For those who use a cool shirt of some sort, what do you perfer. Cool Shirt, 986, or make your own?

-spenc....

 

Cool shirt 24 with carbonX shirt > all

I use it,love it and have had it for just over 2 years.Just used it last weekend...they have good service as well. Everyone who runs with us has Cool Shirt brand and very few have fast brand or others.

 

986 is nice stuff... very nice. but i don't know that the cost is justified.

I got the coolshirt deal for christmas, finally installed it. and will be happy to use it coming up.

 

I've run the FAST Cool Shirt for the past two years at the Stafford Springs LeMons race, and it's been great. A few guys on my team made their own shirts for about $37 in materials but they didn't have the same coverage or tubing length so I think mine cooled quite a bit better. Doing it again, I would still buy the shirt but I'd make my own cooler as I paid $219 for the 16 quart cooler and it's really too expensive for what you get. I did make my own hoses for about half the cost of the hose kit, as I bought the cooler and shirt separately so I was lacking a way to connect the two.

 

I run the Cool Shirt, we almost built our own, but it's nice to have one that's well thought out and has easily interchangeable parts. Word of advice: don't skimp on the additive, the guys who do go through pumps. It's like $1/day for the additive, the pumps are two orders of magnitude more, don't skimp.

 

what's this additive?

 

Its a lubricant that keeps the o rings soft and the pump running smooth; just so there is no hardwater buildup basically.

 

I've got a FAST cool system that I bought used, and it has worked great do far during HPDE's at Thunderhill and Infineon. I was also wondering about preventing algae growth without harming the system, so after hearing about this additive, I did a search for 'cool shirt additive' and came up with quite a few websites like: http://www.coolshirt.net/maintenance-additive.html It looks like the price is around $9-9.50 per 16 oz, but with lower cost for higher quantity. The Coolshirt website lists some distributors at http://www.coolshirt.net/distributors.html. Pegasus' price is 8.99 for 1-11 bottles. What is the cheapest price people have seen for the additive? - Jim

 

Thanks Justin.

Any idea what the stuff is??

Some type of fungicide... I'd bet if you found out what it is you could find it locally.

 

Why can't you just add a little bit of bleach or hydrogen peroxide to the mixture? I would expect that would keep anything from 'growing' in there.

 

I use the Cool Shirt and it works great. Long weekends, double entered and high heat it's a necessity and I consider it a safety necessity as it keeps me focused during the 2nd half of the race.

As for the additive, it's been my experience that it keeps fungi from forming in the lines/pump with possible added lubrication. However, most pumps don't need "lubrication" such as the water pump in my koi pond. It runs 24 hours a day year after year and it's still going strong.

I actually put a dab of water wetter (like a cap full or 2) during the weekend and after I'm home from the weekend and cleaning everything up I run a cap full of bleach through the system/shirt to keep fungi from forming.

2 years, no problems.

I'm not opposed to running the additive but the only way I'd do it is if it came 1 gallon containers for $5-10. Otherwise.. no.