Widder is long gone and there are probably not that many people using or interested in their heated clothing. But, since I already did the research, I though that I would post what I have learned in case anyone else is ever curious or needs to know.
I found some information for the Widder heated gloves. They are rated by Widder at 20 Watts for the pair. They were wired in series by Widder, which was a design decision by Widder. Because their research revealed that many people would often use the heated gloves separately from the rest of the suit, wiring them in series allows the gloves to get hot enough to be useful and comfortable, while at the same time allows them to be left on full time without getting to hot to become uncomfortable and dangerous. I guess in the days before variable controllers became the better option to control the heat level, this eliminated the need to be constantly turning the gloves on and off all the time.
One review that I came across stated that this worked very well, and that the gloves could be left on all the time without ever getting to hot.
This explains why those who have connected them in parallel have stated that they get to hot, and that a controller is needed.
I measured the resistance of the complete suit, as well as each individual item, and then did the math to see what is going on.
I also traced all the interior wires by feeling through the lining to see how they were wired.
Below is what Widder did.
Power enters the vest and connects to an internal junction inside the bottom of the vest.
This junction provides power directly to the resistance heating wires of the vest.
The power is then routed to the sleeve arm chaps.
The vest internal junction also splits power off to the first connector of the left-hand arm chap through an internal wire. From there the power goes through this arm chap's resistance heating wires to the second connector of the left-hand arm chap. It then goes directly to the first connector of the right-hand arm chap through an internal wire. From there it goes through this arm chap's resistance heating wires to the second connector of the right-hand arm chap. It then goes directly back to the power source junction at the bottom of the vest through an internal wire.
The arm chaps/gloves wiring is a series-parallel circuit, allowing the arm chaps to function with or without the gloves attached.
The power is then routed to the heated gloves.
Inside the arm chaps there are internal wires that carry power from the arm chap connectors directly to the resistance heating wires of the gloves. Because they derive their power from the arm chap connectors, the power follows the same path as for the arm chaps.
i.e.
The power flows to the left-hand glove first through the left-hand arm chap, and then to the right-hand glove through the right-hand arm chap, and then back to the power source junction in the vest. Because the arm chaps are wired in series, so to are the gloves when they are connected to the arm chaps, as they become part of the series circuit of the arm chaps.
When the heated gloves are being used separately from the arm chaps, the Widder wiring harness connects them in series with each other.
So there you go, more useless information that you didn't need!
