DIY Cool Shirt (Page 2 of 8)

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I didn't think a cool shirt was needed. But after using one, you'll understand. It's not much trouble to make the connections. The level of comfort with a cool shirt is worth whatever it takes.

Cooling the seat may help but it has to make it though our insulated suits!

I agree.  The cool shirt works because it stays right next to the heat source to act as a heat exchanger.  I don't think cooling the seat will work to well considering the moving blankets we are all wearing.

Just made this one myself using $15 worth of materials at wal-mart.  My design, based on an ice vest I wore as a mascot in high school.

Mostly good for walking around or working on car when being connected to a cooler isnt practical.

2 small 100% cotton T shirts(3.50), 8 re-useable frozen cooler packs (1.27ea), iron on fabric bonding tape (1.67)

1)Turn one tshirt inside out.  Lay it flat.

2)Cut the sleeves and collar out of the other shirt, and cut to separate the front and back panels.

3)apply iron on fabric tape around edges of the back panel of the inside out shirt, and then apply tape to make the seams of the pockets, and iron it.

4)Lay cardboard spacers in the grid where the packs will go.  Keep everything flat and even.

5)peel the tape backing and lay down the back half of the second shirt. make sure everything is flat and even. Iron it to bond the shirt to the liner panel

6)carefully use a razor blade to slit the top of the newly created pockets.

7-10) repeat steps 3-6 for the front panel

11)turn shirt outside out. insert frozen ice packs into pockets

12)freeze your tits off

I can tell you first hand that the COOL SEAT idea does work.

We made a COOL SEAT which we used at summit point.  We sewed 1/4 ID vinyl tubing straight to the back of the seat.  We had about 5 parallel circuits on the seat which were fed by inlet and outlet manifolds we made from plumbing parts.  Our pump was capable of 3 gal/min.

We had the same concern expressed by a few people on this thread; that heat would not move efficiently through our multi-layer suits.  We figured our setup would just "take the edge off", and make it slightly more bearable.  This was not the case at all.  It worked tremendously well.  It was over 100 F outside on Sunday, and sitting in that chair felt like someone pouring ice water down your back the entire time you were out on the track.  At one point one of our drivers actually had to turn it off... it was too cold.  It really made the driving enjoyable, none of us ever complained about the heat while driving.

I think the key is volume flow rate.  A cool suit can't be bulky since it has to fit inside your racing suit.  The inlet and outlet fittings have to be small and flexible, so you are limited in terms of flow rate.  A cool seat on the other hand can be any size you want since everything is permanently mounted to the car.  Our main inlet and outlet hoses were 3/4 inch ID.  So you can make up for the poor heat transfer of a multi-layer suit by using a massive water flow rate. 

Our cooler was about 10 gallons which we kept about half full.  We figured we would have to scoop out the water every driver change, and then add more ice, but this turned out different as well.  The water level just kept going down.  I guess it was leaking out around the lid.  All we had to do is dump in about 5 lbs of ice every hour.  We never had to drain or scoop anything out. 

Lessons learned:  Throw a piece of foam on top of the ice to keep the sloshing down.  Don't put bags of ice in.  The ice melts, and the plastic bag clogs up the pump. 

Thanks to Bernie for building our cool seat, it was a life saver!

Kris

Greenhousegassholes
White e30, number 911

Thank you for proving the idea. . . .I will do the same for my next race in Houston.

Aw shucks, your welcome Kris, I was very happy it worked too. I was equally amazed that a 4 layer suit was actually cooler then the single layer suit with underwear, it's the weave of the cloth. Single layer proban suit was tight woven like canvas, the four layer Nomex suit is an open weave like a thin sweater, the air flow went right through the it!

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Cool BELTS!

That was a joke.

Or was it???

Has anyone tried to make a cool system out of a Nomad H2O on the go?:

http://www.amazon.com/Nomad-Orange-Port … B0024M3OJ6

I saw these today at a local store for 15 bucks and I couldn't resist.  3.5 gallons with a built in pump, ready to go, quick connects built in, power switch, 12v accessory plug.  Add a hole in the cap for return water, add the connections for the DIY shirt, throw in some ice and water, and bam!, you're rolling!

We were going to add some insulation around the outside to help keep it cooler longer, but that was it.  I bought two with the thoughts of just switching out at driver change.

I tried it as soon as I got home and it looks really promising.  Now I just need to make the shirt for the final answer.

On the cool seat Idea... I've actually had this idea for a few Months. Now, -MY- idea would be to get a pair of Tranny coolers, and whip out the spool gun to aluminum-weld them to the back of our kirkey seat, then run the tubing and pump to a cooler like normal. the Aluminum seat + the heat transfer off the coolers with icy water running through it should make the whole seat positively frosty. even with the seat pad, nomex, and fire panties, it should be like sitting on a stadium bench in late january.

I'm playing with a few different concepts in my head and have some styro coolers to prototype with. To those of you who have built one of these already - just how vital are those expensive-assed dry-break connectors? Seems to me that with some clever mounting you can get away with HALF dry-break connectors... Like the ones we use on pneumatic tools and cut out like half the cost that way (ALL your connectors for $5, as opposed to $7 a connector).

... And does anyone know which Bavarian Crazymobiles have electric water pumps? $11 at a junkyard and you know DAMN WELL it isn't going to have problems with continuous operation.

Just go with a bigger chest, ours wasn't providing any cool stuff after 45 minutes at ECR.
I think we are going with a bigger chest and some frozen bottles (jugs) at Hallett in August.