Veskimo Cooling Vest

[Richard_D]

[Kathy R]

That's a nice solution but, for $327.00 for the 4.4 qt. version, I may stick with my $35 Hoon Cooler. If you ride often enough in hot & humid weather it might well be worth the investment.

 

I didn't read through all the literature, but I wonder how tigthly you can fold that vest without compromising anything?

[Heck]

Kathy- I've had mine since 2009 and its a great alternative to a soaker type vest- especially in higher humidity. You can fold the vest loosely for a temporary time (ie while on trips) but I wouldn't leave it folded up to store it- they sent me large diameter rubber tubing to slip over the hangars for long term storage. I just make sure I don't use wire hangars to hang it up and it has been fine.

Doesn't work really well wearing air mesh jackets as the ice melts too quickly- Less hot air flowing through the vest seems to conserve ice and maintain a cooler core environment. I guess with a liner the air mesh would work ok.

BTW I have the same cooler setup as in the video- the large cooler. Block ice lasts 3-4 hours, cubes around 2 - 2 1/2 hours.

[Kathy R]

Kathy- I've had mine since 2009 and its a great alternative to a soaker type vest- especially in higher humidity. You can fold the vest loosely for a temporary time (ie while on trips) but I wouldn't leave it folded up to store it- they sent me large diameter rubber tubing to slip over the hangars for long term storage. I just make sure I don't use wire hangars to hang it up and it has been fine.

Doesn't work really well wearing air mesh jackets as the ice melts too quickly- Less hot air flowing through the vest seems to conserve ice and maintain a cooler core environment. I guess with a liner the air mesh would work ok.

BTW I have the same cooler setup as in the video- the large cooler. Block ice lasts 3-4 hours, cubes around 2 - 2 1/2 hours.

 

Thanks Heck

 

By block ice are you talking about those blue plastic things you freeze or blocks of ice? I do like the 16oz bottle idea. As long as you have a freezer at night you can be ready for the next day. I'm assuming that the 4.4 qt might not be the way to go then?

 

I stopped wearing my mesh jacket long ago and opt for creating AC in my Olympia AST with all the zippers shut. The Hoon has been great, but only in dry heat. The last time I was in Delaware in the summer I could barely handle the humidity.

 

I would consider this expenditure if I had enough riding in high humidity, but I almost always head west. I've tabbed the link.

[smiller]

I just make sure I don't use wire hangars to hang it up and it has been fine.

How many time have I told you, no wire hangers!

 

I owned a Veskimo when I lived in Texas and they pretty much work as advertised. An evaporative vest is useless (actually worse than useless) in high humidity. I had been concerned that the Veskimo might be cumbersome to use but it isn't really, very easy to connect/disconnect and the vest packs up pretty small (although you do have to use some caution.) The water-cooling was pretty effective but I would say that it made riding in a Texas summer tolerable, but still not any fun. IOW, do not expect it to replace dash A/C blowing in your face, and riding in the heat will still suck.

[Rex R]

I tried the veskimo with the following results. When wearing it under perforated jacket, the ice did not last long at all. Their website warned of that and recommends wearing a solid jacket over the vest to create a "micro-climate" which the vest can (theoretically) effectively maintain.

 

 

Even using the tupperware he supplies to create two (roughly) one-quart blocks of ice, filling the rest of the resevoir with ice cubes and adding one pint of ice water right out of the fridge, the system only provided a couple of hours of cooling. Emptying the resevoir by triggering the hose (as demonstrated in the video) takes forever. Much quicker to just unhook the reservoir from the bike and dump it. But re-charging the system with a bag of ice from a gas station/7-11/whereever provides even shorter cooling duration than using the blocks of ice. Using almost ANY color other than BLACK for the reservoir would have extended the cooling duration. Why he would use BLACK for an ice cooler, I can't fathom.

