Heated Jacket Liner Comparison

[krussell]

I've been using a Gerbing Microwire jacket liner for a few months. Recently, after purchasing a Heat-Troller from WarmNSafe I decided to try one of their Generation 4 liners. Here is my rough comparison of the two offerings.

 

I found the construction of both jackets to be similar. Both use YKK zippers. Purely subjectively, I think the Gerbing looks more a bit more polished. It has cuffs and a band on the bottom that make it look more like a regular jacket, and a touch of color in a couple of places as well. The WarmNSafe has reflective panels for visibility, and stretch material to keep the jacket close to your body. Both jackets way about the same, just over 2.25 pounds in the XXL variety.

 

The WarmNSafe jacket is a bit thinner. The Gerbing is slightly bulkier where the heating panels are. The WarmNSafe comes with a small zippered pouch for storage. Both jackets fit in the WarmNSafe pouch, but getting the Gerbing in the pouch was more of a challenge. Both jackets are mostly without wires.

 

Power entry for the Gerbing is via their Power Distribution Unit. It's a hard plastic square that holds the power connectors. Inside the jacket near the PDU there are some larger wires that are easily felt.

 

Power entry for the WarmNSafe is via coax connectors inside the left pocket. There is no rigid plastic PDU for the WarmNSafe. Inside the left pocket of the WarmNSafe is a pefect fit pocket for their remote Heat-Troller. The pockets on the WarmNsafe have zippers, the Gerbing does not.

 

Both have fleece lined collars, along with connecting cables on the end of the sleeves for gloves. If you aren't using gloves both jackets have small zippered pockets to control the cables. Gerbing uses metal grommets where the cables leave the jacket material, WarmNSafe uses a sewn buttonhole. Gerbing's jacket is made in China, the WarmNSafe in Thailand.

 

Both jackets have similar heat coverage. Interestingly, neither covers the upper-most part of the chest, a vulnerable area for riders with smaller windscreens. There are also gaps in heat coverage in the sides of the trunk and back of the arms. The gaps are about the same, the chest coverage of the Gerbing was about 1/2 inch higher.

 

I tested each jacket using it's manufacturers controller. I did two test rides. One just under ten miles with some surface streets and a few miles of freeway. The other ride was about 20 miles total of rural roads. Traffic was light in all cases. The short rides were done in the dark, with a temp of a about 34. The longer rides were done in daylight sun, with a temp of about 30. I wore a long sleeve base layer, the electric liner, and my Darien with it's fleece liner zipped in.

 

Both jackets have plenty of heat. The WarmNSafe heated slightly faster. I also found the WarmNSafe to have very consistent heat, while the Gerbing heat seems to vary a bit through the jacket. This might be slight fit differences. The WarmNSafe collar was warmer than the Gerbing, almost too warm.

 

I compared these jackets for their intended use, as a liner under my Darien. For me, the WarmNSafe was more comfortable. I think the stretch panels in the sides help, and I think the lack of cuffs and the waist band help too. The added thickness of the cuffs on the Gerbing was annoying, it's in the wrong place, extra bulk where the jacket cuff and gloves fall.

 

There are two minor downsides to the WarmNSafe. First, the construction is slightly less robust. With care it shouldn't matter. The other issue I found was static. Pulling the jacket on and off in low humidity was an exercise in uncomfortable sparking. I've not had it under normal Pacific Northwest conditions, it might be better with a bit of humidity.

 

There's no wrong choice here. If you are using the WarmNSafe remote Heat-Troller, I'd recommend the WarmNSafe jacket if it fits you well. The Heat-Troller integration is excellent. Otherwise I'd go with the best fit.

 

Some pictures follow. The WarmNSafe jacket lights up in the flash, otherwise those areas appear darker in normal light.

 

 

Sleeves showing glove connections. Gerbing on top.

 

 

WarmNSafe collar.

 

 

Gerbing collar.

 

 

Gerbing on right here, note the heavy waist band.

 

 

Another sleeve shot, note the heavy cuffs on the Gerbing.

 

 

WarmNSafe liner showing power connection from left pocket, Heat-Troller is inside jacket in it's special pocket.

 

 

Gerbing jacket showing belt mount controller and connections to the PDU.

 

 

 

Gerbing from the outside.

 

 

Ride Warm!

 

[Paul Mihalka]

Interesting comparison and thank you. My only comment is that any heat controller should be outside of the top jacket or on the bike, to be accessible while riding. Having it on the pants belt or in a inside pocket is not practical.

[Sailorlite]

I have two Gerbings jackets, a Tall one and a Regular one. I find that for both jackets the "waistband" interferes with the zippered connection between my riding jacket(s) and riding pants. I have to sort of roll up the rear part of the Gerbings waistband in order to zip my jacket and pants together - this doesn't affect the heating function but is a small annoyance nevertheless.

