FlexiFreeze Ice Vest - Personal Cooling Cold Vest for Heat Relief, Navy

I bought this vest in anticipation of doing some work on our property in 114 degree weather (Arizona). We had a bunch of fill dirt to move around in a Bobcat - everything was set up weeks in advance so I just had to grin and bear it. It's a pretty simple design and the level of adjustability (velcro, elastic cords) makes it look and feel a bit cheap, but it's perfectly functional. The thin layer of neoprene on the outside (blue) makes a good insulating layer to keep ambient heat from getting in to make sure most of the heat is sucked out of your body instead. The ice panels are easy to swap out and I found the vest pretty easy to adjust - perhaps because I read the directions and opened the little velcro compartments on the front that let out all the elastic cord so it can expand to size. I'm 6'2/210lb and it fits me just fine. On to the effectiveness - this vest is COLD. I was sitting in the cab of a Bobcat in 95-114 degree heat (morning to early afternoon) and although I would say it's actually painfully cold with just a thin T-shirt on (the ice is basically pressed against you directly - so wear a thick shirt if it's too intense), that's not really cold enough when it's that hot out so I guess it's as cold as it needs to be. In that extreme heat I got about 2 hours before most of the vest was melted. I swapped ice packs in the deep freeze and got another 2 hours, but when those were toast the first packs were not re-frozen again. I'd estimate it probably takes 5-6 hours to freeze them so if you want to have cold continuously - you need 2 or 3 sets of ice panels. I plan to buy at least one more set. Although it's intensely cold - it managed to make me mostly forget about the oppressive heat while I was working the Bobcat and I got hours of work done in conditions that would have otherwise probably made me sick. I was still sweating a little, but it made a big difference. A couple of times I had to get out to do stuff by hand like heft around rocks, etc. and it was not enough to keep up under those circumstances - but it was sure better than nothing. For anyone who lives in a hot area and does anything outside - this vest really helps. Away from the house - if you had a cooler and 2-3 extra packs I bet you could get 8 hours of dramatically increased comfort working outside. I'm looking forward to the other ways I can use this vest in the future - it's basically the equivalent of a great winter coat in a cold winter blizzard for those of us that have moved to warmer climes.

Not built for busty women and it smells like chemicals

I work in a factory in their warehouse where temps are in the 90s and sometimes 100s. I bought this to help me survive, but was leary of spending $99. This product helped kepp my core temp cool. Not only that, but I was able to work longer and stay focused when everyone else is on the verge of dropping. I am so sold on this product tgat I'm trying to get work to buy a few for target areas. Reason being, it improved my daily life at work and after work. Now I don't stagger home and die every day! The bungie cords on the sides can extend a lot and I'm just over 200 lbs with a lot of leftover bungie. The only issues with the velcro so far is it tends to catch on my hand and shoulder brace as well as my hair net at work when I am putting it back on. Yes there is some condensation, but I would be soaked with sweat anyways, so I'll take the condensation and being more comfortable in my work environment. I suggest buying at least one back up set of ice packs with the panels. These last 1-2 hours for me. I also but the pack of 3 ice cube sheets with 88 cubes to cut up and replace in the panels, so I have 4 refills altogether for a work day. I suggest rounding the edges to make installments easier. There is no doubt you won't win the office fashion award, and I wish these ame in yellow with safety reflectors so I could eliminate an extra piece of gear, but I am extremely satisfied and envied by all my heat suffering coworkers. If you are bigger than what the bungie cords will stretch to, call customer service and ask for longer bungies to be sent. I saw one reviewer mention this issue. **It's been 2 years since I purchased this vest and a back set of refill panels. I love this! It's durable and does its job great. Still working in a factory and can't recommend this enough. On a side note, if you get the vest, I recommend getting 1 back up set of the inserts for quick exchange. If you don't have the luxury of being able to change out the individual sections when you need too, of course more would be good if you can afford it. I highly recommend buying the 3 pack sheets of ice cubes, 88 cubes in a sheet, and cutting them up in sections just like what comes in the panels for the vest. It's like $21 for those 3 sheets vs one set of backup panels for $34.just round the corners as you cut so they slide in better.

