The Ove Glove Hot Surface Handler Review

As many of you know, the kitchen, for all its charms, is also one of the most dangerous places in the house, and every year thousands of people are admitted to emergency rooms due to kitchen-related mishaps. With a plethora of sharp cooking utensils -- knives, cleavers, forks -- and breakable dishes and glassware, you can get nasty cuts, or you can slip on a wet tile floor -- whether there is a spill or because someone just mopped the floor -- and fall hard.

Burns, of course, account for many kitchen injuries, and most of them occur while we are cooking or baking something and we make inadvertent contact with something very hot...a baking dish, a cookie baking sheet, an oven rack, a metallic pan or pot handle, or even the surface of a stove or oven. Pot holders and kitchen gloves help, of course, in protecting our hands, but the quality of the materials varies, and the conventional oven glove's unifinger design hinders dexterity to some degree or other. Even the best pot holders and gloves can't withstand temperatures over 300 degrees Fahrenheit, and burns can still occur.

Thankfully, Joseph Enterprises of San Francisco, California has taken two Dupont-developed materials often used by the military and firefighters -- Kevlar and Nomex -- and incorporated them into the Ove-Glove Hot Surface Handler, the best alternative to old-fashioned pot holders and those "unifinger" gloves that are limited in their resistance to high temperatures and are so restrictive as far as dexterity is concerned.

A few years ago, my mom and I first became aware of the Ove-Glove during the pre-Christmas advertising blitz on television. At first, my mom was skeptical; she's aware that many products that are heavily promoted on television often don't live up to the hype.

But after seeing that the Ove-Glove was available in well-known grocery and drug stores such as Winn-Dixie and Walgreen's, she decided to purchase one. After all, for all her expertise in the kitchen, she does get slight singes when she accidentally makes contact with a hot surface or pot, and some of our potholders are so thin that we have to hold handles and oven racks as briefly as possible.

What Joseph Enterprises Says: The Ove-Glove dramatically extends the time you can handle a hot object in your hands.

This is true. For instance, a few years ago I had to make some Stouffer's French Bread Pizza while my mom was having a late tea at a neighbor's home; we hadn't bought the "Ove" Glove yet so I had to use one of those ungainly "unifinger" gloves instead. It protected me from a painful burn while I removed the baking sheet from our Black and Decker toaster-oven, but I could still feel lots of heat from the metal; had I lingered in my grasp, the tips of my fingers would have at least felt some pain.

A day after Mom brought the Ove-Glove from Winn-Dixie for a not-so-cheap $15.99, I had to once again remove a baking sheet from the same toaster-oven, which had been running at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. I donned the five-fingered Ove-Glove and grabbed the hot sheet with my left hand; I couldn't feel any discernible heat, and I found that the five-finger design gave me more dexterity and grip than the standard kitchen potholder or cooking glove I've used.

The tough exterior layer of the glove (made of Nomex and Kevlar) forms a thermal isolation barrier slowing the temperature increase in the soft, doubleknit interior of the glove.

If that is how it works, by golly, then the Ove-Glove is a fine example of military-derived technology applied for civilian use, a case of going "Tactical to Practical." Nomex is the fire-retardant fabric used in flight suits worn by military pilots and is also present in firefighters' uniforms, while Kevlar is a tough fabric that, when applied in layers, is the basis for Marine and Army "Fritz" helmets and bulletproof vests. When used with a doubleknit blend of cotton, these two materials feel a bit heavier than the normal fabrics used in pot holders and cooking gloves, but have far more resistance to heat.

Joseph Enterprises says the Ove-Glove withstands extreme heat up to 480 degrees F. Additionallly, (although I don't want to test this), the Ove-Glove doesn't catch fire or melt when it makes contact with an open flame, as in a barbecue grill or gas stove.

The Ove-Glove is not without its limits, however. According to Joseph Enterprises, it is not waterproof and should not be used if it becomes wet. Please use extra caution around hot liquids.

Oh, and guys, listen up.  The Ove-Glove can be used in the workshop where soldering irons or welding tools require protection for the hands, as well as for changing or removing hot bulbs from lamps and light fixtures. It is also machine washable.

The only con I can think of is that one Ove-Glove costs $15.00; the package only contains one, so if you want to get protection for both hands you need to invest at least $30.00.