heat is on! Do cooling vests work?
 

I know a lot of threads have been started about cooling vests but here is yet another one.

Do they actually work? Which one is good and where did you get it? Worth the price? Bulky?

The heat is on here and sure would be nice if cooling vests "worked."

I havent tried a cooling vest yet, but I've had good luck so far with wet bandannas wrapped around my wrists (or around the back of my neck)

It's interesting how a wet bandanna wrapped around my wrist makes the rest of my body feel cooler. I dont know why that works sometimes.

I also do well with the cooling bandanas. around the wrist, the neck, and the head work great.

I ordered a vest thru a company, and havent heard if I qualified for help with it yet. Time will tell.

I used to have a cool bandanna. I have no clue where it might have gone.

It is so hot here right now. I drive for 3 hours in a delivery path on Fridays. It is getting more difficult to do.:(

I have no clue which one to consider plus I would love to hear from someone that actually has used it.:(:(

Dej - I know you were the last one to start a thread about the vests.:) I hope you get approved.

my bandannas arent anything special. Just buy them at Hobby Lobby when they're on sale. My dad uses them a lot.

I have a few that I got when I used to go to concerts when I was younger.

Right now, the bandanna that I've been using recently is one that I got at a KISS concert (the Animalize tour probably...)

I have a love/hate relationship with my cooling vest. I love it because it works. I hate it because it looks like a police mans bullet proof vest! But it does work. I wish I had more cooling thingys. It comes with these things that you put in front and in back but I can't sit against anything with them in the back. So I just use the front ones. We have an amusement park close by that doesn't allow coolers in the park unless you have a doctors order to carry something so i do have that. But I can't keep them frozen in there. So they don't last me all day. So i guess some one could say, Joyce you shouldn't go all day. But I want to!

I got it free through the MSAA cooling vest program. Go to their website and they will send you the info so you can get a script form your doctor and you will get a vest and some other cooling products all for free. It says you are only borrowing them but I have had mine for years and they have never asked for them back. They also have some other financial aide programs on their website.

I have a cooling vest, but the only issue I have with it is that mine only works for a couple of hours. When it's done - It heats me up like nothing I've ever seen. :eek: Think the ones that you can refill to keep it cool are better, but haven't had the heart to get another one.

I also find the bandanas, cooling scarves, etc. on the back of the neck work just as well. The hands, feet, and head are good places to start the cooling off process. I've also been known to pop into ladies rooms to run cold water on my hands to help with the overheating. When it gets warm out, I either wear my crocs (they have air holes) or sandles. My feet get way too hot if I wear anything else.

I LOVE my Croc shoes!

Which reminds me....I need new ones.

I love that I can get my Crocs wet and not have to worry about them being soggy and having to dry them before wearing them again. Only problem is that I usually wear socks with my Crocs. On a vacation I went on a few years ago to Sioux Falls, SD, I wore my Crocs...it was a hot weekend, and we went to see the Falls that Sioux Falls is named for, and I ended up sticking my feet in the water at a calm spot to wet my feet down. (took my socks off first) Kept my shoes on. Cooled me off.

I stopped at every water fountain and bought bottled water wherever I could that weekend.

Too bad I was dumb enough to not take any water with me on the walk we took in a quarry in Minnesota that same weekend. (trail was almost two miles long, and it was a really hot weekend. Can you say "heat stroke"?)

I dont think I could do a walk like that now. Maybe I could have two months ago, but after my latest flare, my feet start to drag after about 15 minutes when shopping at WalMart. My feet will go more numb if it's hotter than 78 degrees outside now too.

I'm wondering if there's a way make shoes that you can stick in a freezer that would keep my feet cool when going on a walk. (wonder if I can suggest something to the people who make Crocs?)

I received a Steele cooling vest (with detachable collar) free through the MSAA cooling equipment program. I also got wristbands with frozen inserts that look a little like popsicles. They work really well.

