How about butane (or similar fuel) as heat source? Before attacking this on
the safety angle, keep in mind that there are already butane-powered hair
curlers on the market. If it can be done safely with a product like that,
surely it could be done on ski poles. Butane would generate plenty of heat
and the pole itself has enough room for a decent reservoir. Make it
trigger-activated as you suggested. Cost to operate would be very
reasonable if it were made refillable.

-GT
"Mark T. Mueller" wrote in message
...
It is an intrigueing idea, and I kind of like it... The fact is, for many
people the first thing to get cold is their extremities, forcing them to
take more frequent breaks to warm up, or cut the day short altogether. I
follow the logic.

Unfortunately, I think you will have a poor time executing the engineering
required for a good ROI.

First, if the intent is to use the "Pocket Hand Warmers", they do not emit
sufficient heat to warm the hands from OUTSIDE the glove (try grabbing a
warmer in you glove on a very cold day, and see how much heat actually
gets
to your hand - this is how "oven mits" work...) Since ski gloves/mittens
are
fairly well insulated, you have a significant heat transfer issue. That
means the pole grips will have to be MUCH warmer than a standard "Pocket
Hand Warmer" to cause the desired effect. And if you were going to use the
hand warmers to begin with, I can already buy liners with pockets designed
specifically for these warmers very cheaply... So I don't think that is a
viable option.

That brings us to an electric heating element. These exist, and work quite
well, but then you need a power source. Most batteries do not work well at
very cold temperatures. This can be partially solved through the
regenerative heating, so long as the batteries are also located in the
grip.
Batteries tend to be heavy, and modern pole design trend is towards low
swing weight, so you are probably going to have to go with more expensive
Li-ion technology. Forget about putting the batteries anywhere but in the
grip to minimize your angular momentum from pole swing. I won't even get
into battery life and maintenance...

So, I can build you a very nice, compact heating element that can fit into
a
grip, without a huge increase in weight, but it will be relatively
expensive, which will limit your market size, which will limit the profit
potential. ROI doesn't look good.

Not to mention due to the fact that to warm a hand on the inside of an
insulated glove from the outside, you need a fairly high surface
temperature
on the grip. This opens up liability issues, should someone grab the grip
without gloves. I can design a "trigger safety", but not a reliable one
for
cold weather and for the intended use (see MIL-SPEC-810F) that can sense
if
you have a glove on your hand and adjust the temp accordingly...

This is just "top of the head" stuff, but although the idea is a good one,
I
can't see how you get much ROI if the intent is to produce a product that
actually is useful to "real skiers"... Unless you just intend to make a
few
bucks and get out of the business. Then you can make something that "feels
warm" to the touch of a bare hand, breaks after one season, can be
produced
in a Chinese contract fab shop for 1 cent on the dollar, sell it at ski
shows to unintelligent consumers, make your money, then shut down the
company and move on to the next scam...




"kevlaz" wrote in message
om...
I am a student at Northwestern University conducting a marketing
research study on heated ski poles (basically, a normal ski pole with
heated grips). Any thoughts on this technology? Do you think it
would prevent people who get cold on the slopes from cutting their ski
days short?