Is anyone using one? Not the evaporative type, but the kind with the gel packs that remain about 60 degrees for a few hours? I’ve had heat exhaustion twice so my heat tolerance isn’t great, and I live in Louisiana. If the heat doesn’t get you, the humidity will.
I ordered this one from Germany and it’s amazing:
http://shop.e-cooline.de/de/shop/index?catID=1#
It’s short, hits above the belly button, but works very well and for a very long time. They also have a cooling shirt, a helmet liner and other products made from the same materials. Not cheap but I can say it was worth it.
Unfortunately, they are not shipping to the US yet but I suppose you could email and ask if they would consider it. (I ordered through family.)
Looks neat, but it relies on evaporation of water. Which doesn’t work at 95% humidity. I might go ahead and order one of the phase change ones.
If you do, I hope you will report back on how it works. The evaporative cooling vests and neckwraps are useless here in Florida in the summer, and the older I get, the more trouble I have handling the heat.
I’m going to get one. Waiting till closer to payday because I don’t want to take the money out of my savings acct.
careful, these new products make you feel that you are cooler but do nothing to change your internal body temperature. Firefighters have suits with refrigerants in them to survive the high heat of fires. These actually cool the body like your home AC. Unfortunately these cool vests only fool the brain into thinking you are cooler. That can be dangerous, after you reach a certain internal high temperature you’re going to die,nothing can save you.
I also can no longer tolerate heat, don’t sweat so have researched this looking for a way to be outside in the summer. Nada , Soaking your clothes with cool water works till they dry out. The evaporation may cool you as long as humidity is low.
sadly i can’t ride or hike in the summer.
[QUOTE=walkers;7652670]
careful, these new products make you feel that you are cooler but do nothing to change your internal body temperature. [/QUOTE]
This doesn’t make sense to me. How do they “fool” your brain into thinking you’re cooler yet do nothing to actually cool you off?
Edited to add that I think maybe you’re talking about the ice pack-type cooling vests where you can have a risk of vasoconstriction. My assumption was that Hampton Bay was talking about the newer material phase change vests that maintain a higher (but still cool) temp and these do not have the same potential issues.
The phase change vests to provide cooling to the body. They maintain a temp of 60 degrees for a few hours. There is no “feel cool but still overheat and die” with them. When they no longer have cooling ability, they don’t feel cool.
The body releases heat from the skin. Cooling at the surface is what cools the inner organs. The treatment for heat stroke, where the internal temp has reached dangerous levels, is to cool the outside of the body quickly. It’s just not possible to cool the outside without cooling the core unless blood flow to the skin has almost ceased. It’s how the body is designed to work.
I don’t have humidity here so I can use the evaporative ones. I can’t tolerate the heat either. My core temp will rise and then I can’t cool down so I have to be very careful!! If you can keep your core cool, it will really help. When it’s in the 100’s, forget it, I just don’t go out.
I experimented with my cooling vest. I went out for a ride with it and I kept feeling my chest and stomach area, very cool to the touch and I felt good. Then I went out for a ride without it and I started to heat up. Touched my stomach area and it was hot and clammy and I was starting to feel quite sick after an hour.
Ok folks read the research, its core temperature that counts. Every yr. many healthy people die from heat stroke, once you start overheating its very difficult to stop that process even in the hospital. The information is available on line , basic human physiology, don’t trust me just read it.
I’m a poster person for heat stroke. My body cannot cool down like a normal person. Dr. thinks it’s from repeated dehydration during my endurance years. I’ve been taken to the ER a few times from it. I have LEARNED now to listen to my body. I ride with my cooling vest if it’s above 85 degrees but I still don’t go out for HOURS. My limit is 2 hours. And if it’s going to be 100 degrees, I don’t go out period. people can feel differently on what their body is telling them but mine… I will start with a slight headache and I start to get a lazy feeling. Next will come nausea. I try and get inside cool before that hits. And when your body starts to feel really hot, get in somewhere cool quickly. Oh and for me, it doesn’t matter how much I drink. My body just gets hotter and hotter
[QUOTE=walkers;7671619]
Ok folks read the research, its core temperature that counts. Every yr. many healthy people die from heat stroke, once you start overheating its very difficult to stop that process even in the hospital. The information is available on line , basic human physiology, don’t trust me just read it.[/QUOTE]
Heat transfer is the key element. In order to prevent overheating, heat must be transferred from the body into the environment. This is how natural body cooling processes (sweating, vasodilation) work. If you can maintain or improve heat transfer, then you can reduce the rate of core temperature increase and reduce the risk of heat stroke.
Cooling vests/shirts/neckwraps/underwear are all designed to increase the rate of heat transfer from the body to the environment. Phase change materials act as heat sinks, theoretically as better heat sinks than the air around the body with no cooling devices being used. When the phase change is complete, the material no longer acts as a heat sink and is thus no longer useful for cooling.
There is ample research out there demonstrating that under some circumstances, use of phase change material cooling vests does reduce the rate of core temperature elevation. My superficial review impression is that they are most effective for relatively low intensity work in very hot, humid environments - which pretty much describes my riding during the summer.
I too have done much research into these vests as a safety professional for an industrial facility that is hotter in summer than the ambient temp. Think 120 degrees by out dryers. We could afford to purchase them for everybody, but the research that proves their effectiveness is solid. Sure they only last a couple hours before having to be recharged. But in 100 plus temps, every little bit helps. Firefighters use them, construction workers use them, among others, with good results. If they truly increased the risk of death, there would be more than fearmongering as to their danger. I’ve yet to see anything credible pointing to any danger of overheating above what is normally expected.
I’ve yet to order one though. Dang horse won’t keep shoes on.
I’m happy to see this topic. I thought I was the only one with overheating problems! It’s nearly August in Arizona and I’m doing most of my outdoor chores after midnight. Tried a cooling vest that used 9 ice pack inserts last summer, but it seemed like the bulk of the vest partly counteracted the cooling effect of the ice, and made it not worth the nuisance of freezing and inserting the packs.
Since it’s pretty dry here, I might try an evaporative vest next. It’ll go with my collection of evaporative neck wraps, which do help a little.
