Jade Cooling Towel: Product Review
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This towel does keep you cooler when wrapped around your neck but doesn’t easily stay in place while gardening.
Available online
Buy ItThe Jade Cooling Towel is designed to help lower your core body temperature in hot weather. Most outdoor enthusiasts or athletes have seen or tried cooling towels, but is it also a good option for those of us working in the yard or garden? On a hot summer day here in the southwest, anything that keeps me cooler in the garden would be most welcome. So I put the cooling towel to the test over the course of several hot weeks.
A brown paper wrap holds the cooling towel, which is made in California by a former home health worker. All the gardener has to do is wet the towel in cool water for 20 seconds, wring it for 2 seconds, and shake it for 20 seconds.
Material
The Jade Cooling Towel is made from material that incorporates jade nanoparticles and is based on a “technology” that dates back centuries. According to the Jade Cooling company, there is a legend of a queen in the seventh to tenth century who had jade sewn into her clothing to cool her in summer. The company combined that ancient “remedy” with modern technology to create a fabric that can help retain water and cool you off.
The material uses no chemicals to generate its cooling effects or retain water; the natural jade nanoparticles take care of that. It’s made of 70% nylon polyamide and 30% microfiber polyester, is machine washable, and the company says it has antibacterial properties.
Jade Cooling Towels are rated at an Ultraviolet Protection Factor (UPF) of 30. UPF is a standard rating system for measuring how well clothing or fabric absorbs UV radiation (much like the SPF we see on sunscreen packaging). The Jade Cooling Towel’s rating of 30 falls into the “Very Good UV Protection” category, blocking up to 97 percent of UV radiation.
Close-up of the fabric. The darker side (bottom of the photo) has the wicking action and the soft side (top), complete with jade particles, goes against the skin.
One Size Fits All
The towel measures 9 inches wide by 36 inches long. I found it to be a good fit for me, but also large enough to handle heftier necks than mine.
The towel is a good length for covering the neck and front of the chest without being too long
How to Use the Jade Cooling Towel
Jade Coolers are easy to use. Just soak the fabric in cool water for 20 seconds to wet it thoroughly. Then, wring out the water (the instructions say to do this for only two seconds). Finally, shake the cloth for 20 seconds and then place it around your neck.
The first time I used the Jade Cooling Towel, water soaked into my shirt under the scarf. After that, I wrung it out more thoroughly before using it and had less leakage. Be aware that because the towel is damp, any clothing in direct contact with it will also get damp.
Soak the towel in cool water for 20 seconds
The instructions say to place the softer side next to your skin (this side has the jade particles). The outside layer is made of a dotted pattern intended to increase evaporation, helping to wick moisture from the skin. I admit it was sort of confusing to look for the “soft” side; neither side is rough to the touch or stiff.
According to the instructions, the cooling effect should last an hour to 90 minutes, depending on the humidity and heat you’re working in. I found it lasted closer to an hour, but at low outdoor humidity.
If the towel loses its cool feeling, but still has moisture, shake it a few times to reactivate cooling. If it dries, you’ll need to go through the steps above to rewet it.
The instructions are printed on the wrap for the towel.
Cooling Performance
Does it work? In short, yes. My blue Jade Cooling Towel kept my neck and chest area cool for about an hour and 10 minutes. It was refreshing! The company claims the towel can cool up to 30 degrees, but there is no way to really test this outside a lab.
As usual in the Southwest, the air was dry the first day I tested the cooling wrap, so I was impressed with how long the towel stayed fairly damp and cool – about 45 minutes. My husband and I both tested the Jade Cooling Towels during subsequent hotter weeks (temperatures in the 90s) and achieved similar results, with an average of nearly one hour of cooling time, especially when hit by a gentle breeze.
The instructions were easy to follow and the process fast; I just slipped the towel around my neck.
Using the Jade Cooler in the Garden
The only problem I had with the towel was that it tended to get in my way when worn according to the instructions. It fell away from my chest when I bent forward and slipped off from time to time. I just couldn’t get it to hold in a wrap around my neck or stay put when gardening.
We tried several different ways to keep the cooling towel in place and found a few options that work – sort of. The more you move around, the more likely it is to come unwrapped, particularly if you’re bending, twisting or reaching overhead. It’s easy enough to re-wrap but a bit of a pain to have to keep doing that. Still, here are some ways we found to keep the towel in place reasonably well:
- Wrap the towel around your neck and tuck the ends under on the sides.
- Use a soft clip or bobby pin to hold it in place.
- Wrap the towel around your neck and then bring the two ends upward, tucking them into a cap.
What didn’t work was tying a knot in the Jade Cooling Towel to keep it in place; it wasn’t as comfortable and twisted some of the jade side away from my neck, lessening the cooling effect.
Hat, sunglasses and a nice cool cloth made for easier work on a sunny day
Warranty
The Jade Cooling Towel has a limited lifetime warranty and a money back satisfaction guarantee of 45 days from the time of purchase. If you do choose to return it under the warranty or satisfaction guarantee, you’ll be responsible for the shipping charges back to Jade Cooling.
Recommendation
If you want a scarf or towel to cool you down on hot and sunny days, the natural approach of the Jade Cooling Towel works quite well. Simply wet the towel, wring it out, and place it around your neck where it’ll keep you cool for about an hour. The material is soft and comfortable, and there are no chemical smells, irritating seams, or bumps. However, I think it is better suited for people who aren’t bending, twisting or reaching a lot while wearing it. Walkers, hikers, and joggers would probably find it more useful than a gardener as I found it difficult to keep in place while performing regular gardening tasks. Then again, it did make me more comfortable when relaxing on the porch with a cold drink at the end of a hot day of gardening!
Where to Buy
Jade Cooling Towels are made in the United States (in California). The cooling cloths come in blue, pink or gray. You can buy one directly from the company’s website; at the time of publication, the towels cost $17.99 plus $3.50 shipping.
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I’ve used a lightweight scarf filled with polymer crystals that slowly release water in a cooling action. It worked OK in low humidity conditions (Kenya, Tanzania) but barely noticeable back home in the sweltering heat & humidity of Houston, TX. Do you have any idea whether this microfiber cloth technology — with or without the “jade nanoparticles” — would be effective under the later conditions?
The Jade cooling towel, like any other “cooling product”, works through evaporation. As water evaporates from the towel and the skin it’s touching, it cools those surfaces. So no, it probably won’t be very effective in high humidity situations.