Winter is around the corner. You need proper gears to keep your whole body warm throughout the winter, including your feet. But sometimes warm clothes, heater, flambeau, or campfire didn’t help enough to keep the cold away from your feet. You need more specific foot warmers such as heated insoles and heated socks.
In this article, we’ll discuss further these two heated gears for the feet. You’ll know the features of both things along with the advantages and disadvantages. This feat will help you choose what works better for keeping your feet warm.
What are Heated Insoles?
Before we dive into the details, you should know what precisely heated insoles and heated socks are. First, we will talk about the heated insoles.
Heated insoles, just like the name, are the insoles that you can insert into your shoes or boots. These insoles generate heat that will keep your feet warm, mainly the underside. There are two kinds of heated insoles, the chemical and electric ones.
The chemical heated insoles are disposable ones that you could throw after use them. As for electric heated insoles, those are the ones with a rechargeable battery. The manufacturer builds the battery inside the insoles, and you can control it with remote control.
Some products have a Bluetooth connection feature so you can connect them with your smartphone. With this feature, you can control and adjust the temperature of heated insoles way easier. No need to bring along the remote control everywhere you go. But not all electric heated insoles have this feature, and this may come with a higher price.
What are Heated Socks?
Now we move into the heated socks. Heated socks are socks with a warming system for your entire foot. The warming system comes from the wires built inside the socks and is powered by a rechargeable battery. As for the power and temperature control, it’s usually located at the top cuff of socks.
There are some wireless heated socks products, which you can control with remote control. You may prefer this type of heated socks for people who feel uncomfortable with the wires inside socks. But as you may already guess, this type comes with a higher price.
Some heated socks products also have the type with toes warmer. This type will keep your feet warm even more, especially for you who get cold feet quickly. But if you think this type has too much heat, you can go for the usual style.
Using heated socks can be matched with any of your footwear. You can use it when you wear winter shoes or ski boots. You can also use it with your sneakers or even with your favorite slippers. But of course, you need to adjust the size well to feel comfortable.
Comparison: Heated Insoles vs. Heated Socks
After the explanation of these foot warmers, now it’s time for comparison. Here are some things that you need to consider when choosing heated insoles or heated socks.
We have a detailed post on Heated Ski Socks: Facts You Need to Know you might be interested in.
Usage Purpose
The first thing to consider whether to choose heated insoles or heated socks is your usage purpose. Do you use it for indoor or outdoor activities? And what kind of activity that will you be doing?
For indoor activities, heated socks are the answer. It’s because you can’t use the heated insoles for indoor activities. After all, you need to take off your footwear inside the room, right? And for you who need a foot warmer during sleeping, heated socks will work for the best.
For outdoor activities, you could choose between the two. As mentioned above, you can use heated socks when wearing any of your footwear. But retake a look at what kind of activity you’ll do. If you want to take a walk or stroll around the neighborhood, heated socks will do.
But if you go for more active and extreme activities such as camping, hiking, or even hunting, heated insoles are the better option. It’s because they inserted the heated insoles inside the shoes that will make you more comfortable while moving around. In other words, those are kept still.
As for heated socks, they may move down along with your movement. You may have to fix your heated socks during the activities, which could make you uncomfortable. It may even hinder your movement while you’re active. You don’t want to be busy fixing the socks when watching for your prey.
Convenience
Both heated insoles and socks could be a convenience but also inconvenience in their way. Let’s talk about the heated insoles first.
As mentioned before, heated insoles can help you feel more comfortable because they’re kept still inside the shoes. You can grab any wool socks, then wear your favorite shoes with heated insoles.
But these also can come with a problem, especially if the pads are thick. You’ll feel your shoes are too tight if you use the thick footbeds, right? So if you want to use the thick ones, you need to wear one or two sizes up from your usual shoes.
Aside from that, you may need to carry along the remote control for electric ones. This extra alone will add more things to your belonging, not to mention the risk of losing them during your activity. But if you choose to use chemical ones, you can ignore this matter.
Now move to the heated socks. As mentioned above, heated socks can be good company for you during the winter, especially indoor activities. But some people feel uncomfortable with the wires all over the shoes. If you still want to use heated socks but hate the cables, you could go for the wireless ones.
The heated socks could also make your shoes feel bulky because it’s thicker than regular socks. Just like the thick insoles, you can wear shoes one or two sizes up for this one. But if you still feel uncomfortable, insoles may be the better option.
Another factor to consider from heated socks is power control. The power located in the top cuff will make you bend down whenever you need to adjust it. This inconvenience may cause added difficulty here and there. If you hate to bend down, you may consider using the wireless ones that come with remote control.
Heat Coverage
Heated insoles and heated socks have different heat coverage for your feet. Heated insoles, as explained above, cover mainly the underside of your foot. Besides that, the heat is not felt directly to your feet as you usually wear a layer of socks.
Heated socks coverage is the opposite of heated insoles. The heated socks cover the whole foot, including toes for some products. You could also feel the heat directly as the socks are in contact with your skin.
As for the coverage, you can consider it based on your need and condition. If you’re sensitive to cold, especially your feet, heated socks could be the option. Or if you need to have a good sleep with your feet are kept warm, these socks will do. The heated socks will wrap your entire foot warm during the cold winter.
But if you got sweaty quickly when you got overheated, you may consider heated insoles. The insoles can also be an option if only the underside of your feet gets cold. Or, if you need to be warmed without too much heat, you can choose heated insoles.
Maintenance
Generally, electric heated insoles and socks need special maintenance. You can’t treat them the same as an electronic device, just like your regular thermal garment. The battery is powering them and has wires in some products, so you need more careful in using and maintaining them.
But you need to have extra maintenance for heated socks, especially when washing them. The most important thing is you need to clean the socks by hand, not the washing machine. Remember that heated socks mostly have wires inside, so it will be dangerous to wash them by machine. Then, don’t forget to take out the battery before you pass them.
As for heated insoles, you could hang them dry. You still need to give special maintenance for heated insoles, of course. But at least you don’t need to wash the insoles every time after using them.
Price
The last but not most minor thing to consider is the price. Heated insoles, the electric ones especially, generally have a higher price than heated socks. The cost of heated insoles can be up to twice more elevated as the socks. But for wireless heated socks, the price may be higher than the ones with wires.
The chemical heated insoles, on the other hand, may have a lower price. But you need to remember that chemical ones are disposable, which means you can’t use them for a long time. This way of thinking will help you calculate the overall price that you need to pay.
That’s all you need to know about heated insoles vs. heated socks and what to consider when choosing them. Both heated insoles and socks have their features, advantages, and also disadvantages.
To choose what works better for you, you could consider the factors above. You can organize which things are the most important for you. Be it your needs, activities, convenience, price, or the combination of those all.
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