The Best Oven Mitts and Pot Holders

We’ve read through this guide and stand by our picks.

While kitchen towels often serve as de facto oven mitts and pot holders, grabbing an actual oven mitt or pot holder can make your cooking experience safer and easier. After testing more than 17 oven mitts, pot holders, and oven gloves since 2014, we think the Homwe Extra Long Professional Silicone Oven Mitt and the OXO Good Grips Silicone Pot Holder offer the best combination of heat protection, comfort, and maneuverability.

In addition to being heat-proof, the silicone exterior of this oven mitt is grippy, easy to maneuver, and water resistant, while the polyester-cotton lining adds extra protection and comfort.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $17.

At 15 inches in length, the Homwe Extra Long Professional Silicone Oven Mitt is long enough to protect your forearms from a hot oven or sheet pan. It's easier to maneuver than others we tested, and we were able to comfortably lift a hot, heavy cast-iron skillet or remove an unwieldy roasting pan from the oven without getting burned. The Homwe mitt is easy to clean, and we appreciated the comfortable fabric lining.

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Although these terry-lined silicone mitts are a little pricey, they’re the best-looking option we’ve found for mitts that offer good coverage.

If you’re looking for more attractive mitts to hang in your kitchen, the Five Two Silicone Oven Mitts offer the best combination of good looks and good coverage that we’ve found. While similar in design to the Homwe mitts, they have a simpler look and come in four stylish, muted colors. Aside from their form, they also function better in a few ways: with Five Two mitts, we were able hold hot items for longer while testing, and we found they offered better forearm protection than the Homwe mitts, whose slit positioning tended to expose the inside of your arm. Magnets in the Five Two cuffs also allow you to stick them on the fridge or keep them together more easily. The Five Two mitts do lack some of the dexterity of the Homwe mitts due to their shorter thumb. However, these mitts still work better than most for day-to-day tasks, especially if if style is your priority.

This pot holder has a silicone exterior that provides better heat protection than plain terry-cloth pot holders.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $11.

For extra heat protection from a pot holder, we like the OXO Good Grips Silicone Pot Holder. It is more expensive than some terry-cloth models, but it was able to protect our hands the longest of any pot holder we tested—roughly on a par with the Homwe mitt. It has a pocket for your hand to keep it secure, and its silicone side is grippy and waterproof. It's also larger than others we tested, which gives you more coverage, although it can also be a little harder to manipulate around a pot lid.

These gloves offer more dexterity than a mitt or a pot holder, but they’re less heat-proof.

We like that the Grill Armor Extreme Heat-Resistant Oven Gloves give you more control than our other picks when moving hot pans or grilling. Though they’re reasonably protective, they aren't as heat resistant as our other picks, so you’ll need to make sure you’re not left holding a hot pan with nowhere to put it when you use these. They’re also quite large, so those with smaller hands may find them clunky.

In addition to being heat-proof, the silicone exterior of this oven mitt is grippy, easy to maneuver, and water resistant, while the polyester-cotton lining adds extra protection and comfort.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $17.

Although these terry-lined silicone mitts are a little pricey, they’re the best-looking option we’ve found for mitts that offer good coverage.

This pot holder has a silicone exterior that provides better heat protection than plain terry-cloth pot holders.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $11.

These gloves offer more dexterity than a mitt or a pot holder, but they’re less heat-proof.

To help us find the best pot holders and oven mitts to test, we turned to people who work with food outside of professional kitchens (restaurant chefs and line cooks typically use side towels when cooking). We spoke to Kate McDermott, James Beard nominee and author of Art of the Pie, who teaches pie workshops in her home kitchen, and Melissa Clark, food writer, cookbook author, and staff reporter for the food section of The New York Times.

We also looked at pot holder and oven mitt reviews from Cook's Illustrated (subscription required), as well as customer reviews of highly rated models on Amazon.

Since 2014, we have spent dozens of hours testing oven mitts, pot holders, and oven gloves in the Wirecutter test kitchen. This guide builds on work from Wirecutter senior editor Christine Cyr Clisset.

