ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion I Was a Hot-glove Virgin :D

There is a Class 4 glove that is rated at 36kV and is proof-tested to 40kV.



Off-hand, no I don't, but a price could be got from Electropar, they import them.

Oddly enough, OA, outside of the lines companies here, I've never actually seen an electrician wear live gloves.

I know what you mean... in warm weather the gloves can stick so badly when trying to remove them that I sometimes feel like Jacques Cousteau trying to peel an octopus off his facemask.
The knit summer liners just seem to get soaked with sweat so other than adding to a greater loss of dexterity, they don't really do much for me.
BTW, the label lists talc as the main ingredient in glove dust, so that's probably all it is.

KJay,
All the talc is, is more or less baby powder, scented chalk.

One thing I found with using gloves during the summer, is to get really thin cotton gloves, having been a wicket-keeper in cricket before, I tried out my old "inners" (gloves worn under the actual keeping gloves) and have a good stock of them here, cotton, being a natural fibre, enables your hands to breathe, as opposed to nylon or stuff like that.
The reason behind you not having good dexterity when wearing them could be down to the gloves being slightly too large, gloves are like shoes, as in, they will seriously damage your feet if you try and wear a pair that are not sized to your feet.

Cheers Mike

"Oddly enough, OA, outside of the lines companies here, I've never actually seen an electrician wear live gloves."

Ha... but us inspectors have to wear em when we liven up in a pit or similar, I had to borrow some on 3 phase POE that i got disconnected last week in order to reconnect it.

Will check out Electropar

Thanks Craig

you fella's really don't wanna know what i found googling hot glove virgin...~S~

s:
NO! anyone that wants to know has to google it themselves.

Probably get 1000 hits real soon....

Yoday introduced me to a possible 'down' side to having proper PPE.

That is, my comfort level increased to the point where it was easy to become careless. Gloves or no, one does not want to become complacent, or take unnecessary risks.

oh i'd quite agree,having served as apprentice to a few unsavory sorts of dubious repute... thus the addage there are old sparkies and bold sparkies, but no old bold sparkies...~S~

Trumpy,
The only reason I use the actual Salisbury Ten-Four Glove Dust is because the manufacturer says that it is produced specifically for high voltage rubber or Salcor gloves and does not damage or reduce the dielectric value of the gloves.
It probably is nothing more than just talc, but when it comes to higher voltages and grounded equipment, I don't like to horse around. If something were to happen, I don't want anyone to be able to say it was because I wasn't using a product approved for the purpose.
With the Class 0's, the loss in dexterity I mention is only due to the slight added thickness of the summer liners. These are the white knit ones from the same manufacturer as the gloves. They just don't seem to work for me. In the summer, after wearing my gloves to make up drop connections, when I remove them my hands are soaked, even when using the liners. When I tip the gloves up, sweat dribbles out of them.
I find that the thicker winter liners add even greater loss of dexterity, so I try not use them either unless the gloves are unbearably cold.

KJay,
This might sound pretty stupid, but how about "putting some work" into your "gloves" before you wear them?

The combination of leather outers and rubber gloves and cotton inners, is always going to make your hands feel large.
Here is one bit of advice.
When you buy a new set of gloves, might be outers, the actual gloves or the inners, drop and give me 20, you need to be on a smooth surface (like your workshop floor), but get them gloves working, get them bending.
All the force and abrasion is on the leather outers, what you are doing is working the gloves into the fit of your hands.