 

I'm surprised so many people sing its praises for high humidity environments. I used it in a humid region and found myself constantly cool and clammy especially when wearing a solid jacket) because my t-shirt was continually getting soaked with condensation. Every few minutes I was opening and clsing vents on my jacket to alternately dry off or keep cool. Not the safest way to ride. I called the manufacturer about the condensation issue and they stated that most of their customers are in drier states and don't have issue with this. I don't how true this is, but I pass it on FWIW.

 

If the reservoir needs to be refilled when ice is not readily available, that solid jacket becomes a a major drawback.

 

I wish the hose was adjustable because I always seemed to get tangled in the hose and electrical wire mounting and dismounting the bike. The electrical wire would have been easy enough to modify, but because I wanted to retain the option to return the unit, I couldn't shorten the wire.

 

Clearly, I was less than sanguine with the product. However, they honored their money-back warranty, so I was only out $25 for shipping. They even extended they warranty period for me to give me the opportunity to try it during different conditions and better determine if it could work for me. I hope that one day they will improve the system to the extent that it warrants another try. But the current design is bulky, awkward, the cooling duration is too short and it is expensive.

 

YMMV.

[smiller]

I did experience some condensation (in Texas, fairly humid environment) but it was always fairly minimal and never caused me a problem, just a damp spot on my shirt here or there. I used the 4-quart cooler and never got the claimed 4 hours or whatever, but could always get an honest two hours or so and that was enough to provide a full run between gas stops (where you can refill the ice.) I also had no problems with the hose but that is something that will be very bike-dependent (where the cooler is mounted in relation to the rider, etc.).

 

Certainly not a perfect product (not sure there will ever be a perfect motorcycle cooling product) but it worked reasonably well for me. But indeed, this is a product where YMMV.

[Heck]

By block ice are you talking about those blue plastic things you freeze or blocks of ice? I do like the 16oz bottle idea. As long as you have a freezer at night you can be ready for the next day. I'm assuming that the 4.4 qt might not be the way to go then?

 

I usually freeze blocks of ice to stack/fit into the cooler with enough room for the 14-16oz of water required. Bad part is that thats only good for the first charge of the day. usually then go to bag ice from the quickie-mart. That does not last nearly as long, but is still good for an hour or two depending on usage.

As far as the 4.4 qt, I never tried the backpack, but originally ordered the 4.4 cooler. Was not happy with time of cool air and when discussing that with Veskimo, they offered to exchange for the 9 qt cooler with full credit for the smaller cooler. I guess if you have a 4 gallon gas tank you can prolly get by with the smaller cooler as you will be stopping every couple of hours anyway, but I didnt want to have to deal with that as often so I opted for the bigger cooler. Works fine. I too will look into the plastic water bottle idea- it looks like you can fit the bottles fairly tightly in the cooler, plus the rechargeability is a good sell. Might try that on the way to Torrey in a few weeks. Damn, we learn a lot from each other here !!!

[DiggerJim]

I too will look into the plastic water bottle idea- it looks like you can fit the bottles fairly tightly in the cooler, plus the rechargeability is a good sell.

If you get a 4-pack of those Glad or Tupperware squareish plastic containers you can freeze them and get the same effect as the bottles. But, when it all melts, just dump the water & stack the containers inside each other. Then you can add bagged ice and fill it up again. If you use the bottles once they're melted you have to do something with 8 plastic bottles in order to have room to fill it with cubed ice.

[kltk165]

Isn't a phase change vest performing the same task without the added paraphernalia? I don't have one so I can't speak to their effectiveness, or lack thereof.

[mwood7800]

I took the veskimo cooler and insulated it with. 1/2 in closed cell insulation. I used contact glue and took my time. It still fits in the cooler sleeve. I added a kayak adjustable baitwell timer. Works great now. I can get 5 hr with block ice at a min on and min off which works out great. More than a min on is too cold. After insulation the cooler it keeps ice for 3 days if not in use.

[Bud]

Funny.

 

When I had shoulder replacement, I got a very similar system except that the cooling tubes only covered my shoulder. I still have two coolers/pumps in my closet.

 

Someone took that idea and ran with it.

