sephson
Well-known member
I know there's already a thread from several years ago on this subject, but I found it less than informative and thought that a fresh start would be a better approach than trying to build on a long dead and buried thread.
I've recently begun wearing cooling vests at work as a way of dealing with warmer temperatures. Ive found them to be pretty effective at keeping me relatively comfortable in hot weather.
There are three basic types of cooling vests, circulating, ice pack and evaporative.
I have no experience with circulating vests. They're expensive, in the several hundred dollars range and require you to carry a water supply for circulation.
One of the cooling vests I use at work is an ice pack style. Essentially, you put ice packs in pockets sewn into the vest. The ice packs help to cool you down. I'm not too thrilled with this style. They're pricey (The cheapest one I found was $95.), much like the circulating vests and frankly, don't do a very good job of cooling me down. They're great for icing sore back muscles though. The only reason I have one is that I can't safely wear an evaporative vest while doing electrical work.
I have two of the evaporative style, and the scene shop has two more. You use an evaporative cooling vest by soaking it in water and then wearing it. Basically, you're wearing your own, personal, passive swamp cooler I've found that an evaporative cooling vest drops my perception of the ambient temperature by 5 to 10 degrees for about three hours. I'm quite pleased with how well these have worked for me. More importantley, they're not prohibitively expensive. You can find one in the $30 to 60$ range from various industrial and motorcycle suppliers.
While not a cure all by any stretch of the imagination, I think a cooling vest is worth looking into as a method of dealing with the heat.
I've recently begun wearing cooling vests at work as a way of dealing with warmer temperatures. Ive found them to be pretty effective at keeping me relatively comfortable in hot weather.
There are three basic types of cooling vests, circulating, ice pack and evaporative.
I have no experience with circulating vests. They're expensive, in the several hundred dollars range and require you to carry a water supply for circulation.
One of the cooling vests I use at work is an ice pack style. Essentially, you put ice packs in pockets sewn into the vest. The ice packs help to cool you down. I'm not too thrilled with this style. They're pricey (The cheapest one I found was $95.), much like the circulating vests and frankly, don't do a very good job of cooling me down. They're great for icing sore back muscles though. The only reason I have one is that I can't safely wear an evaporative vest while doing electrical work.
I have two of the evaporative style, and the scene shop has two more. You use an evaporative cooling vest by soaking it in water and then wearing it. Basically, you're wearing your own, personal, passive swamp cooler I've found that an evaporative cooling vest drops my perception of the ambient temperature by 5 to 10 degrees for about three hours. I'm quite pleased with how well these have worked for me. More importantley, they're not prohibitively expensive. You can find one in the $30 to 60$ range from various industrial and motorcycle suppliers.
While not a cure all by any stretch of the imagination, I think a cooling vest is worth looking into as a method of dealing with the heat.
