Mythos & Rini

My wife bought me these as Christmas gift because I am the one who has been complaining the cold weather in Canada despite the fact that I have been in this lovely country for more than 18+ years. First of all, my review is based on keeping warm in the city everyday, NOT based on outdoor activities where no charging is available.

Sanyo Eneloop vs Others

Before jumping into the discussion of Eneloop, there are many other products that I have used in the past to combat the cold weather:

• Disposable  (air activated, lasts long but not instantly hot, good for outdoor)
• Crystallisation (reusable by boiling, doesn’t last long at all)
• Lighter fuel/Carbon burning (hot but dangerous, good for outdoor)
• Battery powered (in the past, they didn’t work cos not hot enough)

In the last couple years during the extreme cold winter (like -30 c with wind chill)   I used to open 1-2 packs of those disposable hand warmers in the early morning while waiting for the train.  They worked okay but not the best because generally speaking they heat up so slowly and they are not hot enough honestly speaking. As for other products, they didn’t work for me for various reasons.

When my wife told me about Sanyo Eneloop,  I thought it was a marketing gimmick. The reason is that I bought similar product called “Battery Heated Gloves” before – and they FAIL so badly, so I didn’t have a lot of expectation on this.

To make it as a good candidate for a perfect hard warmer, consider these:

• Small in size and mobility
• Long lasting
• High in temperature
• Eco friendly / reusability
• Safety and fire hazard
• Low in Cost

Eneloop KIR-SE1S  vs KIR-SL2S

The 2 models that my wife bought were: KIR-SE1S with sealed battery like my stupid iPhone and KIR-SL2S which uses traditional/recharable AA battery.

KIR-SE1S

• Lithium ion 3.7V 1800mAh
• Slimmer but only heating on one side only
• Charging time: 3 hours
• Temperature: 45 c / 113 F (low) and 50 c /122 F (high)
• Duration: 3-4 hours (low) and 2.5-3 hours (high)
• Easy to operate (one switch – Off/Low/High, you can operate without looking at it)
• Continuous non-stop heat at maximum output
• Strap hole (like your nokia/sony phone)
• It is ideal for city/daily short trip use, NOT designed for outdoor where no power is available for recharging, e.g. hunting, camping, ice fishing

KIR-SL2S

• Ni-MH battery or regular AA battery
• Charging time: 4.5 hours
• Temperature:  42 c / 108 F (low) and  45 c / 113 F (high)
• Duration: 1.5-3 hours (low) and 1.5-2.5 hours (high)
• Confusing to operate (one switch - but it’s complicated for many people, you need to read the color LED, not friendly design)
• Switches to low automatically for some odd reasons, non continuous heat
• No Strap hole (like your iPhone)
• Can be used for outdoor because you can bring additional regular AA batteries in your backpack

My Review – The winner is….

As I mentioned above, my review is based on keeping warm in the city everyday, not based on outdoor activities where no charging is available.

In one of the photos above, I used a digital temperature reader on KIR-SE1S at room temperature, the maximum I could get was 44.1 c which was far away from 50 c  compared to the specification.

In Canadian winter testing, I used both of the units every day going to work (as low as -30 c with wind chill in some days) and I put them in my pockets to make sure they had maximum heat. Both units successfully generated enough heat on high mode. They actually worked WAY BETTER than disposable  hand warmer because the heat was instant and I could use them whenever I want.

KIR-SE1S  has much higher temperature making you feel so warm because it provides consistent and continuous heat.  KIR-SL2S on the other hand is a bit disappointed because it switches to low automatically for some odd reasons especially on turbo mode. Perhaps it’s a battery saving feature or maybe it stops when it reaches certain temperature.  KIR-SL2S does NOT even last for 1.5 hours, that’s pretty bad.  As you all know, all the gadgets including phones, laptop computers, cordless power tools are powered by Lithium ion battery in the last 10 years because of its power and duration.

The only benefit for KIR-SL2S is that you can hold it in your palm and it warms your hand all around while KIR-SE1S only warming from one side. In my personal experience,  this doesn’t make any difference to me. The other beneift of KIR-SL2S is that you can use regular AA battery – well,  it’s the same stupid concept that the digital camera that supports regular AA battery vs a camera uses Lithium ion.  If you have ever used one of those cameras in the past, you will understand why this is such a bad idea.

Obviously, the winner goes to KIR-SE1S.    It works very well and I do STRONGLY recommend to buy at least one especially if you live in a cold country like mine.