Tourmaster heated clothing controllers - PWM or variable resistor (or neither)?

[marshall]

I just got what I believe to be a SWEET set of First Gear Carbon heated gloves and a Tourmaster heated vest, per webbikeworld.com recommendations. The vest came with a heat controller (buttons with 3 levels of heat), but First Gear tells you to buy a Heat-Troller for the gloves.

Of course, I was figuring I would make up my own controller for the gloves rather than paying $70.
Of course, I realize now that I don't have the skills or time to do that.

So I'm going to buy a Heat-Troller or similar device, but after looking into how the things actually work, I'm starting to wonder whether the controller that comes with the Tourmaster vest uses "Pulse Width Modulation" like the Heat-Troller to control the temperature, or if it's just a variable resistor. I realize now that a variable resistor is totally wasteful, and is basically just burning up the electrical energy inside the controller rather than inside the clothing in order to reduce the clothing temp. PWM is way more efficient, and I don't want to use the Tourmaster controller if it aint PWM. I'll just buy the dual Heat-Troller and run both gloves and vest through it.

Anyone know how the Tourmaster controller works?

Marshall

[Silent]

I use heated gear on my FJR when I travel, and I'd suggest a dual controler. If you set the heat for your hands, you're gonna burn up in the vest. Set for the vest, and you're hands will get cold. I use a Powerlet dual controler with variable settings and it works well.

[marshall]

Thing is, I'm going to be able to control gloves/vest separately whether I buy the dual or single heat-troller; the vest came with a controller. What I'm wondering is whether that vest controller, made by Tourmaster, is as efficient as a heat-troller. Because if it's not, there would be reason to get the dual-troller and use it for my vest control AND glove control, thus bypassing the Tourmaster device.