I have had these gloves for about three months now and I use them at work for approximately 20 hours per week. I work in the finish department of a factory where we manufacture wind turbine blades and I wear these gloves when I use a 5" pneumatic random orbital sander and a 7" pneumatic disc grinder.
I was worried about these gloves severely lessening my manual dexterity and they do but not enough to affect my job performance. After a handful of times to get the feel of it, I can change out sand paper discs and grinder discs without any problems.
I was also worried about the durability of the foam palms and fingers because handling abrasives with foam usually eats it up in a heartbeat. Of course, I am careful with them when I have them on but, again, this hasn't affected my performance. After three months of regular moderate use, they show little wear but I can assume that I'll probably have to get new ones in another 6 months.
The vibration mitigation isn't 100% but I never expected that anyway. I would say that they reduce vibration by over 50% though. More subjectively, my hands don't fall asleep anymore when I am sleeping or using a computer. (I have carpal tunnel in both wrists and tendonitis in both elbows).
I recommend these gloves and I will continue to buy them.
Update: I wore these gloves for 7 months before I quit that job to start a new one where these gloves are not necessary. At the end of 7 months there is a hole at the index finger tip big enough to fit my finger through but not big enough to really affect my work. I would still buy these gloves again.
So far I've used them for about four hours to drill into granite with a Makita SDS-Max drill, and these gloves reduce vibration a lot more than the pair of padded gloves I bought at the local orange box home improvement store. After many hours of roto hammering my hands, arms, and shoulders have a lot less stress than before.
The only reason I took off a star is because it's difficult to wrap your finger around the trigger mechanism of the roto hammer. The bulk of the padding makes it hard to tightly curl a specific finger. If there was a slightly bigger gap between the individual pad strips on the index finger then I could more easily pull the drill's trigger. As designed, the gloves resist holding my finger on the trigger, making my index finger quickly fatigued.
I may try using a razor blade to carefully increase the gap spaces between the pad strips on the index fingers to see if that makes it easier to hold the trigger.
Bottom line, if you're using them for something that doesn't require holding a trigger for long periods they're probably among the best gloves you'll find for reducing vibration.
I had been suffering from golfer's elbow and carpel tunnel related injuries for several years. Elbow nerve pain, tingling hands, sore forearms and fingers, etc. After plenty of physical therapy and strengthening I decided to try these gloves since using tools would still bother me. They provide nice cushioning, and with a good grip they don't allow anything to pinch your hands... you get a perfect rounded grip of your hand that is. I've used these with chainsaw and lawnmower primarily. They eliminate the tingling from using the lawnmower. The chainsaw I still limit myself to 1/2 tank of gas at a time with plenty of breaks.
I used these gloves to cut metal with an angle grinder and though they helped, the backs are breathable and allowed sparks to get the back of my hand. The breath-ability is very good for other uses though and especially in warmer weather. I've also used these gloves with a come-along to aid pulling down a tree. The handle always used to pinch my hands with other gloves, but with these I didn't get any pinched, bruised veins in my fingers.
After about 1/2 year of use, they are starting to show some wear on the rubber. I will certainly be buying more.
I'm a young guy (24) who does landscaping. I'm in relatively good shape, and I exercise frequently. My resting heart rate is 60-65, so I thought it was safe to think my heart (and circulation) were pretty healthy.
My main tools are a Honda commercial 21" mower, and an Echo string trimmer. Occasionally I'll use low-end commercial hedge trimmers, or a chain saw. I rarely wore gloves. When I did, they were cheap split-leather ones.
The mower was well balanced enough, and operated at a certain RPM, that it did not bother my hands, even for extended uses periods. The trimmer was a different story though. Even years back, I could remember that if I used the trimmer for ~30 minutes or so, my fingers would develop this weird feeling like they were still vibrating when I stopped using the tool. If I touched 2 affected finger tips together, it would have a doubly weird feeling like using your fingers to mute a ringing bell or drum cymbal. Usually this would go away within a few minutes. I would typically use the mower for 40 minutes, use the trimmer for 15 mins, rest for 30 mins, and re-start at the next job site.
This past summer, I started working longer days, and doing more work at each job site. It seems that the cumulative effect of the vibration irritation added up. Suddenly, the irritation started occurring much more rapidly, and it would take longer to settle down.
Then it got really bad when, not having used power tools for hours, my arms would get pins and needles if I raised them above my head for even 10 seconds.