If you only need 1 to 2 hours of cooling a day at most, then this vest is perfect for your use case. I've used this vest for yard work and bicycle rides in 85F+ weather with high humidity (southern coastal virginia) and this vest keeps me cool for about 1.5 hours. Which is perfect as neither of these activities normally last more than 2 hours for me. This vest is also great when it comes to cooling power. It's literally ice for the cooling medium. As long as there is ice in the pack, it'll maintain a upper 30's to low 40's temperature for most of the time you'll be wearing this. This will last about an hour before the Ice pack melts and it takes about another half hour till the (now water) packs to reach body/ambient air temperature. So if you're needing that high cooling potential, this is better than evaporative or phase change vests (phase change vest will maintain its cooling in the upper 50's for example) Now for the cons: The number 1 con for me about this product is the long freezing times. Unlike other type of cooling vest (gel and phase change) that can be refrozen in a couple of hours or less, this vest can easily take 12 hours "or more" to refreeze the packs solid. Even in a -10F freezer, I've see these ice packs not be completely frozen after 12 hours (some cubes in the pack are still liquid). So even in my case where I don't usually need the vest twice in the same day, you might still need a 2nd set of ice packs to handle the next day as the previous day ice pack might not be fully frozen (say you were working on the yard late in the day and didn't get the ice back it the freezer till 9PM (after letting it dry out from condensation), It might not be ready for the bicycle ride at 9AM the next day that you're planning to do). So if you're looking at this vest for long term endurance (4+ hours), I would look at another vest that can be "recharged"/refreeze quickly like gel or phase change vests. Won't have the long powerful cooling potential of ICE but if you have limited space in the freezer, you could potentially getting away with 2 cooling packs sets of those solutions (as 1 set should be recharged by the time the current cooling packs have started to warm up) vs the 3(+) pack sets you'll need with this flexifreeze ice vest. The only other con I can come up with (not that big of a deal for me) is condensation this vest makes. If you were hoping for a dry shirt (as you should be wearing a shirt between you and the vest) instead of a wet and sweaty shirt, well this vest will stop the sweat but.... it will still make your shirt wet. It just with water condensed from the air instead. Basically, if you leave a cup of ice water out and the outside of the cup becomes wet with condensation, expect there to be condensation with this vest for your area. Maybe this won't happen in the dry desert, but in a humid place like the east/gulf coasts, expect there to be condensation you'll want to dry out before refreezing. Beyond that, build quality and sizing is what I expected (although proper fit is a trial and error type of thing with this vest...) It's not too bulky nor too stiff for the task im doing with this vest (yard work and cycling). Only thing I'd would request for Flexifreeze to do is to give the personal vest more color options like red, green, black, yellow, etc.. (I know there's the "pro" versions of these vest that give more options but not everyone that looking for orange or yellow will want the Hi-Viz stuff).

I have MS, and I cannot tolerate the heat. I live in Arizona, so this presents a big problem. Over the last several summers, I've even suffered from depression when the months go by and I can't leave the house for any significant period. This vest has given me some of my life back. I have tried evaporative vests and bandanas in the past, but they seem to lose their efficacy after about 20 minutes. This vest stays cold for 1-2 hours depending on how warm it is outside. I purchased this in April and waited until August to write the review to be sure that it really is as great as I thought. When I have this vest on, I can run errands, go shopping, eat out in restaurants that are insufficiently air conditioned and basically feel awesome as long as the ice packs are cold. I wish I could give this product 4.5 stars, because I'd absolutely purchase it again though it isn't perfect. I am a large person, and I have trouble making the vest connect via the velcro in the front. This means that I don't get all of the benefit of the ice because it's not pressed firmly against my body. The adjustable sides on the vest are great (and necessary for me), but the vest won't stay sealed. Also, once the ice packs melt, you're basically wearing an insulating neoprene vest, so you're even hotter than you'd be if you didn't have it on. This may not seem like a big deal, but when you're outside and have to take the vest off and carry it around with you, it can be a pain. When it's really hot outside, this can be especially frustrating. For me, it goes from awesome to awful with no in between. Finally, I have had to move to that point where health > vanity. I was self conscious wearing this vest at first, but have found that it improves my life so much that now I don't give a second thought to what random people may think when they see me in it. Overall, I'd purchase this again and am so grateful to have it. It's improved my quality of life tremendously. I have spent over twice this amount for a vest that didn't stay cold beyond 20 minutes, so I find this to be a great value too. I'm back now to purchase the replacement ice packs for the vest so that when one set melts I can have access to a fresh set. I recommend this vest without hesitation.