Thin gloves to keep oils and cleaners off hands

[wahoowad]

I have a 100-count box of thin vinyl gloves in my garage and I usually slip on a pair when I'm doing something extra dirty like rebuilding a carb, spraying a caustic cleaner or disassembling a greasy engine/trans. The gloves fit snug and still give me pretty good grip. Unfortunately they sometimes fail and whatever I'm trying to avoid end up leaking in. I can't tell if it was the caustic nature of a cleaner or if I just nicked the glove.

Anyway...I'm wondering if I should switch to something besides vinyl. I know there are also latex and nitrile, and I'm leaning towards putting a box of 5-mil nitrile gloves in my Harbor Freight cart. Anybody care to weigh on recommended gloves and weight?

Thanks!

 

[Steevo]

I have some of the heavy duty nitrile gloves that I use when I know I will be getting prolonged exposure to solvent or grease.
They work pretty well.

 

[jakemac]

I use the 5mil HF nitrile gloves. I think I'd prefer the 7mil, but I like the pricing on the 5mil better.

 

[wahoowad]

In reading other posts about gloves I see many of you get into nasty stuff like MEK and toulene and stuff like that. I have some thicker gloves I can wear for really bad stuff. I'm mostly looking to keep gas, oil, carb cleaner, spray lubricants, mineral spirits and acetone (I use it as a degreaser) off my hands.

I see Harbor Freight sells 3, 5, 7 and 9-mil thickness of the nitrile gloves. I'm leaning towards the 5-mil. I wish I was home now to see the thickness of my vinyl ones.

 

[Scimmia]

Nitrile is great for general automotive oils/solvents, but it does not work well against acetone.

5-mil is the standard weight, it's what I use most of the time.

 

[Major Ramifications]

I use black nitrile in the garage and vinyl for household stuff like painting with a brush or handling charcoal.

 

[lakeroadster]

I also use black nitrile and they work well.

 

[Karl_B]

I have 5 mil vinyl and nitrile gloves from Harbor Freight and use them according to the task. The times when I won't be getting dirty for more than a couple of minutes makes me glad I have the cheap vinyl ones. For longer jobs, the 5 mil nitrile gloves are tougher to tear or for a solvent to eat through. When handling anything related to fuel, they seem to degrade quickly.

I thought I would try the 9 mil nitrile gloves instead and stop being so cheap, but for some reason, the 9 mil in large don't fit me. The other two are large as well, but fit fine. I'm not really sure if I got a mismarked box or what, but I would love if those 9 mil gloves would fit. The one pair I took the time to squeeze on were fairly tough, but I couldn't really move my hands well.

 

[Anarius]

Best bang for the buck that I've found are actually the nitrile exam gloves you can buy from Sam's Club. They are about $11.50 / box, but the box has 200 in it. I use them daily. I keep a box of the black "midnight" gloves around and use them when ever I am dealing with lots of solvent or sharp edges, as they seem a lot more tear resistant.


http://www.samsclub.com/sams/simply-right-glove-medium-200-ct/prod8690251.ip?navAction=

 

[QtrHorse13]

I use the blue 7 mil and black 9 mil Harbor Freight Nitrile gloves. You are correct, the sizes are goofy. I normally wear a medium glove and they fit a snug but I have to buy the large blue HF gloves and the Xlarge black gloves. I assume this is because they are thicker and stretch less easily. The reason I use the 9 mil is because I tend to tear them more often than have something break them down. The 9 mil gloves are only $2 more than the 7 mil gloves and I like the extra protection against tears. I assume they are always on sales because everytime I have looked, they were $9.99 and $11.99. I tend to tear the 3 mil while putting them on and will normally tear the 5 mil quickly after handling a tool or rubbing my hand against something on my vehicle.

 

[knobby]

This is a good backup to thin gloves
http://www.glovesinabottle.com/

 

[rcjoy]

The purple Kimberly-Clark ones work pretty good for me. They also have a nice texture to help improve grip.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015TF3CA

 

[cat-mechanic]

I use them and they are supplied by work. I can tell when the chemicals I am working in start to degrade the glove, when I notice that, I change them.

We get several to choose from. I choose the thickest nitrile. I will look to see exactly what they are when I am at work next.

 

[wild cowboy]

if you get into the nasty stuff like MEK, toluene, xylene, carb cleaner, fuel injector cleaner etc., those will swell nitrile and other materials, lord knows the cancer this is causing, so I like these gloves shown below, almost as thin and flexible as nitrile and yet very safe (but pricey, so don't use them for rough abrasive jobs where they could get punctured or cut, unless you are rich)

www.ansellpro.com/product-catalog/ProductDetail.aspx?productId=261

they run large, so size 9 in these fit large hands well unless your hands are just HUGE

 

[Ilikeike]

I run a turd farm, I use these in the lab and at home wrenching on the toy's, 11mil.

https://www.grainger.com/product/ANSELL-Disposable-Gloves-2TEN2?nls=0&searchQuery=2ten2

 

[wahoowad]

Are them turds tough on a glove?