Whether you use an oven mitt, pot holder, or oven glove to protect yourself from getting burned in the kitchen is mostly a matter of preference. They’ll all do the job, but each style comes with pros and cons. If you’re unsure of which to choose, here's a rundown of how they compare:

Many cooks also like using a kitchen towel to pick up hot pots and pans. You likely already have these in your kitchen, and they’re a great multipurpose item. In our tests, we also found that our top pick for kitchen towels, the Williams Sonoma All Purpose Pantry Towel, allowed us to hold a hot pan for longer than any glove or mitt we tested when folded over three times. Although we appreciate the flexibility of using a kitchen towel, we decided not to include a kitchen towel as one of our picks for a couple of reasons. First, you have to make sure the towel is folded correctly, which takes more time than grabbing a pot holder. An improperly folded towel can lead to burns, or may flop into the open flame of a gas range as you move a pan around. You can also severely burn your hand if the towel is wet—and because you’ll likely also use towels to wipe messes and dry spills when cooking, they’re more likely to be damp than a dedicated mitt. Wet fabric transfers heat much better than dry fabric because the thermal conductivity of water is about 25 times higher than that of air. So when a fabric towel gets wet, as former Wirecutter science editor Leigh Krietsch Boerner put it, "all of a sudden it's really good at shooting that heat from the pan to your hand." A wet mitt or pot holder can be dangerous too, but both offer more foolproof protection since you’ll never use them to dry your dishes.

We’ve wiped up gallons of spills with 25 different towels over the past four years, and the Williams Sonoma All Purpose Pantry Towels are the best we’ve found.

After researching more than 50 oven mitts, oven gloves, and pot holders for this guide, we decided to try 17 in the Wirecutter test kitchen. Here's a rundown of the key features we looked for when choosing which oven mitts, oven gloves, and pot holders to test:

Heat protection: We looked for oven mitts, oven gloves, and pot holders that could protect our hands from high temperatures (around 400 °F) for at least 10 seconds while holding a heavy pan, which we think is a reasonable amount of time to remove hot items from the oven or stove. Keep in mind that pot holders and oven mitts can only do so much to safeguard your hands from high heat. Anticipate where you’re going to put a hot item before you remove it from the oven or stovetop since, as cookbook author Kate McDermott told us, "You don't want to be caught holding a hot pie for 45 seconds."

Materials: We considered pot holders and oven mitts made from the following materials: cotton (quilted and terry cloth), poly-cotton (a blend of polyester and cotton), neoprene (a type of synthetic rubber), silicone, and aramid fibers (synthetic heat-resistant fibers such as Kevlar and Nomex). In our tests, we were surprised to find that the type of material didn't matter as much as we anticipated. A lot of factors contribute to heat protection, including the thickness of a material and its combination with other materials (such as silicone lined with quilted cotton). Different materials come with other pros and cons, however. Silicone is waterproof (to keep you from getting burned on a damp mitt), while cotton and poly-cotton are comfortable. Neoprene, we discovered, stinks and can melt at very high temperatures, so we recommend avoiding it.

Comfort and maneuverability: Pot holders and oven mitts need to be comfortable to hold and easy to maneuver, and not so bulky that they get in the way when you try to grab a pot lid. According to McDermott, a grippy exterior is also paramount—if the material of the mitt or pot holder is too slick, you’re more likely to drop a hot pan. Silicone mitts are particularly grippy, but we found them uncomfortable to use unless they have a fabric liner.

Styles: Oven mitts come in two main styles: the "puppet" oven mitt and the traditional oven mitt most people are familiar with. However, we decided to include only traditional oven mitts for this guide, because we’ve found the other styles more awkward to use and less maneuverable than a traditional oven mitt. Oven gloves and pot holders don't have as much variation, though we did look at pot holders both with and without a pocket for your hand. The pocket is usually made of thin fabric, so it won't protect the back of your hand, but it does make the pot holder more secure.

Pot holders and oven mitts need to be comfortable to hold and easy to maneuver, and not so bulky that they get in the way when you try to grab a pot lid.

Size: We wanted to find oven mitts that could fit a range of hand sizes. For maximum arm coverage, we searched for oven mitts between 14 and 17 inches long. We also looked for pot holders that were wide enough to allow us to grasp a pot lid or handle without the risk of burning our hands.

Easy to clean: The best oven mitts and pot holders will be machine-washable—or, at the very least, easy to wipe clean. Some are even dishwasher safe. That said, oven mitts and pot holders take a beating in the kitchen, so stains are inevitable. Even the most stain-resistant materials will discolor with persistent use.