I got extremely concerned when I would wake up in the middle of the night with the worse "fallen asleep" arm I'd ever experienced. It took 5-10 mins of swinging my arm around, massaging, etc for it to subside.
I quickly became paranoid of permanent nerve damage. My doctor's helpful advice was "uh...use that tool less"
I decided to look up anti-vibration gloves. I bought the pair on this page. They seemed well made, and looked and felt like they would do a lot. They do make it a bit harder to grasp objects (which I think is partially the indirect goal), but did not affect me much as my machinery has larger handles.
Unfortunately, these gloves did not stop me from getting vibration irritation, although I would say they lessened it considerably.
Makes me wonder about people like my father, who is 53y/o, who has been doing hardwood floors his entire life. Hours upon hours of using drum sander, belt sander, buffer, and other reciprocating tools...
Within a week or two, I saw the pads on the fingers and outer palm start to separate from the bottom. I can't imagine these lasting an entire season (6-7 months) in my line of work. I was always hyper-conscious of avoiding abrasive surfaces while wearing the gloves, but they have developed a look as if someone was petting brick walls while wearing them... Also, the cuffs started to fray a bit, but that is minor.
I'm now on the hunt for lower vibration tools, I suppose. Must be why all the guys who own the Honda 4-stroke trimmers are older :0
I read the reviews before buying these and they did considerably reduce the vibration that I get from my Black+Decker hedge trimmers, but by no means are they going to help everyone. I was shocked when I read the review of the gentleman that runs a jackhammer for 8 hours 5 days a week and he wasn't happy with them. These gloves will be fine for someone who uses them occasionally like I will.
A few pieces of advice: In warm weather, these gloves are going to be extremely hot if it is above 70 degrees. I wore them for about 4 hours in 80 degree heat and my hands were sweating profoundly. I did "roll up" the ends of the gloves a little so my wrists would remain cooler, but this is not a defect in the gloves. Also, since you have a thick rubber layer between you and the piece of equipment, it takes a little getting used to when you hold your hedge trimmers.
Feature Product
- Unique chloroprene rubber palm pad combined with lightweight, breathable cotton/nylon knit.
- ANSI S2.73/ISO 10819/EN388/EN420 Certified
- Unique chloroprene rubber palm pad
- Lightweight, breathable 7-gauge cotton/nylon seamless knit construction
- Pre-curved design provides comfort, dexterity and flexibility with elastic cuff for secure fit
Description
Certified Lightweight AV Gloves: Unique chloroprene rubber palm pad combined with lightweight, breathable cotton/nylon knit.
I think the people who gave it low stars used them to perform other tasks other than anti vibration.
I've been using these pair the last three seasons so far and I expect to get several more seasons with them.
It helped reduce the numbness in the hands by 90-95%.
The trick to their long life is to use them only for anti vibration. (Don't so much as pick up a small tree branch with them) Always take them off before handling anything.
When running the chain saw I try not to handle the wood with them, I try to do all my cutting, then take them off to handle the wood.
I also pull start the grass trimmer or chainsaw BEFORE putting on the gloves. Again if used just for anti vibration they will last a long time.
These have kept my hands from going numb when grinding which suggests that they are doing their job! The only downside is they offer very little protection to your hands from knicks. You may still cut yourself, these are not tough leather and I have had sharp pieces of metal poke through the sides and back of them, or had hot sparks from grinding go right through the knit backing. The knit backing also isn't very durable, it is prone to tears, so if you're running a grind around sharp metal expect these gloves to get snagged on things and expect the knit glove to tear. Mine are full of holes after only a week of usage restoring classic car bodywork.
Works as advertised. Using an random orbital sander (ROS) for extended periods of time with these gloves and the constant vibration doesn't effect my hands the way it would either bare handed or with regular gloves. The only real downside to these gloves is that they are bulky and hard to close your grip for fine work, so you have to take the gloves off if you need to do that. Fortunately the glove are easy to put on and take off. Great for use with vibrating machinery, I highly recommend them.
When I saw on the package that these were made in Japan I said, “ Well, gentlemen, place your bets”. I lost the bet. They fit real well. The foam cushioning material seems to have the right give. I am getting old. My hands are not recovering very well from running my chainsaw anymore. So when these wear out - I will be buying a another pair.
I have a major problem with vibration syndrome. If I use a power tool that vibrates my hands may go numb for a week or more. Nothing to mess with as it can become permanent. Anyway these gloves work wonderfully great at cutting down on the vibrations transmitted from my random orbital sander to my hands. No numbness at all ! Would buy again for sure.
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