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See why.Grill Gloves
Which grill gloves can take the heat?
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When you’re reaching over a red-hot grill to turn burgers or steak, you need serious protection for your arms and hands. We tested five brands of grill gloves and mitts, priced from about $25 to $50 per pair, in leather, cotton, and combinations of high-tech synthetics. To see if we could just use our regular oven mitt, we added our favorite, by KatchAll, the 15-inch Kool-Tek Oven Mitt. Wearing the gloves, we poured red-hot coals from a chimney starter and arranged them with tongs, grilled thin planks of zucchini, and lifted hot grates to add coals to the fire. To see just how far the gloves would go to shield us, we held gloved hands over a burner with radiant heat registering 600 degrees—the maximum temperature of most gas grills at grate level. One glove failed at 14 seconds; the rest held out for at least 30 seconds before becoming uncomfortably hot. The best lasted for more than 1½ minutes—we never even felt the leather singeing. While lifting hot grates and adding coals, all of the gloves offered adequate protection.
But heat protection isn’t the whole equation. Most gloves were oversize, thick, and stiff, barely letting us grab grates or tongs, never mind doing any cooking. For better dexterity, we preferred gloves with individual fingers rather than mitts. The best gloves also had long sleeves to protect the forearm and a wide cuff to let air circulate and keep hands less sweaty. Our winner is protective but thin enough for dexterity, with elbow-length sleeves and wide cuffs that kept us safe and comfortable over the coals.
Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Dexterity: 3 stars out of 3.
- Protection: 3 stars out of 3.
The pliant leather gave us great control when manipulating tongs and grabbing hot grill grates. Long, wide cuffs protected our forearms and let air circulate to keep us cooler over a scorching hot grill. Our only gripe? They’re not machine-washable.
Recommended
- Dexterity: 2.5 stars out of 3.
- Heat Protection: 3 stars out of 3.
Layers of tough, fire-resistant synthetics (Nomex and Kevlar) in our favorite oven mitt gave great heat protection and durability. But it’s pricey and felt sweaty during prolonged use, and we missed the dexterity of gloves.
Recommended with reservations
- Dexterity: 2 stars out of 3.
- Heat Protection: 3 stars out of 3.
Excellent when it came to heat protection, this cowhide glove boasted an extra leather layer on the palm, extra-thick foam padding, and an extra layer made of foil, with Kevlar (fire-resistant synthetic) stitching. Unfortunately, all those layers were too bulky, and the glove comes in only large and extra-large sizes, making it even clunkier for cooks with small to average-size hands.
- Dexterity: 2 stars out of 3.
- Heat Protection: 2 stars out of 3.
Oversize on small hands and too tight on large hands, these knit gloves are definitely not “one size fits all,” and they don’t inspire confidence about grabbing hot grates. Made of aramid, a strong, heat-resistant synthetic used in military applications, with a cotton inner layer, they performed fairly well and offered decent heat resistance—until we held our hands over a flame. As the temperature approached 600 degrees, silicone grips on the fingers began to blister and smell.
Not Recommended
- Dexterity: 1 stars out of 3.
- Heat Protection: 3 stars out of 3.
These suede and fabric gloves were so thick we could barely bend our fingers, and if we tried to manipulate tongs to flip a batch of sliced zucchini, our hands quickly cramped. All that padding did make these gloves excellent at heat protection—so much so that after 1 1/2 minutes of exposure to 600 degrees, we felt nothing, despite the glove starting to smoke. Then the glove’s fingers shrank and hardened, sustaining permanent damage.
- Dexterity: 1 stars out of 3.
- Heat Protection: 2 stars out of 3.
These mitts made of neoprene (the synthetic rubber of wet suits) were so bulky they felt like a bad Halloween costume. It took two hands to grab tongs; forget about lifting the grill grate. Held over a 600-degree heat source, these gloves started to smell and smoke after only 14 seconds.
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The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing.
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