Silicone oven mitts not the best fit for cooks

Oven mitts are one of those kitchen accessories that aren't a must-have, but they sure do make baking and grilling a lot easier (and safer). Silicone oven mitts are particularly versatile because they have high heat thresholds, and you can also use them to pluck foods like corn on the cob from boiling water -- something you wouldn't want to try with a fabric oven mitt. But are they any good? We searched reviews to find the best silicone oven mitts available.

Unfortunately, we found few professional reviews of silicone oven mitts, and the few reviewers who do review them aren't all that keen on them. The best source we found, Cook's Illustrated magazine, has reviewed both oven mitts and barbecue mitts in the past several years, but they only include a couple silicone mitts in their multiproduct roundups. We also found a few single-product recommendations at About.com, Popular Mechanics and 3Luxe.com, but these write-ups were short and there is no evidence that the silicone oven mitts were compared or tested. We also consulted user reviews at online retailers like Amazon.com and Cooking.com -- as well as a discussion thread at Chowhound.com -- to augment our findings on three popular brands of silicone oven mitts.

Oxo silicone oven mitt a top seller, but reviews mixed

The Oxo Good Grips Silicone Oven Mitt with Magnet (*Est. $15) gets the most attention from reviewers, and it's also the bestselling silicone oven mitt at Amazon.com, but it earns only average reviews overall. One major foodie magazine compares the Oxo mitt to seven other mitts, giving it a "not recommended" tag. Editors say the mitt is uncomfortable, particularly the angle of the thumb. Editors at 3Luxe.com also take look at the Oxo silicone oven mitt and name it a "best of" product, although they don't detail how they tested it. They like the fact that it can withstand heat up to 600 degrees Fahrenheit and say the built-in magnet makes it easy to hang from an oven door or another magnetic surface. A 2008 article at Popular Mechanics' website names the Oxo silicone oven mitt as one of eight best tools for barbecuing, but like 3Luxe.com, this article is little more than a list of recommendations. 

The handful of owners who leave comments at Amazon.com also have mixed opinions about the Oxo mitt. On the positive side, they say it does an excellent job of protecting their hands from heat. However, several owners complain that it is too inflexible or doesn't fit their hand well. 

Reviewers split on Isi Orka silicone oven mitt 

We also found a few recommendations for the Isi Orka Silicone Oven Mitt (*Est. $15) at About.com, Cooking.com and at Chowhound.com. Brett Moore, About.com's guide to gourmet food, recommends the Orka as one of his 10 favorite gifts to give and praises its waterproof construction (making it ideal for plucking ears of corn from boiling water), but there's no indication that he tested the mitt. (Note that About.com owns ConsumerSearch, but the two share no editorial affiliation.) In a separate review, the same foodie magazine that reviewed (and panned) the Oxo silicone oven mitt gives a similar rating of "not recommended" to the Orka. Editors love its heat resistance ("the heat protection champ") but say they had such difficulty gripping things that they feared they would drop them.

About 20 owners post comments about the Orka at online retailer Cooking.com, where it earns an above-average rating, while a handful of users at Amazon.com give it a slightly lower rating. Like the Oxo silicone oven mitt, users praise the Orka for its resistance to heat (500 degrees in this case). But as with the Oxo, users say the biggest drawback to the Orka mitt is that it's too inflexible and doesn't fit their hand well. Perhaps the best comment comes from a user at Chowhound.com, who says, "The Orka feels like you've got your hand stuffed into a rubber boot."

Users praise, pan Lekue silicone oven mitt

Although we didn't find any professional reviews for the Lekue Silicone Super Flexible Oven Mitt (*Est. $16), these mitts, which come in a variety of colors, are also a top seller at Amazon.com -- although they, too, have received only a smattering of user reviews. Still, the Lekue mitts are rated about as highly as the Orka mitt and slightly above the Oxo mitt. One Amazon user provides a very helpful video description of the Lekue oven mitt, which shows it in action. But we also read complaints of inflexibility and awkward fits.

Our verdict

Professional reviewers and users agree that silicone oven mitts provide superior protection from heat, which is useful if you do a lot of broiling or grilling. However, the fact that we read so many comments about comfort and fit makes us hesitant to recommend silicone oven mitts outright. If you're set on buying one, we suggest that you try them in the store first to see how they feel before buying a silicone oven mitt.