# What gloves to wear when working with electrical?



## Bondo (Dec 8, 2007)

Ayuh,....

Myself,... I work Bare handed.......
And,.....
If you're thinking that wearing rubber Gloves is a Safety issue,......
Turning *Off* the circuits you're working on is Much Safer........
'cause a Pinhole in your glove will still Kill you........


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## AllanJ (Nov 24, 2007)

High voltage gloves work just as well at lower voltages.

Not vice versa.

Gloves are needed because the linemen need to work with the power on.

After the power is turned off, feel free to plug an incandescent lamp into a receptacle upstream and leave it in the on position, or short hot to ground and neutral to ground near the working area using wires with alligator clips on the ends. This eliminates any surprise shocks from induced voltages. (Be sure to remove the latter before turning the power back on.)


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## twilightcall (Jan 4, 2008)

Thanks guys. I will always turn off the power and check with 2 seperate meters but I still want to be safe so I want to wear a pair of gloves. I haven't seen low voltage electrical gloves. I will look for some. Mainly working on 120 and some 240V. 

Can someone provide a good brand or link to a nice pro set?


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## J. V. (Jun 1, 2007)

I have always found gloves to be cumbersome in doing minor electrical work. If you are doing small jobs around the house you don't need gloves. If you are bending and threading ridged conduit all day, then you would need gloves. If you just want to keep your hands free of nicks and scrapes any kind of soft leather will do the trick. The suggestions above are all you need as far as safety goes. I always keep a pair of soft leather gloves handy. Repetative work would be a good example of when you might consider using them. I got a new pair for Christmas.


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## arichard21 (Oct 17, 2007)

The only time I usually wear gloves is when pulling cable and drilling holes.


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## 220/221 (Oct 9, 2007)

> Mainly working on 120 and some 240V.


 
If the power is off you will be working on 0v :no:


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## Andy in ATL (Aug 28, 2007)

220 is right. A DIYer would be insane to ever ever ever work anything hot ever. Turn circuit off. Do work. Turn circuit on. Check voltage. Safety first, people.

Wiring houses, I worked bare handed. Working commercial, it is company policy to have gloves on when running pipe or mc. I wear mechanix gloves.

Andy

Edit to add: I also wear my $4.97 safety glasses from Wally World from the second I start work 'til I'm finished...All day, everyday.


Edit to add again: What kind of shock does induced voltage give? Is it static? Line voltage wearing a phantom's mask?:huh:


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## Hornsfan (Dec 12, 2021)

This thread is old as dirt, but it always amazes me when everyone refuses to answer his question (and my same). He said he is turning off the power but he wants gloves just to be sure. Can nobody just say “use these gloves” or does it have to be useless responses of “why” or “just turn the power off and you don’t need any”. I totally get why an DIY person as myself wants to wear gloves as well as turn off the power.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

@Hornsfan welcome to the forums. With the power off he can use regular leather thin gloves. "To make sure", there is no cure for that illness. No power = no power, and no real "need" for gloves, except for grasp and to keep your hands clean. When working in a panel box, of course the main cables will always be energized, and with the fear he has, he should not be even opening the cover of the panel. Otherwise he has the answers he needs. But stay tuned, as you will be more amazed as you go along.


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## Jim Port (Sep 21, 2007)

Not that they apply to individuals, but OSHA rules prohibit live work with few exceptions, testing be one. Otherwise it is turn power off and verify lack of power. No need for gloves.

Electrically rated gloves are expensive and need to be tested regularly. Their life is one year. Dexterity also suffers with two layers of gloves.


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## u2slow (Feb 9, 2012)

I often use thin stretchy fabric gloves that are dipped in nitrile. They fit well enough to handle screws and other fiddly things. My hands don't take wear & tear well despite doing manual work for some 30 years.

Any glove (providing its dry and non-conductive) over your hand is going to reduce the chance of a shock from a brush against something live. A sweaty bare hand is a greater hazard.


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## joed (Mar 13, 2005)

This thread is 13 years old.


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## Oso954 (Jun 23, 2012)

Your rubber gloves need to be kept clean and need to be inspected before each use to be safe. For high voltage work, they need to be tested/recertification every 6 months. It is a fallacy for a DIYer to think wearing rubber gloves will make him safer.
Here is an article on care of rubber PPE.


