A month ago I had the opportunity to try out the new Milwaukee heated hoodie a little earlier than normal. My friend and I took a late September fishing trip in Northern Minnesota. It wasn’t exactly warm at home, but going up near the Canadian border only made it that much colder. It rained most of the trip and temps never got out of the high 40’s. Just about perfect weather for testing the hoodie.
Before I get into my experiences, let’s talk about the Milwaukee heated hoodie and the improvement they have made in this new generation.
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The heated hoodie has a “waffle weave” thermal lining, covered by a cotton polyester blend exterior. Inside the hoodie there are carbon fiber heating elements that heat your back and chest. The hoodie is machine washable — I washed the previous generation hoodie more than 20 times on the regular cycle with the rest of our clothes and dried it on medium heat.
The heat is controlled by a rubbery switch on the left breast. You hold the switch for a few seconds to toggle the heating elements on and off. To cycle through the different heat settings, you press and release the button. The switch displays the current setting by showing three different colors: red is high, white is medium, and blue is low.
The battery and power source live in a pocket on the rear left side of the jacket.
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The big addition to Milwaukee’s heated gear this year is the “quick heat” function that supposedly lets the user feel the heat 3X faster than their previous gear. The latest heated hoodie also features this new “quick heat” function.
You can buy the updated hoodie right now online and at Home Depot stores — it’s hard to miss their red metal floor display. It comes in red, black, and gray in sizes small, medium, large, extra large, 2x large and 3x large.
You have an option to just buy the hoodie (302-20) or you can buy a kit (302-21) with the hoodie, an M12 1.5 Ah battery (48-11-2401), M12 charger (48-59-2401), and M12 battery holder. Unfortunately this is still the basic power source, without the USB charging function.
Buy Now (Hoodie Only via Home Depot)
Buy Now (Kit via Home Depot)
Buy Now(via Acme Tools)
My Previous Experiences
I’ve tested three different Milwaukee heated hoodies. My first experience taught me that sizing makes a huge difference in the performance. Back in January 2015, I was looking for a heated hoodie and the smallest one I could track down in my area was a grey XL one. At that point I was wearing somewhere between a medium and large.
I was really disappointed with the over-sized hoodie, as it didn’t seem to do anything extra to keep me warm. I could feel the jacket heat up if I touched it with my hand, but it really didn’t feel like it was keeping me any warmer with the heat turned on than without the heat, so I ended up returning it.
The next year, after attending NPS2016, Milwaukee sent me a red heated hoodie. When I asked about fit because of my previous experience, they told me to get the smallest size that would still fit. When I put on the new properly-sized hoodie and turned on the heat, I could actually feel it. After that I was hooked. I pretty much wore it whenever I could.
What I really liked about the hoodie was that it allowed me to dress lighter in cold weather than I otherwise would have been able to. I was so pleased about this that I posted on instagram after a wearing it under my jersey at a hockey game. I didn’t have to deal with a thick jacket at a sporting event and when I really needed the extra warmth when I got outside in the cold, I was able to power on the hoodie.
The hoodie is pretty warm on it’s own compared to other non-heated hoodies. There were times when I thought the heat was on because I was feeling warmer than I thought I should, but I’d check and find the heat wasn’t even on.
New Heated Hoodie
After wearing the red hoodie for 2 years, I was finally getting around to doing a review when I found out it was being discontinued. So following NPS 2018, I received another sample of the black heated hoodie with the “quick heat” function. This brings me to my recent camping experience.
The weather was cold and rainy, so during the day I was wearing the hoodie under my rain suit. Most of the time I wasn’t using the heating function, but when the wind would start blowing, I’d turn on the heat and it definitely felt like I was feeling the heat faster than the old hoodie. Once I felt warm, I’d turn down the heat to medium or low for a while until I got too warm.
Each day I was using a freshly charged 2.0Ah battery which never ran out of charge. It definitely seemed like the battery lasted longer on this hoodie than the previous one.
