Need cooling vest advice

[Merganser]

I need some advice on how to manage my cooling vest so it's usable. How do other people keep them charged and cold and ready to wear?

I just bought an ArcticHeat cooling vest. After it soaked in water and dried overnight, I put it in the freezer as suggested. However, I left it in the freezer for the whole day. When I pulled it out of the plastic bag, it was frozen solid with lots of frost on the outside. The front and back had frozen together and there was no way to make it wearable. After 2 hours of hanging outside, it was still too frozen to use.

Today, I put it in the freezer for 2 hours and it worked great. I thought it would be convenient to store it in the freezer so it was always ready, but now I'm going to need to plan ahead. If it's not in the freezer, though, it's going to dry out and I'll need to re-wet the crystals. Then I'll need to dry the vest before it goes into the freezer. Geez...what a production.

Any suggestions from experienced users?

Thanks.

[ActiveMSers]

Mergenser, I don't have that issue with my vest, but I may have some ideas.

1) When you store your vest in the freezer, keep it as flat as possible. In the freezer bag it's stored in, put it in as a full vest (like it's zipped up, but don't actually zip it) folded vertically in half just once. That's key. Fold it too much and you've got a ball of ice that won't thaw.

2) It take the vest out a few minutes before I'm ready to use it, and it usually opens right up. You could also try putting wax paper or some other liner between the folds. You might even put the vest in an oversized bag and then fold the vest, so the plastic acts as a liner. I've never tried any of these ideas, but I would think they would work.

Let me know!

[Merganser]

Thanks. I figured out that if I layer something between the back and the front, and then another layer so I can fold it once to fit the 2-gallon ziploc bag, it works great. It's just a little stiff when I take it out of the freezer, but what a great, cold feeling.

I have to say that the company that sells the Arctic Heat vests has good customer service. I highly recommend them.