By Rebecca Fending
Staying cool and safe during Florida summers can be hard to do, especially for seniors. With overbearing humidity and relentless sunshine, there’s nowhere to hide. When a cool shower, ice water and air conditioning aren’t able to help, these four gadgets are just what you need to cool off quickly.
Cooling Towels
A great and easy way to make sure that you can stay comfortable whether you’re at home or on the go is by investing in a personal cooling towel. Unlike a traditional damp cloth, most of these unique towels are able to keep their cold for hours on end and won’t drip all over you. Their constant cold temperature helps reduce your risk of heat stroke or exhaustion, whether you’re at home gardening or on a hike. These unique towels can also help keep the sun off of your neck, head or face, helping limit your direct exposure and likelihood of getting sunburned or sun poisoning.
Most of these towels are also machine wash and detergent safe, meaning you can use them over and over again with them losing their cooling ability or staying soaked with sweat.
Personal Space Cooler
We all have that one room that always seems to be much warmer than the rest of our house or apartment. The solution to that may be a personal space cooler. Just like how a space heater works to heat a small space within a room with heated coils, space coolers do the same with ice. How most of them work is by soaking and freezing a filter component of the machine through which air is then propelled through, radiating the coldness of the ice throughout the designated space. Other machines are filled with ice cubes and water that are used to chill the air that is propelled through the cooler.
Personal space coolers are great to use at night if sleeping with a fan blowing on you just isn’t cutting it. The only negative to these devices is because they largely use the cold from ice or ice cubes, the relief isn’t everlasting. On average, most users state that this works for about an hour or so before needing a frozen refresh.
Chilling Bed Pad
Most people tend to overheat the most at night, resulting in difficulty sleeping and dehydration. One solution to this problem is to purchase a cooling pad that rests under you during sleep. Most of these pads work by using cooling gel technology within the fibers of the pad.
Other bed cooling machines blow cool air into your sheets through a hose that is connected to a machine at your bedside. This way, you experience a more active air flow as opposed to cooling touch. Some of these devices also double as a heating component for colder nights. Bed chilling products are great to invest in to both cool you down and improve the quality of your sleep.
If you’re not looking for something motorized or with a remote control, try a cooling mattress topper. Typically made out of bamboo fibers and a gel-like material, these can be a great low-cost option for anyone looking to fix their toasty bed.
Beer Bottle Chillers
On a little less serious note, who likes warm beer? A great way to combat lukewarm or warm beer is by using a beer chiller to either cool a fresh beer or re-chill a bottle that has been out for a while. Store these metal chiller sticks in your freezer for when you need a cold beer or even bottled soda. Designed to be sipped out of, these chilling sticks have an opening at their top to ensure that your beverage will be chilled as you drink it.
Not only are these great to fix any warm drink problem, but they make a great inexpensive yet practical gift for any guy in your life.
No matter how you choose to cool down, be sure to monitor your health while out in the sun this summer. Use sunblock, wear a hat and take as many breaks as you need.
