Cooling Vest

[SpringHollow]

Not sure if this is the correct forum to place this in or not.

High temperatures and humidity can easily make me sick especially when doing hard physical labor (sometimes, it seems like we have to get off the tractor seat). The evaporative cooling clothes, wrist bands, etc. do not work in our high humidity.

This past week, i had to spend a week at the county fair selling Wood Doctor boilers. I knew it was going to be hot so i tried a cooling vest which utilizes a phase change material with a transition temperature of 65 degrees. I decided to try one since they had a 30 day money back guarantee. I tried it at the fair - in 30 seconds i knew i was not returning it. Almost everyone who tried it on said they wanted to buy one.

They are kind of pricey for a cheap person like me but i used it for 4 days where the weather was miserable. Without the vest, i would have had to go home so it was worth it. I used it the day after the fair for physical labor and it worked for that as well.

It is extremely comfortable to wear - you do not even feel the weight.

Bottom line is that it worked much better than i had even hoped.

I highly recommend your taking a look at this site:
Texas Cool Vest

No affiliation, i am just extremely satisfied with their product and the company.

 

[Rara Avis]

Yes, they work quite well...we use them in the Rehab Area at all major fires...

 

[firedog]

2nd that..........

 

[310-510]

I have 2 of the heavy duty ones for working and playing outdoors in the desert. They work great. At 120 degrees, the gel packs last about 4 hours. They work real well with a windbreaker jacket over the top. Keeps the cool air in. Looks kind of funny riding around on the tractor in 120 degrees with a jacket on and the hood up. Saves the need for always drinking fluids and minimizes heat stress.

 

[Destructo_D]

Would it work indoors too? I work in a building constructed of concrete walls... would it work inside too? It gets quite warm in there.

 

[RonMar]

Would it work indoors too? I work in a building constructed of concrete walls... would it work inside too? It gets quite warm in there.

It should work anywhere, as long as it is charged. And like melting ice, should provide a constant temp untill all the material has changed from a solid/semi solid to a liquid. Also like melting ice, the temperature it is exposed to and the volume of hte material in the vest will determing how long this process takes.

I was watching a show on the Apollo missions and one was about the space suits they wore to the moon. That was one problem they hadn't initially thought out, and then someone came up with the liquid cooled long underwear. One of the guys who tested it said at the beginning, they hadn't worked out the controls for the system. During the initial trials, he couldn't wait to get started with the physical labor part of the tests as once the cold water started pumping thru the suit, he was uncomfortably cold untill he got moving.

 

[SpringHollow]

Many of these vests are purchased by people working in boiler areas, nuclear power plants, and HVAC people working in hot attics.

Ken

 

[Danno1]

.

Similar product:

Black Ice Personal Cooling System, Neck Cooling, night sweats relief, hot flashes relief, night sweat relief, hot flash relief, gel pack, neck cooling, cooling vest, personal cooling system, ice packs, cooling bandanna

.

 

[texasjohn]

WARNING

AVAST antivirus found EXPLOIT malware at the site pointed to by danno1...

I recommend you not try it unless you wish to test your intrusion software

 

[Skipholiday]

WARNING

AVAST antivirus found EXPLOIT malware at the site pointed to by danno1...

I recommend you not try it unless you wish to test your intrusion software

Site seems safe. Avast may have not like the flash player at the beginning or the name blackice.

 

[Skyco]

Very interesting product! I seem to get too hot and sweaty too readily. Searching around I found a very inexpensive "crown cooler" to put in a hard hat. I wonder if the same theory applies that if you are cold put on a hat as a tremendous amount of heat is lost through the head. So I wonder if a "cool head" would be a significant help? Thoughts? Might buy one and try it, as my head seems to sweat a lot in hot weather, to the point I have to wear a sweat band to keep it out of my eyes...

 

[texasjohn]

AVAST does not willy-nilly emit a warning.... this is the 3rd I have ever had. The other two were from an oriental site I inadvertently surfed to. They are known to have malware on many of their sites.

Doesn't mean that it wasn't a false alarm... but I aborted loading it anyway.

 

[JRobyn]

Hmmm, I could use me one-o-them! But exactly which one to get?!?

There looks to be several suppliers:

Texas Cool Vest
Texas Cool Vest

Sta-Cool
STACOOL Vests - Welcome

ClimaTech
Cooling Vests Body Cooling Clothing ClimatechSafety

GlacierTek
The Original Cool Vest - Body Cooling Vest Ice Vest - Glacier Tek

and

ArcticHeat
Cooling Vests - Body Cooling Vest - Cool Vest - Ice Cooling Vests - MS Cooling Vests- ARCTIC HEAT USA

Probably others as well.

The GlacierTek and ArcticHeat appear to be lightweight and intended mostly for athletics. The StaCool and Texas appear to have models made of tough materials and a design suitable for WORK.

Anyone have specific user experience with various supplier's products other than the Texas?

- Jay

 

[SpringHollow]

My BIL has the artic heat and likes it but he uses it for keeping cool during low level activities.

The other day, i doubled up on the cooling packets on the Texas Cool Vest and that worked well also. It really surprises me but the vests are designed so well, I do not notice the weight.

I personally could not use one that had a phase transition temperature colder than this (Texas Cool Vest is 65 ｰ F). But I do know what I will look like if i gain 10 lbs.

I read where there is one designed for the Marines where the phase change is at 85ｰ F so that they can regenerate them in the field without needing electricity, etc. If you think about it, even if it was hotter than that out, burying them slightly would be enough to cool them below 85.

Ken

 

[Defective]

Very interesting product! I seem to get too hot and sweaty too readily. Searching around I found a very inexpensive "crown cooler" to put in a hard hat. I wonder if the same theory applies that if you are cold put on a hat as a tremendous amount of heat is lost through the head. So I wonder if a "cool head" would be a significant help? Thoughts? Might buy one and try it, as my head seems to sweat a lot in hot weather, to the point I have to wear a sweat band to keep it out of my eyes...

If the price is reasonable, buy it.

I started wearing a bump cap in the paint shop to have a place to put something with a similar name. Typical summer temperatures in the paint shop tend to be around 40 Celsius & require a break out in the cooler fab shop at least twice an hour. the "top-chill" product we used meant we kept forgetting to take the mandatory heat breaks. Drove the H&S guy nuts...

 

[stevetim]

@ texasjohn:

We noticed your AVAST issue post on this forum concerning our website, Black Ice Personal Cooling System, Neck Cooling, night sweats relief, hot flashes relief, night sweat relief, hot flash relief, gel pack, neck cooling, cooling vest, personal cooling system, ice packs, cooling bandanna. Black Ice takes website security issues very seriously, so we immediately took steps to determine the problem. We have attempted to duplicate the issue you experienced (EXPLOIT malware), but have been unable to do so with either AVAST or AVG, and we have reviewed the code for the site and found no issues. If you continue to see this error, we would appreciate hearing from you. You may email us at info@blackicecooling if you have any other issues, concerns or questions. We apologize for the inconvenience.

 

[texasjohn]

Stevetim, thanks for looking into it... I tried the link in your most recent post and went there with NO MESSAGE FROM AVAST.

Thus, I rescind my comment regarding the site. It is a good site to visit...and the products look awesome, wished I had such a vest today...working outside in 99 degree heat! Been over 100 30 plus days this year so far... and we are just now getting into August!

Avast, as you may know, updates itself automatically and daily (feature I am extremely happy with) thus whatever it WAS seeing at that time has been fixed (either by your site or by them adjusting their malware scanner).

Net..you get my thanks for taking care to keep your site problem free... and for posting on TBN... welcome... stick around and join in our discussions