There's also a wheelchair cushion with inserts that you freeze. It's very effective.

--All of these products work well for only a few hours, as others have said. That is a drawback if you're out somewhere and would like to stay cool for longer than that.

I never had one. I wish I had when I was younger and active, Now, I just hibernate in the A/C. (thank you God):)

I couldn't make through the spring and summer without my cooling vest. I've had one since 2001 and I love it. Yes, when I wear it I look like I have put on at least 10 pounds, but I'm comfortable.

Mine has the chemical pack inserts that freeze solid in 20 minutes, last about 4 hours and refreeze in 20 minutes. They freeze solid at only 64 degrees. Developed by NASA. Honestly, I couldn't even get through church on Sunday without it. I really need a new one since I've gained substantial weight since I first bought it.

Well worth the investment. I think you get to a point with these diseases and life in general, who cares what you look like as long as you're comfortable.

Craig, where did you get your cooling vest at? Who's the manufacturer? How much did it cost?

Alot depends on what you want to do with it, how long you want it to work, and what access you have to coolers/refridgerators. I looked into alot of different products to help me ride my bike more in the heat.

What I found was that the vests really capable of keeping up with the level of heat I was producing internally for more than a few minutes were the ones with blue ice packs in pockets and they were way too heavy and bulky and couldn't be replenished easily on the road unless I had somebody carrying a cooler full of the replacement packs.

The lighter weight vests just couldn't keep me cool very long and once they were spent on cooling ability, they trapped heat against my body and made the heat worse.

So if you are doing really heavy physical activity, none of them will likely work very well for very long unless you have access to a fridge to keep extra cold packs in. If you are just wanting something so you can be in a warm place without dying of heat, but won't be doing much activity, the vests with cool packs will work well, as will the ones that use evaporative cooling.

What I do on the bike when I know it will be hot is just always carry an extra bottle of plain water to dump over my head periodically to keep it cool. The wind blowing across my head wicks alot of water out of my hair even under my helmet and takes alot of heat with it.

One option for cooling yourself that is better than a plain bandanna and only requires access to water to activate are the Cool Cloths from Heyltex (http://www.heyltex.com/32degrees.php). I got some samples from them and plan to do a bulk buy to sell as a fundraiser for the MS150 next year.

Like I said above, they can't keep up with really heavy heat production like cycling in the summer, but they are great to use to cool down afterwards, or to keep cool when walking around or standing in the heat. The best part about them is that you don't have to stick them in a freezer or fridge...they just use water to generate the cooling.

After researching on the internet back in 2001, I purchased a "CoolSport" vest from http://www.coolsport.net/index2.html . You'll find it under Cool Lite category and at the time it cost about $112 and has lasted performing well, all of these years. I still use it.

Regarding access to refrigeration/freezer to refreeze the inserts. Mine is designed so it will freeze at 64 degrees simply by placing it into an ice cooler with ice or ice water will freeze them solid in about 20 minutes. When wearing it I'm reminded of the bullet proof vest I used to wear as a police officer years ago when they first came out.

Hope this helps. There are so many on the market now and I'm sure the technology is greatly improved.

Craig,

I don't doubt that under normal exertion usage, that vest works like a charm. My main problem with all of them has been that in 85F-90+F weather, when I am riding hard, I will heat one of those vests from 64F to 85-90F in about 5-10 minutes, and then instead of cooling, it begins to function as a heat trap and makes me hotter instead of cooler. Since break points on most rides are 10-15 miles apart (~40-60 minutes riding), I would get about 10 minutes of benefit and 30-50 minutes of harm out of a vest before I could change out the inserts.

If I instead start with the inserts cooled to 20-30F, then I can get longer usage before they become ineffective, but then I have to have a fridge or freezer to keep replacements that cold. Now if I could just get a little mini fridge powered by the bike wheel and mounted on a rack behind the seat, I would be set...