Peet Dryers: Dry Boots and Gloves

Considering how SnowTech test riders spend almost 100 days out on the snow each year, we have to keep our boots and gloves dry so they can perform properly the next day. Over the years we have tried all kinds of methods, and while our favorite is using the dry heat of a wood burning stove to slowly dry out our gear, this isn’t always practical. What we use on a daily basis are the “Peet Dryers” and have several of them at our riding facility for each of our riders. When we get in for the night, we drop our boots on top of a Peet Boot Dryer and plug it in, and come morning they are completely dry all the way through and ready to go.
Typically each rider will have worn two pair of gloves during a day of riding, and we put the wet gloves on a Peet Dryer as well, fitted with the Peet Dry Glove Ports. These glove ports separate each of the fingers and direct heat up into each finger, so our gloves are gently yet completely dry as well. We use them religiously each and every night, without exception. If you have worn the item, dry it, regardless of whether it feels wet or not, as your hands and feet sweat a considerable amount each day and much of that is wicked away and absorbed into the gloves or boots. You might not even feel it if you reach in there, but trust us, while some of the moisture does evaporate there is still some of it in there and you want to get it out before the next day.

Down in the bottom of the Peet Dryers are a small ceramic resistor that, when plugged into a wall socket, provides a small amount of gentle heat that rises up into your boots or gloves. The heat is very gentle and safe for any and all kinds of materials, we have never had an issue whatsoever with them getting too warm or damaging anything. You won’t hear anything, there is no fan, but you want to make sure the air vents on the bottom of the unit are unobstructed so the air can flow up through the unit properly.
Now you might think since we are giving these products such a blatant endorsement that we must get them for free, or something. Nada. We go to our local Fleet Farm store (popular farm supply store in the Midwest based out of Appleton, Wisconsin) and buy our Peet Boot Dryers and all of the accessories. We just watch the weekly Fleet farm ad and buy what we need when they are on sale. But you can order any of these on-line from a number of suppliers, just Google Peet Boot Dryer and you will find many suppliers to choose from. We’ve tried several other similar products over the years, but these are the ones that have worked the best for us.
They come in several versions, we use the singles and the doubles, along with the glove accessory attachments. At Amazon.com the single sells for $35.88, the double goes for $63.99 and the glove ports sell for $16.03 for the set of two. There’s also a helmet dry-port attachment that sells for $13.20.

This article is originally from the December 2013 print issue of SnowTech. To see all the great content in SnowTech – Subscribe and have it delivered to your door! Most of the content in SnowTech magazine only shows up in the print version.