 

[lilcraigford]

I keep gloves around for similar work (OP). SAS Safety Raven disposable gloves (6 mil black nitrile) are my go to. I have also used used Harbor Freight 7 mil nitrile gloves (bought them locally in a pinch). Honestly, you can't go wrong with the Harbor Freight gloves. They were plenty durable for automotive work and I liked that the cuffs were slightly longer. The SAS Safety gloves happen to fit my hands better and, in my experience, are as durable if not a little more.

 

[wild cowboy]

everyone is talking about latex or nitrile gloves, these types of gloves do NOT protect your hands from the more carcinogenic solvents, which are often used in automotive work. (i.e fuel injection cleaners, acetone, toluene, xylene, MEK, carb cleaner, some brake cleaners, etc.)

 

[TreePointer]

Nitrile, latex, neoprene, laminate, etc. There's a glove for every application. Probably more than you want to know:

http://ansellpro.com/main/pressRoom_whitePapers_details.asp?rId=77

 

[CJM8515]

I have the nitrile gloves sams sells, work great and for the money they are cheaper than HF. HF come 100/box, sams sells 200/box.

 

[Ilikeike]

Are them turds tough on a glove?

They can be rambunctious at times.

everyone is talking about latex or nitrile gloves, these types of gloves do NOT protect your hands from the more carcinogenic solvents, which are often used in automotive work. (i.e fuel injection cleaners, acetone, toluene, xylene, MEK, carb cleaner, some brake cleaners, etc.)

Yes,of course if dealing with more than grease, dirt and oil,I'd grab the proper PPE,like some gauntlets ,apron or disposable coveralls,eye protection respirator,atmosphere monitoring....
I guess read the MSDS or MDS and dress accordingly.

 

[rlitman]

I have a 100-count box of thin vinyl gloves in my garage and I usually slip on a pair when I'm doing something extra dirty like rebuilding a carb, spraying a caustic cleaner or disassembling a greasy engine/trans. The gloves fit snug and still give me pretty good grip. Unfortunately they sometimes fail and whatever I'm trying to avoid end up leaking in. I can't tell if it was the caustic nature of a cleaner or if I just nicked the glove.

Anyway...I'm wondering if I should switch to something besides vinyl. I know there are also latex and nitrile, and I'm leaning towards putting a box of 5-mil nitrile gloves in my Harbor Freight cart. Anybody care to weigh on recommended gloves and weight?

Thanks!

I have a bunch of boxes of vinyl exam gloves I got at the dollar store. I use them because they're cheap, but they're really not that great. They tear easily, and don't stretch well. They're hard to get on, and because of the lack of stretch, they're both constrictive, and floppy.
Chlorinated chemicals (especially chlorinated brake cleaner) swells the vinyl and seems to seep through. When that happens, my skin gets a tingly chemical burn.

Latex used to be the king, but they're harder to come by now, and it is the least chemical resistant glove out there. They also do not store well, and get brittle over time.

Nitrile is reasonably chemical resistant, and almost as stretchy as latex, but still tears too darned easily (though the thicker ones are a LITTLE better when it comes to this). It too is only so-so with chlorinated chemicals though.

That's it for disposable exam gloves. In food service you see polyethylene, but these are so floppy that they're pretty useless for wrenching.

Those Viton/butyl gloves listed above look amazing, but the price $$$$$, ouch!

everyone is talking about latex or nitrile gloves, these types of gloves do NOT protect your hands from the more carcinogenic solvents, which are often used in automotive work. (i.e fuel injection cleaners, acetone, toluene, xylene, MEK, carb cleaner, some brake cleaners, etc.)

http://amo-csd.lbl.gov/downloads/Chemical Resistance of Gloves.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/dfe/pubs/auto/gloves/

Acetone is not that harmful. For gosh sakes, it's used as nail polish remover, and sold to SOAK your fingers in. Carb cleaner and non-chlorinated brake cleaner are pretty much the same thing. Not that awful, though if they contain benzene, that's not so good.

Xylene, toluene, MEK and chlorinated brake cleaners are indeed bad stuff, but nitrile gloves are just fine with xylene and doubled up nitrile gloves are fine with toluene, and some exposure to MEK (but not long term submersion).

 

[rick carpenter]

The HD nitrile gloves tags have a chart of what chemicals what gloves protect against. My nitriles work OK against gas, acetone, kerosene, and acetone. That's all I needed to know so I threw the tag away. I'm sure you could find this info on the web too.

 

[Scimmia]

The HD nitrile gloves tags have a chart of what chemicals what gloves protect against. My nitriles work OK against gas, acetone, kerosene, and acetone. That's all I needed to know so I threw the tag away. I'm sure you could find this info on the web too.

If they're indeed nitrile, then they're lying to you if they said it's OK with acetone (twice!).

 

[rick carpenter]

The HD nitrile gloves tags have a chart of what chemicals what gloves protect against. My nitriles work OK against gas, acetone, kerosene, and acetone. That's all I needed to know so I threw the tag away. I'm sure you could find this info on the web too.

If they're indeed nitrile, then they're lying to you if they said it's OK with acetone (twice!).

'Twas all from memory late at night. Guess I need to find some butyls or laminates for acetone acetone Thanks for setting me straight!

 

[wild cowboy]

fuel injector cleaner and carb cleaner typically contains toluene and xylene, nitrile won't help with those.

I am not saying wear the Viton-Butyl at all times, all day, but just when working with nasty organic solvents