I have a “sub zero” mummy sleeping bag, but I swear they meant 0°C and not 0°F. It’s never been very warm when the weather gets cold. I was prepared this time and slept in the new hoodie every night. I was really thankful that I did too. After 1am or so in the morning I found myself switching the hoodie on to low to keep myself warm.
This worked out really well, it was just enough heat to keep me comfortable, but not enough that I was sweating. Come morning 7 hours later, the hoodie was still going strong, blue light still glowing — again I was using a 2.0Ah battery though, not the 1.5Ah included in the kit.
The last night we were there, temps dipped to freezing overnight and I found myself turning on the hoodie as soon as I got into the sleeping bag. I still woke up with a blue light shining, although I had purposely loaded in the 3Ah battery.
Final Thoughts
While the location of the battery doesn’t bother me that much the pocket is still oriented the wrong way. Newer Milwaukee heated jackets, like the Axis, have a vertically zipped pocket that is way easier to access than the horizontally zippered pocket on the heated hoodie. I’ve found changing the battery on the Axis jacket to be much less of a contortionist act while wearing the jacket. It’d be nice if they updated the hoodie with a vertically zipped pocket.
While I found that the new heated hoodie seemed to heat up faster than the older generation, I’m not really comfortable with that subjective comparison. I’ve been working on a way to objectively test the heating time of both generations of hoodie, but I’m waiting for a colder day to see if I can get more dramatic results. My tests so far do show a slight improvement, but not enough that I can rule out experimental error.
I’d also like to do some longevity testing, as it seemed the battery lasted longer in the new hoodie than the previous hoodie, but maybe the older hoodie has degraded with repeated washings and abuse.
I really like this hoodie, both with the heat on and without. Its construction and ability to retain heat are excellent. If I could go back a few years I’d tell myself to try and find a properly sized hoodie online rather than giving up after getting discouraged.
Buy Now (Hoodie Only via Home Depot)
Buy Now (Kit via Home Depot)
Buy Now(via Acme Tools)
Thank you to Milwaukee Tools for providing these Heated Hoodie samples.
PETE
Can’t wait to pick one up this year. Also their knitted caps looks really nice.
Addison
I’m a huge fan of all of the M12 heated gear, I have at least 1 of each, my wife has 1. I don’t have the 3 in 1 the hand warmer nor the gloves. The battery location and size for me is bad in vehicles. I had hoped that multiple M4 batteries would be used to be able to change location and amount of protrusion. The garment plugs into the battery pack so this should be an option now. The Hoodie arms torso are long, both are great for working above your head.
Mike47
First picture looks like the Unabomber.
Farid
Thank you, Benjamin for the review. I’ll have to get me one next time my son goes camping in cold weather.
A little OT. Last spring , I camped with his troop and the temps dipped down to 20 F. It was a miserable nigh setting up tents in freezing rain(it started as rain and turned to snow overnight). It froze the zippers on my tent and had difficulty to getting out.
Anyway, I gave my son the new 0-degree bag and took the 20-deg bag for myself. I placed a folded blanket on top and neckerchief across the face. It worked out pretty good for me. My son got a little hot in his bag with no additional covers.
If you have not bought a bag in a while, the ratings systems have changed recently and find them much more meaningful. I had a couple of older bags that never got anywhere near the low ratings they claimed.
Ryan
This is highly dependant on the brand. In the relatively recent past, independent ratings organizations have started testing for sleeping bags. Here’s what REI has to say about it:
“Many sleeping bags are rated for temperature by an independent testing protocol. With both European Norm (EN) 13537 and International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 23537 testing, each bag gets a Comfort (or T-Comfort) rating and Lower (or T-Limit) rating. The Comfort/T-Comfort rating is the lowest temperature at which the bag will keep the average “cold sleeper” comfortable, and the Lower/T-Limit rating is the lowest temperature at which the bag will keep the average “warm sleeper” comfortable. Ratings are based on a person wearing one long underwear layer and a hat, sleeping on a single 1 in. thick insulating pad. Many brands use the Comfort rating for women’s bags and the Lower rating for men’s and unisex bags. Everyone’s body and sleep comfort differ, so EN and ISO ratings are simply a guideline to help you compare products.”