[Indy Dave]

So Kevin - Am I correct in assuming you don't see/feel a significant difference with the 'microweave' thin tech vs whatever WarmNSafe wires are in the jackets? I note that you mention that the WNS felt a little thinner.

[krussell]

So Kevin - Am I correct in assuming you don't see/feel a significant difference with the 'microweave' thin tech vs whatever WarmNSafe wires are in the jackets? I note that you mention that the WNS felt a little thinner.

 

One of the reasons I did this comparison was that I wasn't able to find any existing direct comparison of the latest generation Gerbing and WarmNSafe products. My observation is that while the products are mostly similar, there are some significant things to consider when choosing one over the other. The Gerbing dealer network, product literature, and general marketing is excellent. But I don't wear any of that. :-) I wanted to form my own opinions about the products by actually wearing and using them.

 

Gerbings Microwire technology is great in that you don't feel any wires in the heat panels. They have heavily promoted it in their literature and on their website. I don't know what WarmNSafe uses for their Generation 4 panels, but it too is much better than earlier technology. They call it "Soft Heat Pure Science Heating Method." If you run your fingers across the front of each jacket, you will not feel any wire in the panels of the Gerbing, but you will feel very small wires in the WarmNSafe. What you feel is smaller than a string would feel, and they are widely spaced. Both jackets have larger wires running to the sleeve connections etc.

 

Just putting both jackets on you will not notice any significant difference in the panels themselves. By touch you will notice that the panels in the Gerbing are thicker. It's very hard to describe. When feeling across the jackets it's extremely obvious in the Gerbing where the panels begin and end, less so than the WarmNSafe.

 

Again, I don't think there is a difference when you have the jacket on, you have to look for it.

 

The other place where you will notice that this isn't a regular jacket is in the lower left front portion. On the WarmNSafe, when using their remote Heat-Troller, the jacket module goes in a pocket inside the left pocket. On the Gerbing, you have the hard plastic PDU where the power cords connect. Both are noticeable when you first put the jacket on. Comparing them directly just now, the Gerbing PDU and WarmNSafe jacket module are about the same size. The WarmNSafe has a big advantage here, as the jacket module controls the heat as indicated by the remote.

[Indy Dave]

Thanks for the comparison! It's a big help to those of us who only have a Harley dealer around, and so can't visit a shop nearby - although there is a First Gear dealer in Indy - cycleoutfitters - who have always been great to work with.

[FLrider]

Good hands on review. Thanks Kevin.

[Eric S]

The two controller knobs are for jacket and pants, yes? Or do the jackets have two heat areas?

[krussell]

Each knob runs to a wire that terminates in a connector. I connect them to the jacket so that one powers the jacket, the other powers the glove leads that come out of the sleeves. If you have pants, you could do jacket, pants. Or your could do jacket + pants, and gloves. Pretty much whatever you like.

[GordonB]

Jacket and pants, jacket and gloves, jacket and coffee maker, etc.

[RLJ]

Nice comparison of liners. I have a gen 2 warm n safe liner and have been very happy with its performance. I do know Mike the owner of Warm n safe and know that he is very anal about the development and quality of his product. He is also generous about upgrading to new generation of his liners from the older liners and will even takes Gerbings in on trade to his new liners with the remote control.

He is also the only mfg to make a liner for women that is made just for women. I know before my wife got one of their liners she had to wear a mens liner and it hung about 6in too long at the waist. Sue, Mikes girlfriend, used to work as a designer at Nike and has been very insturmental in the design of liners and their other products. They are good people, motorcycle riders and enthusiasts developing their products as they ride mostly in Europe.

I have never owned a Gerbing so I cannot comment on their product.

[TandemGeek]

I've been using a Gerbings jacket liner and gloves since 2002. The non-microtech wiring has always seemed a bit low-tech (think form-fitted heating pad) but done a great job. The quality/durability has been excellent, no problems in that regard.

 

My jacket was made when a single circuit was used for both the jacket heating elements as well as the leads to the gloves. It was always a weakness in that to get your hands warm your body had to endure a lot more heat than it needed. You could by-pass the internal wiring by using a dual controller to power the jacket by the integrated wiring with a second lead wire going to the gloves, but it was a bit of a hassle.

 

When Gerbings updated the design with the power central or whatever they call it, they also split the jacket & glove circuit, which was good news... but even better was a $25 old-jacket upgrade. I sent my jacket to the nice folks at Gerbings while the weather was warm and they re-wired the thing so that the gloves were on their on circuit with a dedicated lead. I'd hoped they would have made the update by adding the power central but that was not the case. Instead I have three separate wire leads -- jacket, gloves and pants connector -- coming out of three grommets in the jacket's inside liner under the right pocket. It works just fine, but there are a cluster of wires to deal with.

 

So, at the end of the day, while it's not state of the art, even the older Gerbing's apparel does an outstanding job of doing what it's supposed to do: keeping you warm. No complaints at this point and not looking to upgrade or change horses any time soon.