Anyone use these things:

Cooling towel

I have lived in the mountain west, had a swamp-cooler (evaporate cooler) in my home, so I understand the basic principal... I don't however, understand reviews from the hot and humid south, stating these towels work great there? Maybe it's relative, and in AZ they would perform a lot better/actually work at evaporative cooling?

We use them all the time on my son's baseball team. They get in the dugout, they get a cooling towel. It makes a huge difference.

I've used something that looks like a handkerchief that you wet and squeeze dry. Then loosely wrap around your neck.

Pretty comfortable while hiking. I think it's some synthetic wicking type of material.

I routinely use the Frog Toggs version. Feels kind of like a cool chamois.
s.

We recommend them for our archery team when they shoot outdoor tournaments.

They work very well.

The concept is it is putting a cooler item against your neck where major veins and arteries are. Cool the core, cool the body. Can get same result with cool/cold bottle/can placed behind knee/elbow or at wrists. They will work in the south. A better one might swell up with water absorber in it. That holds the cooler temp longer.

OK, Yeah. I'd never given it much thought until 1986 when we stayed at Mt Princeton Hot springs. The rooms had a wash stand in the bathroom. Around the stand was a towel rack, sort of. It had the hot spring water running through it. Your towels were just hot enough. Was a nice touch.

Then in 1995 we moved to a house 2 doors away. It had the furnace vents direcctly below the towel racks in the bath. That gave us hot towels when we were in heating season, cool ones in the summer. Pretty nice. And towels were never damp.

Does not work in the Florida Panhandle.

All you have is a wet towl over the top of your soppy wet t-shirt, that is over your dripping wet skin.

Humans are about 60% water, except in Florida, where we are about 127.396276% water, give or take a few ponds.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Does not work in the Florida Panhandle.

All you have is a wet towl over the top of your soppy wet t-shirt, that is over your dripping wet skin.

Humans are about 60% water, except in Florida, where we are about 127.396276% water, give or take a few ponds.

It gots to touch da skin fer it to be a workin'.

Well, I put it on the back of my neck, above the shirt line, no worky.

Then took off shirt and tried across neck, shoulders and upper back, still not cool.

Walked in the house and sat for a few minutes and the AC and ceiling fans and it got nice and cool.

So, I think if the humidity is such that there is good evaporation, that it will work well.

But when it is that typical near 100 degrees and nearly 100% humidity, it's just another wet mess glommed on my body.

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
[snip]

Walked in the house and sat for a few minutes and the AC and ceiling fans and it got nice and cool.

[snip]

See! I told ya it werks.

quote:

Originally posted by 2tonicP220:
Anyone use these things:

Cooling towel

I have lived in the mountain west, had a swamp-cooler (evaporate cooler) in my home, so I understand the basic principal... I don't however, understand reviews from the hot and humid south, stating these towels work great there? Maybe it's relative, and in AZ they would perform a lot better/actually work at evaporative cooling?

They would work better in a drier climate than a humid one because there is more rapid evaporation. But they may still help in a humid place. It can be so humid here in Houston, though, that a swamp coooler hardly does any good at all.

quote:

Originally posted by ffips:

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
[snip]

Walked in the house and sat for a few minutes and the AC and ceiling fans and it got nice and cool.

[snip]

See! I told ya it werks.

Tried them at matches. Maybe they helped a little. Problem here is at 90 degrees, 85% humidity and a dew point of 72 degrees, not too much of nuttin' vaporates, including your perspiration.

RMD

Tried them while in the military. Even had one that mounted in my helmet. They didn't help much and felt slimy after a while.

The instructions on mine say "humidity may reduce the effectiveness". I used it for the first time two days ago while gardening and it was pretty humid and not real effective. It was an "Endura Cool"

The only way that works in the near 100% relative humidity we have down here is if it is cooler than body temperature to start. Put a cool/cold wet towel on your neck and you will cool down until that towel reaches your body temp. Then it is just as the monkey said, a hot wet towel that doesn't help at all.

They do use something down here that they call "florida water", which I think is a mixture of water and alcohol. People swear it works, and I suppose the alcohol in the mix will lower the average evaporation point, thus cooling you better than plain old water or sweat.

Carried a couple with me when I used to travel to China alot. Does make a difference!

quote:

Originally posted by honestlou:
...

They do use something down here that they call "florida water", which I think is a mixture of water and alcohol.
...

Yep. But we use that solid water...