Disposable gloves are an absolute essential in the home and shop, which is why – along with other safety gear – they should be part of your essential tool kit.
Normally, I use nitrile gloves for most tasks where I want or need to protect my hands from dirt, grime, or chemicals. I typically use Kimberly Clark or Microflex disposable nitrile gloves, and can recommend them without hesitation.
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For applications where I want a thicker glove and greater puncture resistance, I use special Microflex latex gloves.
But when I need to wear disposable gloves for quick around-the-home or light workshop use, nitrile gloves can be a bit of a waste.
If you go through a box of gloves every few years, the cost per glove won’t be much of an issue. But if you use disposable gloves fairly regularly, consider giving vinyl gloves a try.
Vinyl gloves are what we use for certain food preparation activities, such as cleaning chicken and skinning salmon fillets (which is also what we’ve been using our recently reviewed Rada fillet knife for), and for general cleaning tasks where the added chemical protection and durability of nitrile gloves just aren’t needed.
I recently purchased a replacement box of gloves from Amazon, and they’re quite decent. Nothing special, but they work well. They’re powder free and don’t tear or puncture too easily. I would definitely buy them again.
The first box we went through was Dynarex branded, as shown above, the second is an Amazon seller’s house brand, and they work equally as good.
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I wrestled with the idea of just sticking to one type of disposable glove, but find that doing so drains my supply of doubly expensive nitrile gloves ($15-16 via Amazon) a little too quickly.
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What is your preference regarding disposable gloves? One box for everything, or different gloves for different tasks?
Stan
Personally I prefer the Showa Best brand gloves and for the most part I use their N -Dex series nitrile as not only are these disposable gloves made in the United States Of America, these truly have exceptional durability and for safely these are highly visible.
Truthfully in my opinion, these are some of the best disposable gloves you can buy and for the money, they are worth this.
However, as I do want to support independent distributors as much as possible, I also buy disposable gloves from Harry J Epstein as well. These aren’t American made, but with the Raven brand they carry these are Malaysian made though.
I will say this about these gloves though, these do have much better puncture resistance than generic branded gloves and pretty decent chemical resistance as well.
Here is a link to the Showa Best N-Dex gloves in case anyone is interested in buying these. http://www.gemplers.com/product/G10791/Best-N-DEX-Nitrile-Disposable-Gloves-4-mil-100-box#TAB-INFO
Additionally here is a link to the Sas or Raven branded disposable gloves Harry J Epstein sells. http://store.harryepstein.com/search?Q=Brand:SAS
Stuart
I might give the Best-N-Dex a try, if I can ever find them at a place that offers free shipping or where I’m already placing an order. Otherwise the price is a little high. Or maybe one day I’ll just buy a case of 10 or so to get the price down to $15/box.
I don’t see a reason to order gloves from HE unless as part of a larger order. My made-in-Malaysia KC’s and MicroFlex gloves are quite good, and so I cannot imagine the Sas or Raven ones being any better.
Stan
I don’t buy those Showa Best-N-Dex gloves often, but when money permits, I certainly try to. Top notch quality and this allows me to support American manufacturing. Win win situation either way.
Truthfully and I am being absolutely sincere when I writing this, I rather give business to Harry J Epstein ANY and I can’t stress this enough ANYTIME rather than support a giant corporation.
They don’t need my money that badly and bluntly put, often don’t deserve this. With Harry J Epstein, I’ve always been treated with respect, sincerity and kindness. But that is just the tip of the iceberg as to why I prefer Harry J Epstein though. Not just with gloves, but if possible any items.
Richard
I’ve tried all sorts of gloves… but the ones I’ve really liked the most lately are the “Thickster” gloves – they’re so thick I can’t say I’ve ever torn one, which I can’t say for almost any other disposable glove I use.
http://www.amazon.com/SAS-Safety-6604-Thickster-Textured/dp/B0002STTWK
They’re super thick, but I think you still get enough tactile feedback with them.
mike
We use all sorts on different brands at the shop.
The two I like best are ambi-dex and raven 6mil. They hold up better than others ive tried.
My main issue is i have large hands,and even the XL sizes tends to not be all that comfortable depending on what brand.
fred
I’m partial to Kimberly Clark Nitrile gloves:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0030C0LOA/
Hang Fire
I’m not a fan of Vinyl gloves since the ones I’ve tried are not stretchy, and I either end up with a glove that is too small, or has too-long fingers. I have thick, wide palms but only average length fingers, so many gloves are a poor fit for me.
The Thicksters look interesting. I may try a box.
MT_Noob
I have been doing the same thing as Stuart. Nitrile gloves in the garage/toolbox and vinyl gloves int he kitchen. In the kitchen I use them more when cutting up hot chili peppers than chicken or salmon. Even after washing your hands thoroughly, if you rub your eyes with any hot pepper juice still on your hands you will learn your lesson. Gloves make it much safer.
Stuart
My wife learned the hard way to wear gloves when cutting up lots of hot peppers. That was not a very good day.
Mrs. ToolGuyd
Burning. So much burning.
I think that was the last time I made chicken tortilla soup.
firefly
I usually got my latex at Costco, they are not the best nor the worst.
Anyway I ordered the Microflex and Thickster last night base on you guys recommendation. Let see how they work out 🙂
firefly
Got both the Microflex and Thickster today. They are wonderful. The only thing that I hate is I wasn’t sure which size to get. I couldn’t locate a size chart for either of them. So the Microflex that I ordered is a bit too small and the Thickster is a bit too large.
Both are more a lot more expensive than the Kirkland nitrile (I thought they were latex) that I got at costco. The Costco one is about $15 (if I recall correctly) at 400 count. Similar price point for the Microflex and Thickster but only at 100 and 50 count respectively.
So the Microflex is about 4 time more expensive and the Thickster is about 8 time more expensive. For the quality, I think they definitely worth the money. But if you don’t need something as high quality I can recommend the Costco brand as well.
Jim
I find the Nitrile gloves at Costco, $16.99 per 400 (2 boxes of 200) a good deal and a nice quality glove for the shop. They also have the extra strength Raven Nitrile gloves available for $12.99 +tax per 100, which is $2 per box less than HJ Epstein’s and no shipping charge.
Gaberiel Keway
I actually don’t like nitrile gloves. For the money they don’t seem to be any greater in resistance to chemicals nor puncture. That and they are almost always colored black or blue which makes it more difficult (impossible with black) to see dirt and grease on your gloves. I also don’t like vinyl gloves as they lack good fit due to their inability to stretch. Possibly because of the poor fit, my hands seem to sweat more in vinyl gloves. They are usually clear which is another poor color for grime visibility, have poor grip and worst of all they stink and cause my hands to stink for days after.
I stick with good old latex Microflex Diamond Grip gloves. They are natural colored whitish which works well for spotting unintended grease goobers and they have small dimples on the fingertips for excellent dexterity. For around $10 a box [@100 gloves=$0.10 per glove] is cheap enough that I don’t care if I go through a few pairs a day but still expensive enough to keep me thrifty so I re-use gloves too. Which is actually a bonus to be able to reuse gloves; some other brands pretty much just shred during removal whereas these roll right off.
Raymi
I will love to get some samples of your different styles gloves try before I buy please
Stuart
Sure, just send me $25 for shipping and handling.