available just about anywhere. It's supposed to last a full season.

 

I tried the remote on several rides this weekend and today, and it's worked flawlessly. I used it with my Gerbing jacket, and also with a WarmNSafe jacket I purchased to evaluate. The heat responds immediately to the controls, everything works as expected. On the WarmNSafe jacket there is a purpose built pocket designed to hold the controller. They even suggest you leave it in during normal washing etc.

 

If you are in the market for a controller, I recommend taking a look.

 

With the WarmNSafe Remote Heat-Troller I've really made a great step forward in the convenience of the heated gear. I just throw the liner on, put on the rest of my gear, hop on, plug in, and go. It's one wire to the bike, and the controls are coveniently located on the bar easy to operate with my clutch hand. There is plenty of space between the two knobs on the remote so operation with gloves is just fine. Now I can have my heat and adjust it too, parked or on the fly.

 

[moshe_levy]

Good report. I'm testing their gear now for MCN - wish they sent me this remote module instead of the traditional Heat-Troller.

 

-MKL

[krussell]

Here are some pictures:

 

 

 

 

 

[CoarsegoldKid]

Thanks for the news. I guess that means the connectors are all the same for both manufactures. All coax?

[krussell]

They are both coax. WarmNSafe advertises that their controller works with gear from Gerbing and Aerostitch as well as their own. I used the WarmNSafe controller with with my Gerbing gloves and Jacket, as well as the WarmNSafe. It worked fine.

[Indy Dave]

Great write up, thanks for taking the time to 'find a better way' and posting.

[VinnyR11]

That's a great write up. I imagine they have a single controller as well.

 

I'm going to check their site and maybe get this on my Christmas list.

 

Thanks for the info.

[Bill_Walker]

Well, that does take care of one set of wires. Me, I just clipped the controller's belt pouch on the side of my tankbag.

 

How are you liking the dual controller? I had a dual controller, but lost it when a tailpack came off my bike. But I had found that I always ran the gloves and jacket at the same setting anyway, so for a replacement I just got a single.

[markgoodrich]

Uh, I don't get the advantage to the remote controller. I have a Warm n Safe jacket, and First Gear (made by Warm n Safe) gloves which plug into jacket wires. I have a single wire coming out from under the seat, which I plug the jacket into (you gotta plug the jacket in somehow). Hooked up to my fused power block. The wired remote is installed on the radio blank as shown (red light is next to it, part of it). The other knob controls my Amplirider volume controller through the Autocom for music. [My wife's controller is attached via velcro under the rear of the left grab rail, where she can easily reach it and adjust the heat level].

 

So what does the remote do for you?

 

 

[krussell]

Well, that does take care of one set of wires. Me, I just clipped the controller's belt pouch on the side of my tankbag.

 

How are you liking the dual controller? I had a dual controller, but lost it when a tailpack came off my bike. But I had found that I always ran the gloves and jacket at the same setting anyway, so for a replacement I just got a single.

 

Depends on the bike. On my v-strom I might get away with the jacket and gloves at the same level. On the GS, the hand guards are excellent, and with heated grips too. If I run the gloves, it is usually about 1/4 of what the jacket is at.

[krussell]

So what does the remote do for you?

 

For a dual control, it's one less wire to plug and unplug. For either single or dual, there is no installation to speak of. Just mount the remote somewhere. And if you have multiple bikes, it's trivial to remove the bike mounted control from bike to bike. Good for rentals and such.

 

BTW, nice install on the RT. I wonder if BMW ever imagined how useful that radio blank would be? :-)

 

 

[russell_bynum]

So what does the remote do for you?

 

For a dual control, it's one less wire to plug and unplug. For either single or dual, there is no installation to speak of. Just mount the remote somewhere. And if you have multiple bikes, it's trivial to remove the bike mounted control from bike to bike. Good for rentals and such.

 

That's why I never bothered to do a custom install (that looks great, btw...nice work, Mark!). On all the bikes I've got a plug coming out in front of the seat, which is just 12v straight from the battery. I put velcro on my 'troller (I just have a single one since I don't have heated gloves) and stick that to the thigh map pocket velcro on the 'stich. Done.

[markgoodrich]

So what does the remote do for you?

 

For a dual control, it's one less wire to plug and unplug. For either single or dual, there is no installation to speak of. Just mount the remote somewhere. And if you have multiple bikes, it's trivial to remove the bike mounted control from bike to bike. Good for rentals and such.

 

BTW, nice install on the RT. I wonder if BMW ever imagined how useful that radio blank would be? :-)

 

 

Ah, jeez, I never thought of that. Now I gotta go buy another couple bikes! I think I'll call that Bogart place, seem like nice folks.

[jaytee]

Ah, jeez, I never thought of that. Now I gotta go buy another couple bikes! I think I'll call that Bogart place, seem like nice folks.

 

LOL!

 

Ahem.