Racer Heat4 £259.99 inc batteries www.racergloves.com

The first thing you notice is no adjustable cuff; with the batteries in, they can be tricky to get over the jacket’s cuffs and difficult to get far enough on so the hand and fingers feel right. So the thumb and forefinger feel long, though the other fingers feel fine.

The Racers are quite thick, meaning they are reasonably warm but feel is compromised. Confidence is good, with an articulated semi-hard palm slider but this intruded on the grip area. With the heating off, they didn’t feel unduly cold though with it on, and thanks to the thermostatic control (which also contributed to the battery’s long life in our bench test), there was a gentle overall feeling of warmth.

The freezer confirmed the lack of warmth however, with increasing heating power simply maintaining the temperature. In the wet test, the back of one finger got damp.

spec Reasonable warm but not overly and got damp

Batteries contributed to making the cuff area feel bulky

Thermal image shows heating concentrated around fingers