Hanging loop: We also looked for oven mitts and pot holders with a loop for hanging, which is a useful feature, especially if you have a small kitchen with limited drawer space. Hanging oven mitts and pot holders near your stove means they’ll always be at the ready. There's nothing worse than scrambling to find a pair of pot holders buried in a drawer when you’re trying to remove something from the oven quickly.

Aesthetic: Assuming mitts and pot holders will be hung on display in your kitchen, we wanted them to be decent looking and available in a variety of colors. But ultimately, choosing mitts and pot holders is more about protection than aesthetics. As McDermott said: "Do you want something that's homemade and pretty? Or something that's actually functional that will protect your hands from getting burned?"

To test oven mitts, gloves, and pot holders, we timed how long each of our contenders was able to protect our hands from heat while we lifted a 400 °F, 12-inch cast-iron skillet by the handle. This is a particularly extreme, somewhat subjective test, relying on the tester's physical strength and heat endurance—because the skillet is so heavy, it presses hard into your hand, and you feel the heat quickly. Although this test helped us evaluate the limits of each mitt, in real life you’ll usually be lifting lighter things and will be able to hold them for even longer.

Additionally, we had several members of our kitchen team try on each oven mitt and oven glove to help us find an appropriate size for most people. Finally, we put all of the mitts, gloves, and pot holders into the washing machine to see how easy they were to clean and whether they shrank or changed after washing.

In addition to being heat-proof, the silicone exterior of this oven mitt is grippy, easy to maneuver, and water resistant, while the polyester-cotton lining adds extra protection and comfort.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $17.

The Homwe Extra Long Professional Silicone Oven Mitt offers the best combination of heat protection and maneuverability out of the oven mitts we tested. With the Homwe mitt, we were able to hold a 400 °F cast-iron skillet in the air for an average of 17 seconds (according to the manufacturer, the Homwe oven mitts are heat resistant up to 450 °F). And at about 15 inches long, the extra-long Homwe oven mitts we tried did an excellent job of protecting our arms from burns when reaching into a hot oven or holding a large pan (Homwe also makes a "regular" length option, but we prefer the added inches on the extra-long).

The extra-long Homwe oven mitts we tried did an excellent job of protecting our arms from burns.

While oven mitts are inherently bulky and tend to inhibit dexterity while cooking, we were able to maneuver the Homwe oven mitt with ease. Most of our kitchen team agreed that the patterned silicone exterior was surprisingly grippy and provided a secure grasp even when wet. And since the mitt's exterior is made from silicone, there's no risk of burning yourself if water splashes the mitts while cooking or cleaning. Annam Swanson, Wirecutter's managing editor, found a bonus function for the silicon covering: She uses the mitts to help her open slippery-lidded jars in a pinch

The Homwe oven mitt is lined with a quilted combination of polyester and cotton, a feature our experts recommended. Melissa Clark told us, "I like the silicone [oven mitts] that are lined in soft fabric. They work, they feel good, [and] are washable (or at least wipe-downable), and I’ve never been burned." Compared with the other bulky mitts we tested, the comfy inner lining on the Homwe mitt gave us better control over our tasks.

For light cleaning, you can hand-wash the silicone exterior of the Homwe oven mitt using a sponge, a little dish soap, and hot water. The mitt is dishwasher safe, according to Homwe, as well as machine washable and dryer safe. (Note: The tag on the inner lining of the mitt recommends air-drying, but we successfully dried our test pair in a dryer several times; we did not try running them through the dishwasher.) Also, since the inner lining is attached at the base of the mitt, be sure to pull it inside out before machine washing to get the whole thing clean.

In our experience, silicone oven mitts often retain heat for several seconds after holding a hot pan. Just be mindful of how you handle the Homwe mitt after touching hot items. The extra-long Homwe oven mitt doesn't come in a ton of color options, but it is available in red, black, or aqua. We don't think these options are as attractive as those of our upgrade pick, but the mitts get the job done.

Although these terry-lined silicone mitts are a little pricey, they’re the best-looking option we’ve found for mitts that offer good coverage.

