Texting gloves are supposed to keep your hands warm while letting you operate the touch screen on your smartphone, but do they really work?

In the first of Steele on Your Side’s “As Seen on TV” product testing series, Lynda Steele put a pair of popular texting gloves to the test to find out if they’re worth your consumer dollar.  

Steele on Your Side tested the ‘Agloves.’ The gloves are designed in cold-weather Colorado and won best new product at the Stevie Awards in New York City last year.  The gloves were recently named “best new gadget” by MSNBC.  We tried out the grip touch model, which retail for $29.99, but you can get a pair of the original Agloves for $19.99.  

Regular gloves, cold weather and smartphones don’t normally work well together.  Many people think it's because the smartphone responds to the heat or pressure of your fingers, but in reality, they're responding to the body's natural bio electricity.  So if your fingers are covered up the touch device doesn't work.

The Agloves are interwoven with silver, the most conductive element on the periodic table.

When it comes to changing screens on your iPhone, the Agloves work well.  But when it comes to typing a message it’s not quite as good.  

We let people on the street try on the gloves to see what they thought of the texting helpers.  While some said they’d jump at the chance to buy them, one man said he couldn’t help feeling like the texting would be faster and easier if he just removed the gloves.  

At $29.99, the gloves aren’t cheap. But several online tutorials on YouTube show you how to make your own with an existing pair of gloves, or even dollar store gloves.  All you need is some conductive fibre thread which costs a few bucks online, or a local craft store.  You just sew the thread into the fingertips of the glove and start texting.  

Bottom line: You might want to make your own, or maybe shop around to get the best deal.  

We give this product 3.5 stars out of 5. 

Have you seen a product on TV you'd like us to test?  Send your ideas to steeleonyourside@bellmedia.ca