[racer7]

I make block ice when starting from home using a 2qt containers, chipping the second one off to fit. You could also do a 1qt plus a 2 qt plus some cubes On the road its gas station ice and the obvious problem is that the 9 qt container only holds 6 lbs, not a std 10 lb bag.

 

It does work well (use synthetic base layers, never cotton) but cannot provide a full day or run time and wastes purchased ice- despite carrying the reservoir in a BMW seat bag with added insulation and running it on a timer.

 

I've got an improvement in the works when I get time to finish it- putting the works in guts and tubing connections into a 13 qt Engel cooler, a fulled sealed rugged cooler meant for serious outdoor stuff, medical bits shipping, etc. Google it (or duckduckgo if you prefer anon searching)

[EddyQ]

racer7, are you saying you have a DIY modification or an DIY alternative?

 

A year or so ago I had the desire to build such a thing. It used CPU cooler pumps (found on gaming sites). You would need two. One for circulating vest coolant and another for ice water through a small heat exchanger. Never happend.

 

My added idea would be to try and leverage evaporation after the ice melted. There is more available cooling BTUs with evaporation than ice melting per pound of water/ice. I think I figured 5 pounds of ice if melted and envaporated would provide 95 Watts of cooling all day. Since our 93 Watt Gerbings is plenty of heat for cold, 93Watts should be enough for hot.

 

But how would you make an efficient system? And after reading this thread, how would you lessen the cold, condensing issues with the vest and also cool your noggin?

[Rex R]

I took the veskimo cooler and insulated it with. 1/2 in closed cell insulation. I used contact glue and took my time. It still fits in the cooler sleeve. I added a kayak adjustable baitwell timer. Works great now. I can get 5 hr with block ice at a min on and min off which works out great. More than a min on is too cold. After insulation the cooler it keeps ice for 3 days if not in use.

 

I thought additional insulation would improve the performance of the unit, too. Apparently so did the manufacturer, because he included a couple of pieces of insulation to fit between the plastic reservoir and the insulated bag. It seemed like all six sides (or at least 5 sides, skipping the top) should have the extra insulation. I called numerous times never really got an answer if the apparently insufficient number of removable insulation panels was an omission or intentional. Again, the choice of black for the cooler is unfathomable.

 

Props for finding and adapting a timer for use with the cooler. I was tempted to try his timer to balance the cooling and duration, but just didn't feel like spending the money on a product that didn't seem to be working out.

 

 

As I said in a previous post, I like the concept, but I think the designer/manufacturer went to production before the product was ready for market and is using his customers as beta testers. The on/off switch is not waterproof. So you might not want to use this unit in the rain. Of course no motorcyclist who invests $325 for a cooling system is the kind of biker who would ride in the rain! Having the tube carrying the water from reservoir to vest and back stick through an unzipped section of the cooler instead of designing a cooler that seals around the tubes/connections just seems like a lazy, cheap design. For $325, I think we deserved a better product.

[racer7]

eddyq

I am addressing only the low ice capacity by using the larger Engel cooler- same working guts as the original except for allowing for the slightly thicker wall of the cooler through which the fitting pass.

Can't do anything about your head on a bike- only a cooling bandanna around your neck.

 

FWIW, ice water has very little cooling power compared to solid ice, especially very cold solid ice. The energy of phase transition is greater than the heat amount that can be removed by liquid water, In any case, the ice water will circulate and is usable until it warms up so no changes are needed.

The Veskimo is not an evap cooler so the phase change energy of liquid water to water vapor is N/A. Evap coolers don't work well in humid areas in any case. I see nothing to be gained by a combo and in any case see no practical way of combining such divergent cooling methods.

If I lived where evap cooling worked I might use it- its cheaper and simpler.

 

There can be condensate around ones body- the Veskimo vest, being cold, condenses water from humid air. In my experience. synthetic base layers plus reasonable jacket venting (not a mesh jacket) handle it adequately.

Cotton will not- for all the usual reasons that make it a poor choice as a base layer.