Whereas the Homwe mitts offer plenty of protection for a lower price, the Five Two Silicone Oven Mitts are perfect for a person who requires a little more coverage and heat protection but also wants to keep their mitts on display. The Five Two mitts have a cute, checked grip pattern and come in four attractive colors—blueberry, peppercorn, maple, and rhubarb—to complement any kitchen. In addition to loops for hanging, each mitt also has a magnet in the cuff, allowing you to keep the pair together more easily or to stick the mitts to your fridge.

In their overall construction, the Five Two mitts are not too different from the Homwe mitts. Both models feature a silicone exterior and a cotton interior, simultaneously offering comfort, good heat protection, and water resistance. The Five Two mitts, however, have a terry-cloth interior, which some people in our test kitchen found more comfortable than the smooth cotton lining of the Homwe mitts.

This terry-cloth lining also felt thicker than the lining of the Homwe mitts and offered extra heat protection in our tests. Some testers were even able to hold a hot cast-iron skillet with the Five Two mitts for up to 40 seconds.

The Five Two mitts are similar in length to the Homwe mitts—something we struggled to find elsewhere—protecting your arms as well as your hands. And because of the position of the slit in the cuff, the Five Two mitts do a better job of protecting the top of your forearms: Whereas the Homwe mitts feature a slit in the side of the cuff that sits on top of your arm, the Five Two mitts have their slit on the underside of the cuff, where a hot pan is less likely to graze your skin.

The Five Two mitts have a shorter thumb than the Homwe mitts, making them a little more difficult to manipulate. But we were still able to perform simple tasks such as maneuvering lids, pots, and cast-iron skillets just fine.

According to Food52, these mitts are heat safe up to 650 degrees Fahrenheit. And although the silicone outer layer feels a little thinner than the one on the Homwe mitts, these mitts held up against the wear and tear of our washer and dryer, retaining their shape after multiple cycles in hot water and a hot dryer.

This pot holder has a silicone exterior that provides better heat protection than plain terry-cloth pot holders.

*At the time of publishing, the price was $11.

The OXO Good Grips Silicone Pot Holder provided the best heat protection out of all the pot holders we tested. The silicone coating on the exterior of the OXO pot holder, combined with the cotton and polyester lining, formed a powerful barrier between a screaming-hot skillet and our hands. We were able to lift a 400 °F cast-iron skillet for an average of 20 seconds, 3 seconds longer than we could with the Homwe mitt. The OXO is larger than other pot holders we tested, which means it offers more coverage but a bit less agility.

The OXO pot holder has a silicone loop for hanging and a pocket on the back to slide your hand into. The backside of the pocket isn't as heat resistant as the OXO's silicone front, but it will at least protect the top of your hand if you accidentally brush against the side of the oven. The silicone side is also water resistant, so it's less likely to get damp and burn you from heat transfer.

While the OXO is a bit stiffer than some terry-cloth pot holders we tested, and the larger size can be a little more awkward to use, we were still able to grasp pot lids with ease. The silicone also helps provide a secure grip.

Like our other picks, the OXO pot holder is machine washable. It also comes in seven colors. According to OXO, the pot holder is heat resistant up to 450 °F, and as with all OXO products, it's backed by a satisfaction guarantee.

These gloves offer more dexterity than a mitt or a pot holder, but they’re less heat-proof.

The Grill Armor Extreme Heat-Resistant Oven Gloves provided the best maneuverability and dexterity compared with the other oven mitts and pot holders we tested. The silicone lines on both sides of the Grill Armor gloves provide a secure grip when holding pots and pans. These aren't as heat resistant as our other picks, but still work well for quick tasks like removing pot lids or retrieving a pie from the oven. Keep in mind that the Grill Armor gloves won't protect your hands if they get wet. Also, most of our testers had lots of room to spare in the finger slots when wearing these gloves, but they said it didn't impede their dexterity.

According to their website, Grill Armor's gloves are made of a blend of durable, heat-resistant polyamide fabrics (M-Aramid and P-Aramid, if you're really curious) with an inner lining that's 100 percent cotton. They’re machine washable, but should be air-dried only. According to the manufacturer, they’re heat resistant to 932 °F for 12 to 14 seconds. However, in our tests, we were able to lift a heavy 400 °F cast-iron skillet for an average of only 8 seconds using these gloves (though you should be able to hold lighter items for a bit longer). They also take longer to slip on compared with a traditional oven mitt or pot holder, which isn't ideal if you’re making a mad dash pull out that bubbling casserole from the oven.