It’s been my experience that you’re much more likely to find bags that are independently rated at the mid to high end of the market – the sort of bags you’ll find at specialty stores. Coleman bags are relatively inexpensive and can be found at Target and Walmart, and here’s what they have to say about the ratings on their bags:
“Coleman understands the importance of accurate temperature ratings. We have scientifically-calculated temperature ratings based on insulation values obtained through the American Society of Testing and Materials. With this research in mind, clearly marked packaging describes which activities each bag is best suited for and at what temperatures.”
So while some brands actually go and have a test that lets you compare the ratings of their bags against other companies’ bags that are rated in the same way, other companies are just using an estimate of r-value to rate their bags. That’s not to say that the Coleman method is invalid, just that it’s less comparable to other bags.
Diplomatic Immunity
Too bad they didn’t bring back the khaki colored ones.
Tyler
Does the sweatshirt have a barrel or USB connector to connect to the battery pack? I already have the Bosch jacket, but sometimes I’d like a sweatshirt. The Bosch setup uses a 5.5×2.1mm (I think) connector and I’d rather not buy into another platform for just a sweathshirt.
John Fal
Tyler
I use the m12 battery with my dewalt vest, love the fact I can do that. It’s a small round plug both companies use, so with that said. Yes you should be able to interchange them if Bosch uses that same plug.
Hope that helps.
Patrick McIntosh
My issue with all of the heated clothing and works gloves is their sizes. I’m 6′ 7″ and weigh 308 Lb. Nothing Milwaukee or any other manufacturer makes fits me. It seems that they either aren’t prepared to make sizes that will not sell in their millions, or else don’t realise that there are big people out there.
Kevin
We’re fluffy…
Patrick McIntosh
Do you know what the word fluff means here in Australia?
Redcastle
It is at times like this that living on the eastern end of the Gulf Stream with the temperature rarely falling below 0 (centigrade) means little call for this type of clothing is a good thing although the flipside of everything collapsing when there is 25mm of snow on those rare cold days is painful.
I have a very warm not heated jacket that I bought years ago (probably twenty) in Chicago which has never been worn in anger this side of the Atlantic because it is just too warm. Continental Europe gets cold the further east you go but I avoid going there in the winter.
Jimmie
I wish the Home Depots near me carried these so that I could try them on to see which fits the best. I hate sizing things sight-unseen even if returns are free.
FranktheTank
Any idea how one can hack the jacket to use a portable battery like an Anker portable battery instead of the bulky Milwaukee batteries?
I would love to have a jacket like this but for shame on Milwaukee not offering the option to use an external battery pack instead of their batteries
Benjamen
Well, for one, you don’t really need to hack the jacket, you just need to supply it with 12V and approx 1A, which makes it incompatible with most USB power banks. Milwaukee even makes a car power port adapter:
https://www.acmetools.com/shop/tools/milwaukee-49-24-2301
Also their 18V power source has a jack you can plug into the jacket.
Tyler
There are a few multi-volt battery packs that will put out 12v, but most are only 5v like Benjamen pointed out. Your standard 5v only portable charger just wouldn’t have enough amperage to run a heating element.
I wouldn’t say shame on Milwaukee. They are putting out a product that they will have to support so they are naturally going to promote their battery line. Since it has a barrel jack, it is still pretty universal. It’s not like they are using some proprietary connector. In fact, I’m considering getting a hoodie since it looks like I can use my Bosch battery pack (from their heated jacket).
Kim OConnor
My son has cut his finger twice on the battery 😩