#103877 - 08/29/07 12:55 AM
(Phase Change) Cooling Vests: Worth the $$?
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Addict
Registered: 04/21/05
Posts: 484
Loc: Anthem, AZ USA
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Has anyone had occasion to use these in hot climates, either on-the-job or recreationally? Effective? Bulky? Worth the money? Couple of the many products on the market: Texas Cool VestCool VestCool SportThanks.
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"Things that have never happened before happen all the time." — Scott Sagan, The Limits of Safety
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#103922 - 08/29/07 09:16 AM
Re: (Phase Change) Cooling Vests: Worth the $$?
[Re: ]
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Addict
Registered: 04/21/05
Posts: 484
Loc: Anthem, AZ USA
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Izzy -
Thanks for the useful input.
_________________________
"Things that have never happened before happen all the time." — Scott Sagan, The Limits of Safety
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#103944 - 08/29/07 02:01 PM
Re: (Phase Change) Cooling Vests: Worth the $$?
[Re: ]
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Addict
Registered: 02/02/03
Posts: 647
Loc: North Texas
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I'd like to read that paper. When was it written and in what journal do you know? Augmenting the bodies built in mechanism for dissipating or retaining heat is probably the only effective way for thermoregulation, IMO. A guy I went to school with who's a Doctor now wrote a paper on various forms of moist and dry heat as well as cooling through the introduction of wet towels, dry hot towels and chemical gels that retained heat or cold. He basically found that it only confuses the body.
I think he found that three of his "subjects" (Fellow friends. Myself included.) ended up getting symptoms of heat exhaustion quicker than the average because skin temp went down, but core temperature went up in response to the cooling of the skin. In the end you end up twice as hot twice as quick. You end up sweating eitherway.
Twenty years after the first "Cold Climate Vest" was made for those twin boys who were born without sweat glands they (Johns Hopkins, I believe) found that there is no real way to properly control the cooling/warming of the human body in a safe and productive way.
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#104001 - 08/29/07 10:25 PM
Re: (Phase Change) Cooling Vests: Worth the $$?
[Re: jshannon]
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HTMLSpinnr
Unregistered
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My wife uses the Cool Vest to help keep cool when spending any significant amount of time outdoors in AZ (6-7 months out of the year it's "warm"). She has MS, and is sensitive to heat as it exacerbates her symptoms. The vest seems to stay at 60ish degrees for several hours, until the "solid" liquifies. You can then toss the phase change packs in the fridge, freezer, or even a bucket of ice to get them to change back.
For the most part, they work fairly well. I imagine if wrapped in a jacket, they'd do a bit better so that they'd absorb more body heat than ambient. The temperature at which they phase change isn't so cold that it's uncomfortable or causes frost bite (unlike ice).
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#104038 - 08/30/07 05:16 AM
Re: (Phase Change) Cooling Vests: Worth the $$?
[Re: ]
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Addict
Registered: 04/21/05
Posts: 484
Loc: Anthem, AZ USA
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My wife uses the Cool Vest to help keep cool when spending any significant amount of time outdoors in AZ Thanks for sharing your wife's experience Rick. Guess I can safely assume that if they work in Surprise, they'll work in Anthem.  I was exploring the feasibility of using to make my warm-weather ATV rides a bit more comfortable. Dan
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"Things that have never happened before happen all the time." — Scott Sagan, The Limits of Safety
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#104149 - 08/31/07 03:12 PM
Re: (Phase Change) Cooling Vests: Worth the $$?
[Re: xbanker]
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Old Hand
Registered: 12/14/05
Posts: 988
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I've had luck with cooling bandanas -- evaporating bandannas tro
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#104153 - 08/31/07 04:07 PM
Re: (Phase Change) Cooling Vests: Worth the $$?
[Re: ]
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Pooh-Bah
Registered: 09/15/05
Posts: 2485
Loc: California
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...skin temp went down, but core temperature went up in response to the cooling of the skin... Just a guess, but I suspect that this phenomenon occurs because the skin temperature gets cold enough that the body reflexively starts to limit the amount of blood flowing to the skin (i.e. vasoconstriction). Unfortunately, the core of your body dissipates heat by sending the "hot" blood to your skin where it can be cooled down, so this vasoconstriction works against you when your body is hot. I think a product that moderately cools you (maybe 50-60 degrees?), as opposed to something that sticks a frozen chunk of ice or gel next to you, can avoid this vasoconstriction and also improve core cooling. Izzy, how cold was the product you were using? Very cold?
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#104156 - 08/31/07 04:30 PM
Re: (Phase Change) Cooling Vests: Worth the $$?
[Re: teacher]
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Addict
Registered: 04/21/05
Posts: 484
Loc: Anthem, AZ USA
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Yep, I've been using one of those for last two years. When I first bought and got it home, thought I'd been "had" –– couldn't imagine it "swelling up" as advertised (but of course, it did).
_________________________
"Things that have never happened before happen all the time." — Scott Sagan, The Limits of Safety
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