StackPath



I don’t have a problem if someone wants to wear gloves to protect theIr hands, but thinking any old rubber gloves are an added layer of protection isn’t true. They are more likely to make you careless.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Age of the thread was acknowledged. We had to test our rubber gloves via a mannequin type stainless steel hand that was charged similarly to a Tesla dome, I guess. Any leaks and it would spark. We also had to wear heavy leather gloves over them. Hot and sweaty in the summer.


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## Barney&Company (Nov 25, 2021)

An answer for 2022: I was considering the same thing – an extra layer of safety by using gloves. In the end, I defaulted back to just ensuring the power was turned off, and was checking The circuit I was going to work with against a known live circuit using my Klein 3-prong outlet tester, touchless indicator and multimeter (That is, using each tester in a live circuit to ensure that they were working properly, then testing the circuit I was going to work on). That said, gloves similar to this I had considered. You can find them from several sources, including Amazon. PIP Novax 147-00-11 Class 00 Rubber Insulating Glove with Straight Cuff, 1 Pair


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

dharavifor said:


> Rubber insulating gloves are the preferred choice as they are generally designed to protect against electrical hazards.


Not having an energized place to work is the preferred choice. Using rubber gloves without over protection gives a false sense of security.


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## lenaitch (Feb 10, 2014)

dharavifor said:


> Rubber insulating gloves are the preferred choice as they are generally designed to protect against electrical hazards.


I can't say I've ever seen off-the-shelf gloves that say they are certified as electrically insulating. Even if they were, they would need to be re-certified regularly.


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## MTN REMODEL LLC (Sep 11, 2010)

lenaitch said:


> I can't say I've ever seen off-the-shelf gloves that say they are certified as electrically insulating. Even if they were, they would need to be re-certified regularly.


*LENAITCH*..... YEPPERS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

My experience is solely residential..... I've never seen any either.

Sounds like a solution looking for a problem...No ????


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## anderep (10 mo ago)

Don’t wear gloves that work with touch screens (phone)!
They are conductive.


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## chandler48 (Jun 5, 2017)

Don't wear gloves at all. Use the Zero shock factor rules, De energize.


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## seharper (Mar 17, 2020)

I just use latex or nitrile tossies from my painting supplies, but I turn the MAIN off. 

And then I flash things to ground to make sure they're off. 

Why? Because you never know when a circuit will be live even though it is off, because of MWBCs, stolen neutrals, ring circuits, or a neutral-ground problem. Even on your own work. 

Once I de-energized a circuit I myself built, and flashed hot to ground to check it. I had turned my eyes away and directly at a fluorescent light, _which promptly turned on. "Not the arc flash I was expecting"_. I did it again, looking at the terminal this time, and saw a tiny blue spark and the fluorescent light came on again. The breaker IS off. 

Turns out neutral was not at ground potential, it was at L1 potential. Flashing hot to ground simply brought power to the circuit. (With hot-neutral reversed). Further inspection revealed a neutral-ground bonding screw with no shank, just a head. And one of the circuits had a bolted hot-ground fault, which was sinking L1 to ground potential (my private transformer) and pushing neutral where it was. So I learned my system is built properly to endure that condition because everything worked up until then.


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## Jim Port (Sep 21, 2007)

It is much safer to check with a meter instead of possibly creating a dead short. No sense exposing someone to possibly, burns or worse. Depending on the panel the breaker may still not trip when flashed to ground so a person could expect the breaker to have tripped and still receive a shock.


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## jbfan (Jul 1, 2004)

seharper said:


> I just use latex or nitrile tossies from my painting supplies, but I turn the MAIN off.
> 
> And then I flash things to ground to make sure they're off.
> 
> ...


Why are you giving unsafe advice on a DIY forum? The only true way is test with a meter.
We don't advocate creating dead shorts.
No one should be expecting an arc flash, ever!


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## Old Thomas (Nov 28, 2019)

I like the dexterity that I have without gloves, so I work bare handed down to about 20 degrees F.


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## seharper (Mar 17, 2020)

jbfan said:


> Why are you giving unsafe advice on a DIY forum? The only true way is test with a meter.


Silly absolutism. That would've gotten you bit in this case.

The circuit was definitely, positively off. There was no question of this. There was no earthly reason to expect power there. The fluorescent light, which was definitely on that circuit, turned off when I cut the breaker. Remember I work in EMT where you can _see the pipe literally on the wall_ so you know what is powered from what.

The flash to ground was a tertiary check after 2 other checks + knowing the circuit very well. I didn't bother explaining all that because it was not the subject matter at hand.


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