Symtec-Inc

toolguy1963's Full Review: Heat Demons Grip Warmers

I’m going to get right to the point with this review. Heat Demons, for as well as they work, for as good as the final installation looks and for the ease of use have to take a back seat to the manufacturers customer service.

I bought a set of Heat Demons through Choppers-R-Us (name made up BTW) after trying out a couple of other different models. Believe me, unless you have a big fairing to hide ungodly large, clumsy looking switches into, just bite the bullet and buy Heat Demons. The Heat Demons showed up packaged nicely and sat under my desk for a couple of weeks. On one of those cold lazy autumn days with hot coffee and cold fingers I went out and did the installation.

Installation was straight forward with the instruction sheet giving two sets of how-to’s in case you want to do it on the bike or prefer to remove the handle bars. Routing the wiring is pretty simple with a main power line and ground coming up from the power source of your liking. Expect a 4-ampere draw. In my case I went right to the fused accessory four pin connector on the Dyna. The right bar heater wiring passes through the handlebar to the left side (with the help of an included snake). The switch wiring, heaters and main power line are all joined together at the left side of the bar with sealed compression type connectors. The wiring is stuffed into the bar end along with the heater element and its pretty much done. The element by the way is a springy foil material that is inserted into the bar end. It heats the bar ends from the inside out.

The real beauty of this setup is how everything looks factory done. The original OEM grips can be retained since the heating element slides into the bar and is hidden away. There are no unsightly wires dangling off the grips and best of all, the switch is built into a new clutch lever half clamp assembly. It’s a really slick nice looking setup. The only real work that’s involved is drilling a 5/16 inch hole through the grooved part of the handlebar to pass some wires through. It’s not a big deal if you can handle a drill. A rubber grommet seals the hole and wires that run through it. That’s it.

Now kudos for the Heat Demons guys there in Minnesota. I went through the installation instructions step by step. Took my time to do everything 100% with switch and heat tests before it all went together. Once it was all buttoned up I fired up the Dyna for a bar heat up test. I ran through the switch activation a couple of times to watch for the lights going through temperature settings 1 through 4. After shutting down and then coming back to try it again the lights lit then went to dim. They are supposed to dim when you hold the button in for three seconds so I figured they’d gone to dim for whatever reason. After a few minute I noticed no heat. I shut everything down then tried restarting the heaters. Nothing! A few diagnostic tests later I found the micro switch was not passing current.

I immediately sent an E-mail of to Choppers-R-Us along with one to Heat Demons. Choppers-R-Us never responded but Heat Demons did within a couple of hours. After a few quick questions they made a heartfelt apology and sent me more than what I needed to get the heaters going again. I offered to send back the bad parts but they said they don’t have enough problems with them to warrant analyzing the bad parts. It doesn’t end there. While I had the company head on one E-mail, the company tech engineer was on the other walking me through what he really thought it could be. I was hoping that he was right so that I could get the heaters going sooner, but it was not to be. The micro switch was faulty. In the end the new parts came priority mail and were put in and I was on the road in no time. The up side of this whole scenario is that I didn’t have to take the whole thing apart, send the parts to them and then wait for new parts. I was using the bike the whole time.

Using the Heat Demons is very simple. A click and press button that matches the Harley Davidson switchgear is built into the replacement clutch lever half clamp. Above it a series of color code LED’s that indicate heat strength one through four. You just keep pressing the button to up the heat level. The LED’s are actually behind a solid clear plastic diffusing bar that make the LED’s blend colors as they go up in level. Very neat and professional looking. The LED’s are bright enough to really stand out in the day and you have the option of going to night mode. Depress the switch for about three seconds and the LED’s will dim right out. They are low enough to see well but not distracting.

The Demons do take a few minutes to warm up. Iv ridden bikes with the heaters built right into the grip and they also take a little bit to come up to a nice heat. The Demons of course take a little longer since they heat through the handlebar and then grip. The difference in time up to temperature is not a great deal and when you consider how clean the grip installation is, it suddenly becomes a non-issue. Like I said, I’m using OEM grips and unless you took notice of the additional switch you wouldn’t know that there were heated grips on the bike.

Rideing in cool weather is much nicer with the heated grips. They are temperature controlled through four levels so you can set the heat for your desired comfort. I made the mistake of putting them at full heat on my first ride and after a few minutes I was searching for cool spots on the grips by moving my hands in and out. Duh.. I finally realized that all I had to do was turn them down. In forty degree, drizzly, overcast weather the Heat Demons only need to be run at level one. To get up to level four you really need to be down below freezing otherwise you can cook your hands. It’s really nice getting off the bike or coming to stop lights and not dropping my hands to the engine cases to warm them. The numb, freezing finger days are over with these and I really believe you ride safer when you can maintain good digit dexterity. The weather here now is between freezing and the low forties and I’m riding with un-insulated Elk-Deerskin gloves and very comfortable.

Recommended:
Yes