[Closed] I thought Sealskinz waterproof gloves were meant to be waterproof?

Maybe a faulty pair?
or maybe running down your arms and into the top?
Mine certainly seem to work ok

I've had two pairs of the so called waterproof ultra grip gloves. Both let in water within minutes. I like their socks but these gloves were useless.

Not waterproof but really warm and great in cold wet
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/gear/category/clothing/gloves/product/review-endura-fs260-pro-nemo-glove-12-46159/

Last weekend BPW and Afan they were awesome. They dry very quickly on the bike too.

I personally think its impossible for socks or gloves to be completely waterproof and your better with something that keeps you warm when wet.I used the sealskin socks once and gave them away as my feet had never been colder.It was an icy day , cold water got in and was trapped resulting in painful cold feet .

Rry using a very think liner glove with them, when I used to use Porelle socks they were awful just on their own, but comfy with a liner.

mr potatohead - Member
I personally think its impossible for socks or gloves to be completely waterproof and your better with something that keeps you warm when wet.I used the sealskin socks once and gave them away as my feet had never been colder.It was an icy day , cold water got in and was trapped resulting in painful cold feet .

Always good when you have to stop the ride to allow everyone to tip the water out of their socks 😆

I've got a pair of Sealskinz gloves - seem to work OK, but it's really hard to take them off without pulling them inside out, so I tend to avoid them unless I really have to....

I do find they get a bit clammy inside, but I think that's because the sweat can't get out.....

The problem with all "waterproof" gloves and socks is the big hole where you stick your hand/foot.

My pair of Sealskinz gloves have the waterproofing qualities of a damp sponge.

I've had two pairs of the so called waterproof ultra grip gloves. Both let in water within minutes.

I've got a pair and they are the best cycling gloves I've owned, keeping my hands dry on a six-hour ride in the Lakes.

I like how the tight cuffs extend a good way under my jacket sleeves, to prevent water getting in.

retro83 I did have to stop and tip the water out , my feet were blue, as was my language, much to the amusement of my chums as I'm generally someone who doesn't feel the cold so much

its as much to do with the sweat not getting out as the rain getting in I've found with sealskinz gloves - really not very breathable on the couple of pairs I've tried. as other have said, I find gloves that keep your hands warm when wet far better, currently use some altura neoprene ones, you get very sweaty hands and they are nothing more than showerproof, but you hands don't get cold until below zero

I've been more impressed with Aldi's £7.99 "waterproof" gloves than my Sealskinz. Neither are completely impermeable to water, but the Aldi ones tend to keep me more comfortable when they do wet-out.

mr potatohead - Member
retro83 I did have to stop and tip the water out , my feet were blue, as was my language, much to the amusement of my chums as I'm generally someone who doesn't feel the cold so much

In our group the only person who didn't have to tip the water out was the chap with home made sealskinz consisting of normal socks with a sainsburys bag inside which was sealed to the leg with parcel tape.

I just wear wooly socks and liners now- as others have said wet but warm

km79 - Member
I've had two pairs of the so called waterproof ultra grip gloves. Both let in water within minutes. I like their socks but these gloves were useless.

Same experience here. Having a big spongy later of water-permeable fabric on top of the actual waterproof bit means the top layer soaks through then the windchill makes them freezing. After an awful twenty mile commute in the rain, I lost one of them running for a train and just thought "Probably for the best".

Ecky-Thump - Member

The problem with all "waterproof" gloves and socks is the big hole where you stick your hand/foot.

Gloves are easy for this, you just put the cuff inside your jacket. I could genuinely spend a day out in torrential rain and the only way my hands are getting wet is either from sweat, or when I take a glove off. Perfect Curves inside bombproof waterproof jacket. Totally impractical unless it's cold, though.

Neoprene's the warm and dry way. Don't get the Endura ones, they're supposed to be waterproof but all the seams leak like sieves.

No experience of these gloves, but as others have said you need jacket sleeves to extend over the gloves, and sweat/condensation from the jacket can trickle down into gloves in any case.

Also a liner can keep your hands actually warm.

The ultragrip gloves definitely are not waterproof, find for going out for a walk with the dog or on the bike on a dry day. But if it's raining don't bother....

