PIREP on personal cooling jackets

iflyforfun

iflyforfun

Pre-takeoff checklist
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iflyforfun
So summer has arrived. For those of us that don't / can't add AC to the plane, it is time to suffer on the ground and climb quickly. I've looked at the Arctic Cooler type ice boxes, but cooling the entire cabin seems a bit of a waste.

I came across personal water cooled jackets and am just wondering if anyone here has personal experience. It looks like for <$300 I could suit up in one of these jackets (picture below - $300 includes jacket and ice box with pump).

Seems logical as an approach. You keep your core happy and you won't feel over heated. Seems to apply cooling to where you need it. I've had a few electric vests that I have used for the cold and they worked really well. Seems conceptually this should be a perfect application for aviation, but I've not seen it mentioned anywhere. I saw another company that had water cooled seat liners which again seem like a great idea, particularly for those of us with experimental aircraft but they wanted something like $800 per seat.

I spent a bit of time noodling over an icebox behind the rear seat with a drain in the floor and a hatch at the top. Foam/fiberglass construction would insulate pretty well and I could run some lines to each seat. Then, at $190/jacket I could probably cobble a whole plane cooling system together for around $1000.

Before I go and drop $350 on an experiment, thought I'd see if anyone has any 1st hand experience. I've read some pretty positive reviews in a motorcycle magazine (http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/model_eval/2011MayVeskimo.pdf) and I've also read that they have been used by military and in medical settings, so maybe someone here has experience.

Thoughts?
 

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  • veskimo-personal-cooling-vest-1-200.jpg
    veskimo-personal-cooling-vest-1-200.jpg
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Looks to me like climbing a tree to get a bird's nest that's already on the ground.

iflyforfun said:
So summer has arrived. For those of us that don't / can't add AC to the plane, it is time to suffer on the ground and climb quickly. I've looked at the Arctic Cooler type ice boxes, but cooling the entire cabin seems a bit of a waste.

I came across personal water cooled jackets and am just wondering if anyone here has personal experience. It looks like for <$300 I could suit up in one of these jackets (picture below - $300 includes jacket and ice box with pump).

Seems logical as an approach. You keep your core happy and you won't feel over heated. Seems to apply cooling to where you need it. I've had a few electric vests that I have used for the cold and they worked really well. Seems conceptually this should be a perfect application for aviation, but I've not seen it mentioned anywhere. I saw another company that had water cooled seat liners which again seem like a great idea, particularly for those of us with experimental aircraft but they wanted something like $800 per seat.

I spent a bit of time noodling over an icebox behind the rear seat with a drain in the floor and a hatch at the top. Foam/fiberglass construction would insulate pretty well and I could run some lines to each seat. Then, at $190/jacket I could probably cobble a whole plane cooling system together for around $1000.

Before I go and drop $350 on an experiment, thought I'd see if anyone has any 1st hand experience. I've read some pretty positive reviews in a motorcycle magazine (http://www.mcnews.com/mcn/model_eval/2011MayVeskimo.pdf) and I've also read that they have been used by military and in medical settings, so maybe someone here has experience.

Thoughts?
Click to expand...
 
I can say from personal experience that they work very well. Ours are vests that hold frozen packs of blue gel. I work in an environment that is often 130-150* outside. They are heavy and I am not sure they would be comfortable and useful in the plane for such a short time. They do work but might be a PIA for this application.
 
I can't give you personal experience about the jacket, but I had a bone spur removed from my right shoulder in 2008 (?) and they provided a similar device to wrap around my shoulder. There was a small ice chest that you filled with ice and water, and an aquarium pump circulated the cold water through the cooling wrap that went around my shoulder.

It worked very well - the technology is straightforward and there is no reason it shouldn't work for a vest too.

But I'd get the whole cabin device (or make one) before I tried a vest like that. You'd only need it a few minutes a flight and your passengers would probably appreciate the cool air too...

Also, the cabin cooler doesn't look goofy. ;-)
 
Foxhole said:
Ours are vests that hold frozen packs of blue gel. I work in an environment that is often 130-150* outside. They are heavy and I am not sure they would be comfortable and useful in the plane for such a short time. They do work but might be a PIA for this application.
Click to expand...

Same here. I used them inside hazmat fully-encapsulating suits, and they worked great. Not sure about comfort sitting in a plane, though.

My concern with the pump-driven ones is that you are now connected to something in the back seat, by tubes that could easily prevent you from egressing the plane in an emergency. Especially if the tubes hang up on the seat or something like that.

I would explore the ice vests, but would never use something with tubes.
 
Foxhole said:
I can say from personal experience that they work very well. Ours are vests that hold frozen packs of blue gel. I work in an environment that is often 130-150* outside. They are heavy and I am not sure they would be comfortable and useful in the plane for such a short time. They do work but might be a PIA for this application.
Click to expand...

I've seen those and the blocks look kind of uncomfortable. I've read that these are very light because ice water is kept in separate box, so all you really wear is a light jacket.
 
Foxhole said:
I can say from personal experience that they work very well. Ours are vests that hold frozen packs of blue gel. I work in an environment that is often 130-150* outside. They are heavy and I am not sure they would be comfortable and useful in the plane for such a short time. They do work but might be a PIA for this application.
Click to expand...

The "for such a short time" is a pretty good point. I think it would be effective, but you're right that you'd put it on for the duration of the flight and only use it for 20%-30% of the flight depending on distance.

I saw someone else comment on all the pipes in the cabin. That is the advantage of an experimental ... I could route everything just the way I want it and you'd only have a quick-disconnect at each seat.

I'm not hung up on looks, but your comment on duration of use makes a lot of sense. Additionally, I'm not sure I want to wrap my entire body in a something that could melt in a fire and I hadn't really considered that. Maybe I'll spend a bit more time looking at either the seat cooler version or how I could rig up the ice-box style air conditioner without giving up a seat.
 
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