Singed fingers? Handle the heat at your grill safely and in comfort with these BBQ gloves.
Singed fingers? Handle the heat at your grill safely and comfortably with these BBQ gloves.
If there’s one mistake I make over and over again when cooking, it’s using my bare hands to handle hot food, or even my grill or smoker’s handles. And, no matter how many times I burn myself, I never seem to learn.
Enter BBQ gloves. A godsend for idiots like me who need something a little more than the run-of-the-mill black food gloves that every BBQ head uses (you know the ones).
These heat-resistant gloves go way beyond your standard oven mitts. Some are made from silicone, some from aramid, and some from rubber. Heck, some are even made from leather. So, which of these gloves strike the right balance between safety and flexibility?
We’ve put them to the test, assessing them on heat resistance, flexibility, and comfort. Our testing involved handling hot grill grates, cast iron pans, and seasoned wood splits, as well as using our favorite BBQ tools and meats.
Comsmart BBQ Gloves
With an aramid fiber coating, these gloves from Comsmart provide excellent heat resistance, making handling hot cast iron pans and grill grates easy. Their textured, anti-slip palms and fingers proved invaluable, providing a confident grip on utensils throughout cooking. We didn’t have to worry about losing our tongs mid-flip or dropping any grilled meat.
Meanwhile, cleaning these is a breeze. A simple machine wash cycle and these gloves emerge looking fresh off the rack.
However, we did notice that the fit around the base of the fingers was a bit too long for our hands, which was slightly awkward, but it’s a minor issue considering the overall quality.
Key Specs
- Material: Silicone, Aramid Fiber, Polyester Cotton
- Heat Resistance Rating: 1472ºF
- Length: 13.5 inches
Grill Armor Gloves
Grill Armor’s snug, flexible fit perfectly balances solid temperature performance with the dexterity we need to effortlessly manage everything from delicate grilled skewers to hefty tongs. The textured silicone palms and fingers offered a non-slip grip, making these the easiest to use out of all the gloves we tried in our testing.
This isn’t to say that these gloves can’t withstand high heat. They can. Their aramid fiber material allows them to withstand temperatures of well over 1000°F, allowing us to hold onto hot cast iron pans for over ten seconds without discomfort. And while using our offset smoker, we could handle seasoned wood splits in our fire box quite easily.
The short cuff is a little disappointing compared to its peers. However, the dexterity you get in return is superb, making these great for precision grill tasks.
Key Specs
- Material: Silicone, Aramid fiber, Cotton
- Heat Resistance Rating: 1472ºF
- Length: 10 inches
RAPICCA BBQ Gloves
Looking like a serious pair of hardware, these Rapicca BBQ gloves show that you mean business. Their extended 17-inch cuff length offers invaluable arm protection when reaching over scorching hot grill grates, providing a priceless sense of security as we cooked over fire.
On the heat front, in theory these gloves offer good cover with their fireproof neoprene rubber build. However, in reality, they are great at withstanding ambient heat but not direct contact and could only withstand a few seconds of handling our cast iron pan before we had to drop it.
As with almost anything, heat retention comes at a cost, and that’s most evident in how rigid these are to use. Despite the good grip material, the neoprene rubber makes them awkward to handle the majority of grill tools.
Key Specs
- Material: Neoprene Rubber, Cotton
- Heat Resistance Rating: 420ºF
- Length: 14 inches
Artisan Griller BBQ Pit Gloves
Boasting a neoprene coating that acts as a formidable fireproof barrier against high temperatures and wayward flare-ups, these do a solid job of shielding your hands against hot temperatures. With a soft cotton inner lining, these feel breathable (important for avoiding sweat buildup) and soft on the wrist. They also boast a decent grip courtesy of a tire tread-like design on the palms, which gave us solid grip as they became greasy after prolonged use by our smoker.
Much like other neoprene-coated gloves, the heat resistance on these is shaky. They’re great at protecting from ambient heat, like the kind you see when moving wood around in your firebox or grill chamber. However, these gloves did disappoint when we tried them with direct contact with heat. I’d be surprised if you could handle hot grill grates or cast iron skillets for longer than a few seconds.
Key Specs
- Material: Neoprene, Cotton
- Heat Resistance Rating: 400ºF
- Length: 14 inches
WEEDABEST BBQ Gloves
Made of aramid material that can withstand temperatures up to 1472°F (800°C), providing excellent heat resistance, and extra long 14-inch length to protect forearms from heat and prevent charred arm hair (a common hazard at our lively barbecues). The textured silicone palms and fingers offered a secure grip, making it easy to handle BBQ tools, as well as foil-wrapped food and threading meat onto skewers.
That said, the sizing on these runs a little large while remaining tight around the base of the fingers and around the wrist. This will impact dexterity particularly for those of us with larger hands.
Durability is also a concern here, as the dye started to bleed a little after a few uses, especially after a couple of washes.
Key Specs
- Material: Silicone, Polyester Cotton
- Heat Resistance Rating: 1472ºF
- Length: 14 inches