The gloves were tucked in to my coat. I have thumb loops on my soft shell that I pull the gloves over then the coat goes on and the sleeves get tightened over the gloves.
I wouldn't mind but sealskinz are always making bold claims about the waterproofness of their products but in reality non of it ever seems to live up to the hype.

I would rather spend my money on mountaineering gloves for winter riding.

I'm sure this won't work for everybody but I don't suffer from cold hands or feet as much as most but I wear short finger gloves all year round . My fingers and particularly thumbs get cold for a few minutes but once my circulation gets going they become warm . If it's raining the water just runs off my my skin rather than being held next to it by a wet glove which is what makes your hands cold .

I used the sealskin socks once and gave them away as my feet had never been colder.It was an icy day , cold water got in and was trapped resulting in painful cold feet .

I go for 'warm when wet' kit generally - waterproof is a great concept but in reality all it does is slow down the rate of getting wet. You still need insulation.

edit to add, I have some seal skins socks, they're great, especially over a thin wool sock and usually with winter boots or shoe covers. My old ones have worn a hole in the heel and they still keep me warmer overall in the wet than a normal sock.

Ive been wearing Ron Thompson Crosswater neoprene fishing gloves from go-outdoors last winter and this winter, warm and more waterproof than any biking gloves Ive ever had,thumb and a couple of finger tips peel back also for any small faffing to be done 🙂 £10 last year think there about £12 this year, just waiting on black ones to come back into stock for another pair.

Oh yeah, @mrpotatohead If it was the sealskinz mtb socks you were cold in, maybe you should have read the description?

"A performance thin weight, waterproof mid-length sock designed specifically for MTB for conditions where minimal insulation and maximum breathability are required."

It's a thin waterproof shell. They sell insulated socks, and they sell insulating liners for the thin socks.

I love their shooting gloves. Just got given another pair for my birthday.

So I wear them cycling too 😀

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Yes mine are quite rubbish too. Sweaty in the dry and wet in the rain.

Wish I'd never bought them.

Sealskin ultragrips here. Soak through quite easily then hold cold water to freeze your fingers. Wore them on a wet 12 hour Audax and wanted to cry with the pain.

Next gloves will be Decathlon neoprene divers gloves when they get my size back in. Warm when wet, cheap and grippy.

The problem with all "waterproof" gloves and socks is the big hole where you stick your hand/foot.

Gloves are easy for this, you just put the cuff inside your jacket.

In that case I recommend my premium arm reduction service.

But it's a fair point, I hadn't considered how tricky some folks will find it to get proper fitting kit. I'm blaming the jacket not the gloves mind.

Anything with a hydrostatic head of over 1000mm is classed as waterproof. Im guessing the action/pressure of walking or gripping the bars exceeds the hydrostatic head, whatever that may be, I dont think sealskins publish it.

Another possibility is the taping has failed.

the ultra grip sealsins are paricularly rubbish.

I have never had a pair of gloves that were waterproof for either motorbike or bicycle except Rukka overgloves despite buying many so called waterproof pairs. I think the main issue is the seams get stretched thus breaking the waterproofing

aldi winter gloves are the best I have tried as they are reasonably waterproof when new and retain heat once soaked thru without being absurdly bulky

Buy kit that is warm when wet folks. If waterproof kit keeps you dry during your cycle, the cycle wasn't long enough.

Waterproof gloves fill with water. Take longer to dry out. Don't be scared of weather or the outdoors.

Don't be scared of weather or the outdoors.

Says the man who never came on our last bothy trip coz there was a wee bit of rain forecast. 😉

*Wonders who the **** spin is*

I was up to my eyeballs in the workshop doing diy, okay?! I'll never miss another bothy trip again,I promise.

The Aldi gloves keep your hands warm but they are sweaty. Once sweaty/wet the lining yanks out when you take them off and is bastard to get back in. The palm padding is verging on too thick with the inner and outer squirming around when gripping the bars.

They are worth the money but are not great MTB gloves by any means.

The main problem with waterproof gloves is that no matter what you make them from they're always going to have a massive hole at one end to let your hands in.

I've always gone for warm gloves over waterproof - currently using a pair of Madison gloves which cost about £15 and are 'water resistant', comfy and warm (neoprene like material) so even when your hands get wet they stay warm.

The professional climber Andy Kirkpatrick (no relation) has a good piece about gloves on his blog Psychovertical.

Tom KP

Wonders who the **** spin is

It's Dave.

