Review: Mobile Warming Gear Rain Coat

The best way to extend your golf season
Many parts of the United States have a limited golf season, or at least limited ideal conditions for golfing.  As a golfer living in the Midwest, our season can be especially short if you only play golf when it is 75* and sunny or better.  There are many a spring or fall day that temperatures  drop below 50* or days that have a cool rain which just happen to be your  one day off for the week.  It is tough to see that day come and go without golfing.  Mobile Warming Gear offers a coat that will extend your golf season by keeping you warm and dry.  Basically if the course is open, you have no excuse not to play if you own this coat.
This was actually one of the most anticipated products for me in 2013.  I try to play golf even when others say it is crazy.  The weather rarely gets in my way.  That doesn’t mean I’m always the most comfortable playing, but I play.  The prospect of a heated rain coat became the one thing I wanted to try, even over some of the new drivers.  I first saw their product at the PGA show in Orlando and really liked what I saw in the climate controlled indoor convention center.  The question was, “How would it work in real life?”  I’ll give you a little spoiler alert, this might be my favorite product for 2013.
 

I’m going to break this review into two parts.  The jacket itself and the heating unit.  Let’s start with the jacket. It is a basic black rain coat.  Just looking at the coat you really couldn’t tell it apart from any other brand.  It looks like a FJ, Nike, Sun Mountain, etc and I appreciate that.  I don’t need  some flames on my coat or some giant logo that says look at me I’m wearing Mobile Warming Gear.  It has a couple subtle logos on it, but basically no one will know you are wearing it, unless you tell them.  While it is plain in appearance, it has every rain coat feature you could ever want.  I put this up against the best of rain coats I have and this one is just as good as any other coat (even without the heating unit).  The shell is a softer impermeable waterproof and windproof material.  It has a slight rustle to it, but nothing out of the ordinary.  It is fairly lightweight and very flexible.  It has velcro  down the placket as an extra rain seal and velcro on the cuffs so that you can get just the right fit around the wrists.  The zippered front and zipper pocket are also nice for closing it up and making just the right adjustments for comfort.  The bottom hem has a bungee cinch so that you can tighten up the bottom around your waist to keep the coat in place and also seal out the rain.  The cut of the coat is just about perfect.  It isn’t big and bulky, but offers ample stretch and cut for easy swinging on the golf course. 

The coat liner is a mesh material which is very soft and comfortable, along with neoprene cuffs liners that help seal up the coat from the inside so that the heat stays in.  The one thing that impressed me about this coat was how warm it was even without the heating unit turned on.  If it is a sunny day, you barely even need the warmer, the coat just soaks up the sun and warms up.  Even without the heating unit built into this coat, it is an excellent rain coat.  I wore it this spring in some serious rain and I was dry as could be. You don’t have to fear any sort of electrocution from the heating unit.  I could seal it up around the neck and wrists and no water was let in anywhere. 

The real deal with this coat is the heating unit.  It is basically like a heating blanket that you wear.  There are thin wire coils woven into the chest and upper back of the jacket.  They are in between the outer shell and inner liner.  They connect to a battery pack in the left pocket.  The little lithium-ion rechargeable battery pack is just a touch bigger than 2 AA batteries.  It is pretty straight forward the operation.  While the directions weren’t the best, (because they are for all their battery units) it only took a second to figure it out.

1. Hold down the power button for 2 seconds. 
2. It will beep and the 100% LED light will illuminate.  That will raise the temperature to around 135* and should last for a couple hours.
3. Press the button again, the 75% LED light will light up.  Now the temperature will only reach 120* and should last over 3 hours.
4. Press it again and now the 50% light goes on.  This setting will bring the temperature to around 105* and should last for 5 hours.
5. The final setting is 25% and warms to a mere 90* but will last for over 10 hours.
6. Hold power button again for 2 seconds to shut down.

I used all 4 settings and found the 100% was most often too warm. It would almost cause me to sweat.  I did use it at 100% on a snowy day (not for golfing) and it was amazing, I was cozy and warm while those around me were shivering.  My rounds this Spring were cold, around 45* misty and windy.  I set the jacket at 75% and it was near perfect.  I was dry and warm.

The heat is maybe a bit more subtle than you think, it is not like standing in front of a heating vent and having blow on you, it slowly raises the temperature around your core until you suddenly realize you aren’t even the slightest bit cold.  It worked so easily and I even found that the battery life was better than advertised which is a first for any product I have ever used.  Normally if the company says 4 hours, that really means 2 hours.  Conversely, Mobile Warming Gear says 3 hours at 75%, but I got 6 hours easily.  I wore it for a full round that lasted around 3 hours.  I then turned it off and when I went out for my next round, I forgot to charge it and it still lasted almost all of my next round at 75%.  There is only the smallest of negatives with a warming coat and that is the recharging of the battery.  I’ve gotten better about it over time, but still something to consider, the coat is only warm as long as the battery has juice.  There are additional batteries and higher capacity batteries available so that you can go longer between recharges.

There aren’t too many products I try that are just about perfect.  This is as close to any that I have ever used.  The coat is excellent all by itself and the warming unit works better than advertised.  Even the price point isn’t out of line ($219) which is very comparable to other rain coats.  Add the heating unit and this thing blows away the competition. Now they just need to make some Mobile Warming Gear Pants to complete the package.  They do have vests and gloves and couple other accessories to help you stay warm whatever your activity.

My whole family is already getting their orders figured out, they’ve tried mine on and will now be buying their own.   I’m just glad mine didn’t walk off with one of them.  We’ve had a cold spring this year and I’ve used this coat to golf in for a number of rounds and I wear it even on other days when I need to stay warm; watching football games or going on a hike, it really is one of my favorite products of 2013.  Especially in the Midwest it is a great way to extend your golf season.

For more information: www.mobilewarminggear.com

Quick Hits
+Heating unit in a rain coat
+Excellent coat even without heating unit
+Comfortable, waterproof and windproof
+Variable temperature settings
+Rechargeable battery packs lasts even longer than advertised

–Remembering to recharge battery.