We like the Grill Armor gloves because they have a longer cuff than many similar oven gloves, but they still don't offer as much arm coverage as oven mitts we recommend. Pie expert and cookbook author Kate McDermott told us, "I’ve actually gotten rack burns from [the Grill Armor gloves] too as I had to get my arms in the oven further to get a good grip with my fingertips on the edges of the pie pan." She said her solution was to pull the oven rack out slightly before retrieving an item from the oven to avoid burning her forearms.

The San Jamar 17″ BestGrip Oven Mitt enabled us to hold a 400 °F cast-iron skillet for nearly 30 seconds. However, we’ve read reviews that the stitching unravels. We also noticed that the neoprene began to smell and smoke well below its advertised maximum heat-safe temperature of 500 °F.

Though we could hold a hot skillet for 13 to 15 seconds with the San Jamar 15″ Cool Touch Oven Mitt, we found it exceptionally bulky.

We could hold a 400 °F skillet for only 6 seconds with the Phoenix 17″ Terry Conventional Oven Mitt. The mitt was also poorly constructed, unraveling at the seams.

Although the Five Two Silicone Pot Holders are attractive, they’re not a practical size or shape. They’re smaller than the OXO pot holders, and they don't have a large pocket you can safely slide your hand into. During testing, we felt as if our hands could slip out of their protective pockets at any time, so it was difficult for us to hold anything for long periods.

The Choice Terry Cloth Pot Holder is big enough to provide ample coverage for large hands. After washing, we noticed some of the seams were unraveling, but these plain cotton pot holders offer decent heat protection and are a great bargain if you want to stock up on a bunch.

The San Jamar 7″ × 7″ UltiGrips Hot Pad allowed us to hold the handle of a 400 °F cast-iron skillet for roughly 15 seconds. However, after long-term testing, we noticed that the neoprene-like material smells terrible when holding hot items. It also melted slightly and began to smoke well below its advertised maximum heat-safe temperature of 500 °F.

Our team unanimously disliked the San Jamar EZ-Kleen Hot Pad, which has a sticky, grippy outer coating that feels similar to flypaper. The wrist strap was also too wide for nearly everyone's hands.

In our tests, we could hold a 400 °F skillet for about 8 to 10 seconds using the Ritz Basic Potholder, which was about half as long as we could stand to hold the pan with the OXO pot holder.

The 'Ove' Glove (sold here as a single glove, Michael Jackson-style) isn't as long as some of the other oven gloves we tested, so it offers less forearm protection.

The G & F 1683L Dupont Nomex & Kevlar Heat-Resistant Gloves (also sold as a single glove) protected our hands from heat for only about 6 seconds. They also have less silicone coating than our main pick for oven gloves.

Kate McDermott told us she has been happy using the Trudeau 09911024 Kitchen Gloves because they are easy to put on quickly. However, we don't like that only one side is silicone, which means you have to pay attention to which way you’re putting them on—annoying when you’re in a rush to get something off the stove.

We opted not to test the Grill Heat Aid Grill Gloves because many Amazon reviewers report fit issues, noting that they’re hard to get on and off.

Kate McDermott, phone and email interviews, July 6, 2017

Melissa Clark, email interview, July 12, 2017

Oven Mitts, Cook's Illustrated, December 1, 2011

Potholders, Cook's Illustrated, May 1, 2003

Deb Perelman, I’m In Love With These Perfect Potholders That No One Sells Anymore, Saveur, July 10, 2017

Michael Sullivan

Michael Sullivan has been a staff writer on the kitchen team at Wirecutter since 2016. Previously, he was an editor at the International Culinary Center in New York. He has worked in various facets of the food and restaurant industry for over a decade.

Anna Perling

Anna Perling is a former staff writer covering kitchen gear at Wirecutter. During her time at Wirecutter, she reported on various topics including sports bras, board games, and light bulbs. Previously she wrote food and lifestyle pieces for Saveur and Kinfolk magazines. Anna is a mentor at Girls Write Now and a member of the Online News Association.

Haley Sprankle

Haley Sprankle was an updates writer at Wirecutter covering kitchen gadgets and financial content. She loves French bulldogs, French tucks, and french fries. It's a wonder she hasn't been to France yet, but it's next on her to-do list.

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