Waterproof glove technology is fundamentally flawed. It works like this: you make a leather/fabric outer glove, you then add, inside it, a floating waterproof liner that's either not attached at all or just in strategic areas like the finger-tips because you can't stitch through the liner without creating leaks. Then you add some sort of soft, insulated liner.

What then happens is that water leaks through the outer glove, which isn't waterproof and collects between that and the waterproof liner - think a very thin latex glove, though it's not latex, obviously - so you get a heavy, sodden outer which limits breathability as you're trying to force vapour out through sodden leather ro whatever..

Even better, the different layers of the glove can all slide over each other, great when you consider that Gore-Tex uses PTFE which is the same stuff non-stick sauce-pans have on them, so you get that horrible, slippery on the grips thing going on and the lining can pull out.

They also take ages to dry because they trap moisture/water inside and outside of the waterproof layer.

Not great. The exception to that construction is stuff using OutDry, which is adhered to the inside of the outer glove so it's effectively waterproof and the Neoprene stuff. Oh, and some heinously expensive Arc'teryx gloves which use a full Gore-Tex waterproof outer glove with taped seams.

I've been using minimally-lined MHW OutDry gloves, Plasmic they're called, I think, with liners. Works for me, but there aren't many cycling-specific gloves out there using the technology.

That was fascinating eh... 😉

My hands sweat and I've found SealSkinz gloves can get wet inside. I reckon it's because they don't breathe that well. There's too much going on in the construction of the glove.

I've found that a pair of hairy thick wool gloves have been the best. I've used those in quite a few 'Puffers even in light sleet. They'd get damp but stay warm. If they got too wet, I'd squeeze them dry and stick them next to my body to warm up and put on the other pair I carry. Unfortunately I can't find these sort of gloves anymore - plenty wool, but not the hairy sort.

As for SealSkinz socks, they're brilliant. If you're the sort of person who complains about getting your feet wet in wellie boots, then they're not for you. The water is getting in the same way. 🙂

What does affect their performance and breathability is what you wear over them. I found a breathable , ie non waterproof boot was good, and best was a pair of Keen sandals.

I'm pretty happy to accept that (barring the odd duff one) gloves sold as waterproof will actually be waterproof. So if you left them dipped in the bath or something overnight water won't leak in or come through the fabric.

But in practice there will always be water in there. As mentioned there's a big hole for water to come in down your arm, probably wicked down by your base layer. And even in dry conditions hands get clammy and that's a surprising amount of wetness in there.

I've got some waterproof ski-type glove I use for winter hillwalking if it's properly cold. I find that if I leave them on a bit too long when descending from a very cold ridge to a warmer valley they can easily get quite wet inside and that's just from my hands sweating when walking downhill. It's never going to work out MTBing.

IME no waterproof clothing will keep you properly dry in practice and the gap is particularly apparent in gloves and socks.

Like most waterproof stuff sealskins work best when it is cold and dry! I have their dragon eye gloves and I find the edges of the fingers let water in at the join and they are not particularly wind proof either. The socks are dreadful once they wet out.

I bought some of the new Sealskins All Weather Cycling Gloves recently and used them in cold and wet last Sunday and was pleasantly surprised. They seemed to breathe quite well so the liner wasn't sodden and it didn't pull out and make the gloves unusable, and it seemed to keep the rain out as well.
Usually for cold and wet I'll wear a combination of liners and outer gloves, carrying a second pair of outers for after the tea stop when the lining has detached itself.

What is worth mentioning that for cold weather, especially the UK's wet cold, there's nothing to beat a pair of bar mitts (pogies) with thin breathable gloves to enjoy toastie fingers in even the worst weather, and even over 24 hour events.

A side benefit is thin gloves give a better feel at the controls.

Of course the sort of fashionistas who eschew mudguards for aesthetic reasons won't like this, but they probably don't ride long enough in cold conditions to ever feel the need.

That horrible feeling of water starting coming down into the gloves after the jacket's sleeves finally gave up... 😯

Last night I tested Sealskinz Ultragrip GAUNTLET version, in pretty much very horrible weather (strong winds and horizontal rain). The ride lasted about 2 hours, I was absolutely soaking wet except for my torso (good jacket) and my hands! The longer "sleeve" on these gloves do make a difference. Pain in the **s to put them on though...