Ororo Buffalo Heated Gloves Review
If you’re not moving much at the campsite then heated clothing could be just what you need. We put Ororo’s Buffalo heated gloves to the test
What we like about the Ororo gloves: Heat flows to all finger tips; battery can last up to 8 hours; great materials; work with smartphone screen; warm!!
What we don’t like about the Ororo gloves: bulky; quite expensive;
We like to think that we were ‘ahead of the curve’ with respect to heated clothing – we first tested a heated vest back in 2020 when they were quite rare items, and now, just a few years later it is a massive market, with most products coming in to the UK from China.
On the surface, battery-powered clothing is a great idea, and perfect for cold camping. A small lithium battery pack can heat up a jacket or some gloves for long periods of time at a very low cost of recharging (~1p per charge at current energy prices). However, our recommendation is not to go too cheap with your purchase because the quality of material used by the Chinese manufacturers is often poor, thin and non-insulating. There is no point generating heat in a bodywarmer if there is minimal insulation because the heat just radiates out and does not warm you up.
We’ve recently spent alot of time with heated clothing made by Ororo, a US design house. In our view they seem to recognize that the clothes have to function well firstly as clothes and that the heating element is an add-on to that rather than the primary feature. These are clothes which happen to heat, rather than a heating element with some material hung around it.
The Ororo Buffalo Heated Gloves are a case in point, and subject of this review. We’ve had them on test for around a month now in cold UK conditions and been impressed with the heat on offer – but are they practical? Let’s dig in to find out….
Ororo Buffalo Heated Gloves – what are they?
The Ororo Buffalo heated gloves are large gauntlet-style winter gloves which contain internal heating elements as well as high quality insulation. They are available in three sizes – small (S), medium (M) and large (L). I went for the large as a 6ft3 male, and they fit me perfectly, although I have fairly small hands for my size. If you have massive meat cleavers then you may find that the largest size is not big enough.
What’s in the box?
The Ororo Buffalo gloves are nicely packaged and they come with their own carry bag (see photo) as well as two lithium-ion ‘B22A’ batteries (one for each glove) and an associated dual battery charger. A fairly basic user manual is also included.
Irritatingly, the battery charger was for US sockets and so I just used my own UK phone charger to top up the batteries – it worked fine. If you want to use the Ororo charger then you’ll need to buy a USA>UK AC converter plug – fairly inexpensive, but really it should be supplied by Ororo – please sort this out!
Glove Design
Ororo have used excellent materials for the Buffalo gloves, and they are a joy to put on, even when no power is being used. The outer material is both water and wind resistant and can work well in both wet or snowy cold conditions.
Sliding your hand into the glove feels good as well because there is a warm ‘thinsulate’ style inner lining which cossets your hand nicely. The outer palm surface has a non-slip, high grip material applied and this really helps with picking items up – for example a mug or camping flask.
Interestingly, both the thumb and forefinger on each glove have also been made touchscreen compatible – this means that ‘in theory’ you can operate a smartphone screen whilst wearing the gloves. However, because of the size and thickness of them, it is difficult to have enough dexterity and accuracy to use a phone – perhaps you could click to take a photograph on your phone, but that’s about it.
On the back of the glove there is a reflective stripe to improve visibility a bit (black isn’t the best colour for being seen at night!) and an adjustable strap which can be used to tighten the gloves about the wrist.
There is also a power button located on the back of the hand, and this is what activates the battery to supply heat to the glove. The power button also acts as a mode indicator to choose one of three power modes – an LED lights up with the colour of the mode you select, and changes each time you press it – the colours are red (hottest), white (medium heat) and blue (lowest heat). More on this below.
Finally, on the extended gauntlet covering part of the forearm, there is a waterproof compartment on the underside. This can be unzipped, and inside there is a single wire and jack plug which can be plugged into the battery. The battery can then be slid inside and the compartment zipped up. In all honesty, the weight of the battery is hardly noticeable once inserted and the glove put on – you’re now ready for action!
Battery Power
Let’s talk a little bit about the B22A batteries which Ororo supply for the Buffalo gloves. These batteries are small and lightweight, weighing only 100g and measuring roughly 7.5 x 5 x 0.8 cm. They each have a little button which can be pressed to show how much juice is left – up to 3 LEDs light up to give an indication.
The batteries are 7.4V output voltage and have a storage capacity of 14.8Wh. This means they can supply 14.8W for one hour of operation. Luckily, you don’t need that much power to heat up your hands, and so instead they can be operated at much less than 14.8W and therefore provide much longer operation than one hour.
Check out our in-depth video review of the Ororo Buffalo heated gloves
Powering Up the Gloves
It should be noted that these are very effective gloves, even when you’re not using the heating technology. They are warm and well insulated and can function effectively as a standard pair of thick gloves. The heating action takes them to the next level.
As long as the battery is charged and attached properly (best done when the gloves are off) then the power button can be pressed for a few seconds and the gloves go into a ‘preheat’ operation mode, with the LED indicator lit up in red. Due to the 7.4V of voltage supplied by the battery (higher than the standard 5V), you get noticeable heat very quickly, and spread over your palm and in particular around your fingers. It’s very nice, especially if you suffer from cold digits like me.
You can then choose whether to remain in the high power red mode, or press the button once or twice to cycle through to white or blue modes. The red mode gives the highest heat but will only last around 3 hours. The white mode gives less heat but lasts much longer (we got around 5-6 hours). The blue mode gives the least heat but can last 8 hours. I found that the blue mode was the best because you really don’t need the full heat under normal conditions – of course you can switch between modes as you see fit if the conditions change, or you stop moving for instance and need a quick blast.
In Use
I’ve tested the Buffalo gloves in all sort of temperatures and conditions since I’ve received them and have been impressed with the heat delivery and general insulation of them – there is no doubt that they work well and definitely keep your hands warm even when the outside temp is sub zero and freezing.
There is no getting away from the fact that the gloves are thick and fairly cumbersome. You are not going to be able to pick up and manipulate delicate items which require dexterity – these are gloves for walking, biking or skiing – activities where you don’t need to use your fingers very often. For these activities they work very well indeed.
My main criticism of the gloves is the extended gauntlet up the forearm which contains the battery. If you’re wearing a coat or jacket then the sleeve of the coat can interfere with the gauntlet and it can be difficult to arrange the two neatly – they basically butt up against each other and it can be tricky to get the sleeve over the gauntlet or vice versa. Not a major problem but worth pointing out.
Summary and Conclusions
The Buffalo heated gloves from Ororo are a great product and represent good value for money in my opinion, especially if you tend to suffer from cold fingers when you’re sat around the camp fire. I know I do, and the gloves are worth the ~£100 price to me. Yes they are not as cheap as some of the Chinese imports, but I rate the quality of materials used by Ororo as excellent.
The final question comes down to heated clothing in general – you have to have a mains power source or power station available to charge up the batteries before you use them. For wild camping or backpacking then this isn’t an option and so the heating feature would not be a useful one. For campsite camping and day walks or hikes then these gloves are excellent because you can pre-charge them and take advantage of the heat. I also imagine they would be great for motorcycling or skiing although I haven’t tried them for that yet.
Overall, these are definitely worth a look in my opinion!
If you would like to see more winter clothing please check out our Best Heated Jacket review
