Advantage

Black Ice customers are cool. Why?

Because Black Ice customers know from first hand experience that Black Ice really works. With a regulated 57°F output, lightning-quick 20 minute recharge time and refreshing cooling that lasts up to 1.5 hours, Black Ice customers have found that Black Ice is one of the few personal cooling products that actually delivers on all of its promises–and once price is considered, they also know that no other personal cooling product delivers the true value Black Ice provides.

Many of our customers have tried the usual personal cooling products–bandanas, fans, misters, personal cooling system this, personal cooling system that, etc., and we certainly get an earful of comments: “Bandanas are slimy,” “Bandanas only work for five minutes,” “I tried ice in a towel once, and it was too cold,” “My fan collar makes a lot of noise, but it doesn’t make a lot of cool,” and the list just goes on and on. . . .

The Black Ice research team spent months testing all of the standard personal cooling products, and you know what? We learned the same thing–most personal cooling systems promise an awful lot. Unfortunately, they deliver an awful little.

Cooling bandanas are a perfect example of personal cooling system marketing run amuck. Sold as if they will keep you cool for hours on end, cooling bandanas offer promises that are physically impossible to keep. Why? Because bandanas are limited by the passive process of evaporation, and evaporation is largely dependant on ambient weather conditions.

How do bandanas work? Simple–You soak the bandana in water, put it on your neck, and as air passes over the surface of the material, moisture is wicked away and you feel a cooling sensation. Sound familiar? It should–It’s the same exact process by which our bodies cool themselves–we call it perspiration. The only difference is that bandanas are able to hold additional water available for evaporation and provide a small amount of additional surface area for the air to contact.

So, bandanas are basically just a way to very slightly increase the amount of surface area our bodies use to passively release heat. Sure, you get a cool “bump” when you first pull the bandana out of your ice water, but you know how long that lasts–barely a few minutes. After that, you have to rely on the weather to do the real work. As long as it’s hot, dry and windy, a bandana will offer a small amount of relief–but those who have used one know how little they really help.

And that’s under “perfect” evaporative conditions–windy, dry and hot. What if you’re working out in the yard, or hanging out at the soccer field watching the kids, and it’s one of those hot, stagnant days where the humidity is so high, you feel like you could breathe better if you had a set of gills? In such a situation, that bandana will just lay there on your neck like a hot, slimy worm. And guess what? Under those conditions a bandana will actually block whatever slight evaporative effect that would normally be available to your skin. In short, in that (much more common) situation, using a bandana might be worse than using nothing at all.

So, in the worst conditions, where you need cool relief the most, bandanas offer a big fat nothing–maybe even less than nothing. What happened to that promise of delivering cooling for hours? Well, what they really mean is, as long as the banana is wet, it has some capacity for evaporation, and, therefore, cooling. But is that really effective cooling? Nope.

But what about those misters, fan-collars and other battery-powered gizmos? Believe it or not, those contraptions all work on the exact same simple principal as the bandana–evaporation. Misters just add additional “perspiration” to your skin, fans increase the amount of air rolling over your skin, and fan-collars . . . well, they try, but they don’t really do much of anything (well, they do make noise. . . .). Because these products work in the same way bandanas do, they are all subject to the same short falls–slight relief on that “perfect” hot, dry, windy day, and very little relief under any other conditions.

Okay, so personal cooling products based on evaporation don’t work very well–What about ice or gels? At first glance, ice and gels sound like the perfect solution for personal cooling–Instead of relying on a passive system that’s dependent on perfect weather conditions to offer even a slight amount of relief, now we have a material that is inherently cold to the touch. Just put some ice in a bag and put it on the back of your neck, and presto! Instant relief!

Not so fast . . . Ice is cold–really cold. So cold, in fact, that if you put ice on your skin for more than just a few minutes, you’re going to end up with a very nasty little malady called frostbite. At 32°F, ice is dangerously cold to the touch. Sure, human skin can endure contact with ice for a short time, but anything over a few minutes and things turn nasty. After a minute or two of direct exposure, you start to get the sensation of ice burn. A bit later your skin goes numb, and after that things can get really ugly. How ugly? We’re talking nerve palsy, frostbite, deep tissue damage–the works.

Now just wait a minute here–Doctors say I should put ice on an injury to reduce swelling, but you’re saying ice is bad? What’s the deal? Yes, there are times when using ice is beneficial–and treating swelling injuries is definitely one of them–but there are several things that must be done if you want to use ice (or gels for that matter) safely:

• Place some sort of protective barrier (a towel or similar) between your skin and the ice or frozen gel pack.
• Apply the ice or frozen gel for no more than 20 minutes at a time
• Wait 1-2 hours before reapplying to allow your skin to recover

These three guidelines are part of the RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) protocol–the medical industry standard for treating swelling. If these three guides are not followed, it is very likely you will suffer undesirable side effects while using ice or gels. (Try Black Ice CoolTherapy instead–Read more here).

So, if the medical industry suggests that, even while using some sort of protective barrier, you should only apply ice or gels to your skin for twenty minutes at a time or risk tissue damage, it’s pretty clear that ice and gels are simply too dangerous to consider using for a personal cooling product. In fact, the only way to possibly make ice or gels safe to use as a personal cooling product would be to put such a thick insulating barrier between the ice/gel and your skin as to render the ice or gel nearly useless.

So with all the hype surrounding bandanas, with all of the issues that go along with ice and gels, what makes Black Ice so much better than bandanas, misters, fans, fan collars or ice or gel-based products?

First–Black Ice provides a regulated temperature output that is comfortably cool to the touch, while not exposing the skin to dangerously low temperatures. This output has been “Factory Programmed” at 57°F based on medical research detailing safe temperatures for extended contact with human skin.

Second–Black Ice doesn’t need to rely on ambient conditions to provide cooling. Black Ice provides regulated 57°F cooling regardless of ambient temperature, humidity or which way the wind blows (or doesn’t).

Third–Black Ice provides cooling that lasts for up to 1.5 hours. Even if drenched in a bath of ice water, a bandana is only going to provide tangible cooling for a few minutes. After that, you are at the mercy of the weather.

Forth–Black Ice recharges in ice water in only twenty minutes. Even if you could safely use ice or gels for personal cooling, it takes hours for either to freeze, and it would be physically impossible to charge either in a bath of ice water.

Fifth–Thanks to a safely regulated temperature output, lengthy cooling duration, brief recharge time and Patented design, Black Ice is the only personal cooling product available that offers safe, comfortably cool, convenient and truly affordable 24/7 relief from heat and humidity–all you need to do is swap out cooling packs.

When you consider all of the benefits Black Ice offers, and all of the advantages it has over the competition, it’s no wonder Black Ice is simply the coolest personal cooling product available.