Southern Style Cooking: This Heated Vest Is About to Be My Newest Winter Obsession

Wednesday, January 19, 2022

This Heated Vest Is About to Be My Newest Winter Obsession

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Heated Jackets

This Heated Vest Is About to Be My Newest Winter Obsession

Winter is without a doubt my least favorite season. Despite my loved ones' best-intentioned attempts to gift me thermal underwear, wool socks, and cozy scarves every Christmas—hoping beyond hope that this and that item will surely keep me warm—from October to April, my hands and feet remain in various shades of blue due to lack of circulation and my muscles occasionally ache from shivering.

Over Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, I went down to Baltimore and Pennsylvania to spend time with a friend from London who was in town visiting family. On Sunday, with a winter storm threatening to dampen our day with wind, ice, and several inches of snow, her mom lent me her new ORORO heated vest, knowing how susceptible I am to the elements. "Don't forget to take it off!" she said as I zipped my winter coat up over it.

Powered by a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, the vest has three heat settings: high, medium, and low. On its lowest setting, it can generate heat for up to 10 hours (or three hours on high). As I was wearing it as a midlayer, I pressed a button at the top of the vest and turned it on low; within a few seconds, I began to feel heat radiate across my torso, thanks to the vest's four carbon fiber heating elements.

For someone whose comfort level is limited to a very short temperature range of 75 to 85 degrees Fahrenheit, as I set out for the day, I wasn't thinking about how miserably uncomfortable I was for once. Instead, I was able to persevere through the blustery wind with little complaint, and to better appreciate the aspects of winter that people less averse to the cold like about it. Before boarding my train back to NYC, I didn't forget to take the vest off, but I definitely didn't want to.

If you're thermosensitive like me and eager to try a heated jacket for yourself, be sure to check out our roundup of best battery-powered jackets, and read on for our top-recommended winter accessories and gear that'll make the season just a little bit more bearable.

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