Waterproof work gloves?

[Kkmk]

Hi All,

I’m a maintenance fitter in a food facility that ranges from very dirty to very wet to squeaky clean all in one shift.. After 7 12 hour days I’ve been finding my hands aching, stinging and just not feeling too great.

I openly accept that part of my trade is getting a busted knuckle here or there and have scars to prove it, but I’m getting older and wanting to start looking after myself a bit more. Wet hands frequently, some cleaning chemicals fairly often, and plenty of blades around too.

Gloves! I’m interested in some gloves. I want waterproof so I can just rinse the muck off them and move onto the next job. Good dexterity (thin) ideally, and I’m not too concerned about cut resistance, I xan run seperate gloves for straight handling of blades.

What can everybody recommend for me? I’m in Australia which will probably likit my options a bit.

 

[johnre]

Latex or nitrile on the inside, appropriate to the kind of chemicals you are exposed to.

Wear-resistant gloves that you like on the outside.

Expect to change the inner ones periodically.

Ask your employer to buy all of this for you.

Because they’re required to do so.

 

[Firebrick43]

That is real hard. I have never had the pleasure of using a durable water proof glove that also has good dexterity.

The durable waterproof glove had to be thick reinforced rubber and have the worst dexterity

The best solution I found was the 8mil black tough latter gloves. “Tough” being only a comparison to regular latex gloves and required constant replacement during the day. Black widow is the model I use.

For environments that would instantly tear up the latex glove I would wear a dynema knit glove with rubber palm (terminators)over the latex glove.

 

[Kkmk]

Thanks for your input dudes. seems like a layer of disposables and a layer of protecty gloves might have to be the go. We have an endless supply of black nitro nitriles so thats easy.

Now to find a way to fit a supply of spare nitriles in my toolbag.

 

[Wamsutta]

You might try the other way around. Wear the nitrile gloves on the outside of the mechanics gloves. There's a guy that has a mobile clutch service in the UK and that's what he does. It rains every day in the UK.

 

[bassJAM]

I'm a corporate engineer but I work in food manufacturing and work regularly with the maintenance department when I visit our plants. Like you, conditions can be dry, wet, dirty, clean, cold or hot. The best gloves I've seen are 8mil nitrile gloves, the ones they use happen to be orange and have extra "grippers" on the palms. I was using 6mil black nitrile gloves at home, but I picked up a box of the 8mil for heavier duty jobs because they do last longer. If you can open this is Austrailia these are the ones I have:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09V72XSRG/?tag=atomicindus08-20

When I'm working on hot-fill or around steam I put a pail of nitrile dipped woven gloves over top.

 

[jimbothecricket]

When I worked at a bottling plant a few years ago we were required to wear nitrile gloves for most planned maintenance. The maintenance manager was not happy if he saw us working with chemicals or anything greasy or oily without gloves. We also had kevlar cut proof gloves for replacing blades on one of the machines on the line (that only became a thing after someone cut their hand pretty badly). The only other gloves were some heavy duty heat protection gloves for use around the injection molding machines

 

[JradM]

I hate working in waterproof gloves. My hands sweat, they get uncomfortable and my softened skin is then at high risk of a blister.

On the other hand, I have an allergy to some oils - so not wearing gloves is also often not an option. I guess I'm sensitive.

My work isn't like yours, so whether this applies to you is debatable, but I find the half-dipped gloves quite useful. E.g. the ones where the fingers and palms are dipped, but the back side isn't. It seems like that dissipates the worse of the moisture build up, leaves me with decent dexterity and still offers some wetness protection.

If you're straight-up submersing your hands in liquid or working in wet conditions, that isn't going to work. If you're doing mechanical work where your hands will touch grease, oil or a wet part - that's where this works for me. If something soaks through, I just swap to a fresh pair.

Maybe it's something where you can have two or three different kinds of gloves at hand?

 

[Torka]

Check out Kinco gloves. The price is not throw away, but cheap enough that if you go through a few pairs a year it’s not the end of the world either.

I’ve had good luck with their hydroflector line. Those in particular are insulated. But they make many different kinds.

I’ve also heard good things about Showa gloves, although I don’t have first hand experience with them. They are again, not disposable but cheap enough…