Summer is coming, which means that many Americans will start to bake under their motorcycle jackets as they commute to work. If you’re riding a motorcycle propelled by internal combustion, it can feel like you’re in an oven as you’re hit from the heat of your bike and the heat of the air around you, and riding in extreme heat can lead to exhaustion or heat stroke if you’re not careful.
There is gear out there to help make your rides cooler, but I think I found what’s possibly the weirdest gear idea I’ve seen in years. This is the Chiltier pod and vest, and it uses a technology found in tiny refrigerators to keep you cool or, alternatively, warmed up, while you’re on a motorcycle.
Chiltier isn’t the first to add cooling capabilities beyond ventilation to riding gear. There are also vests that you can submerge in water or fill with ice packs. More elaborate than that are vests that feature a cooler and pump to circulate chilled water around the rider. Here’s what an Alpinestars evaporative cooling vest looks like:
Most of those vests have a sort of limitation. Those that use ice packs lose effectiveness as the ice melts, and those that work on evaporative cooling will have to be rewetted periodically. Evaporative-cooled vests also don’t work well in high humidity. The ones that are just refrigerators that you mount to your motorcycle cost $1,500 and up.
Of course, some of those above issues can be solved in minutes. But what if you didn’t have to worry about ice, bladders, or ice packs? What if you had a vest system that had the capability of keeping itself cool and had no compressor?
That’s the future being promised by the Chiltier by Psyxi Machines. This gadget doesn’t need ice because its cooling comes from a Peltier cooler, also known as a thermoelectric cooler. This is the same technology often used in tiny refrigerators, and can also be used to warm you up, too.
Solid-State Cooling
The Chiltier brand was founded in 2023 in New Delhi by engineer Kulpreet S. Sahni. Something a bit fascinating about Sahni’s history is that he’s spent the past two decades as an engineer in the gas, oil, and ship design industries. Apparently, the idea to make a personal climate system that heats and cools itself came when Sahni was analyzing conventional air-conditioner systems. Sahni believed that air-conditioners are inefficient because they bring down the temperature of an entire room rather than an individual. Remember this, because it will be relevant later.
The decision to make this system a vest came after Sahni found himself frustrated getting overheated while trying to play golf. He thought that there just had to be a way to give a person air conditioning, no matter where they were. So, Sahni combined his belief that compressor-based air-conditioners were inefficient with his desire for personal cooling.
Sahni’s solution was to turn to a proven technology, the Peltier cooler, also known as the thermoelectric cooler. It works on the Peltier effect, which was named after French physicist Jean Charles Athanase Peltier, who discovered the phenomenon in 1834. In the Peltier effect, a current is passed through the circuit of a thermocouple. Heat radiates from one junction while it is absorbed at the other junction. The U.S. Department of Energy explains further:
As their name suggests, thermoelectric cooling systems rely on electricity flowing through two different types of conductors – such as different types of metal like copper or zinc. When DC voltage is applied and direct current runs from one conductor to the other, there’s a change in temperature where the two conductors join. When this small thermoelectric effect is multiplied by creating junctions between two ceramic plates, a cooling effect strong enough to keep appliances and computers cool is created.
One plate is the “cool side” while the other is the “hot side.” The cold side goes inside an ice-free cooler or wine refrigerator, while the hot side is connected to metal fins that act as a heat sink to help dissipate excess heat on the outside of the appliance. Thermoelectric cooling (TEC) is also known as solid-state cooling, because there is no liquid refrigerant running through the machine. Instead, solid metal is used to transfer thermal energy.
In general, TEC works best in small spaces, particularly for electronic devices where there simply isn’t enough space to put a compressor-based cooler. In a small size cooler, these systems are also quite efficient and may use less electricity than a compressor-based unit of the same size. Thermoelectric cooling also allows for very fine temperature control, to within 0.1 degree under certain conditions.
There’s a good chance that if you’ve purchased a tiny refrigerator or wine cooler before, you’ve encountered a device that runs on a Peltier cooler. Some of these devices can also use their TECs to turn the refrigerator into a warmer, too.
Like A Mini Fridge For Your Motorcycle
Sahni has spent the past eight years taking a Peltier design and packaging it into a vest that can warm or cool its wearer. The Chiltier is targeted primarily at motorcycle riders, but the brand sees itself creating versions for bicycle riders, hikers, construction workers, or anyone else who might want to stay cool or warm on the move.
Chiltier’s design is a weird combination of existing ideas. The part that cools the wearer is the Hydro Vest, which has water-based cooling pipes in it. This is similar to the aforementioned vests. Chiltier believes that fluid pipes are more efficient than fan-based systems.
Attached to the vest is a set of pipes that connect to the Thermo Pod. This device contains a couple of Peltier coolers, a couple of heatsinks, a pump, two fans, and a control board. Power input is 12 volts DC, either from a battery or the motorcycle’s electrical system.
This module more or less does the same thing as the ice cooler of some other vests, but without ice. The pump circulates fluid from the cold or hot side of the Peltier modules and through the vest. Chiltier expects you to mount the Thermo Pod to your motorcycle or bicycle, and then connect the vest and yourself to the unit through the pair of tubes. It looks properly goofy, for sure.
Chiltier claims that its system consumes 10 percent of the power of a compressor-based air-conditioner, but few specs are provided. Chiltier says that the unit’s peak consumption is 132 watts. It also puts out less than 20 dB and weighs around 2.2 pounds. The Thermo Pod also measures 12 inches long, four inches wide, and 7.8 inches tall. The vest and tubing hold 300 ml of fluid. The company believes that the system will run for four to eight hours on an unspecified battery.
Chiltier makes some huge claims. The brand’s website says, “The world’s first wearable thermoelectric system that heats or cools your body in seconds.” Graphics also claim that the vest goes from its upper limit of 104 degrees to its coldest limit of 50 degrees in one minute.
This sounds awesome at first. I remember when I tested the new Can-Am Origin and Can-Am Pulse in Texas on a 114-degree day. I was extremely heat-soaked by the end of the day. Covering myself in water offered only a temporary reprieve, and it was so hot that, even with my vented jacket, it felt like I was riding in an oven. So, I get the appeal of something like this.
A New Flavor Of An Old Idea
Peltier cooler-based vests already exist. Some of them don’t have the liquid tubes and instead use fans. But I did find at least one vest that used a Peltier cooler, a pump, and liquid pipes just like this one. That vest doesn’t place the cooler and pump in an entirely separate unit. So, I’m not sure Chiltier’s claim about being the “world’s first” is entirely accurate.
Chiltier isn’t even the first company to take a swing at this idea. In 2018, a team of French engineers invented the Chill Ride. This vest uses liquid tubes and features heating and cooling like the Chiltier. However, that device didn’t use a box with Peltier coolers in it, but heat exchangers and a heater bolted to the forks of a motorcycle.
Back in 2014, EntroSys teased its BikeAir system (above), which attached a compact air-conditioner to the tail of a motorcycle and pumped the cold air into the vest through a tube. Yes, this was a real air-conditioner for motorcycles! So far as I can tell, neither the Chill Ride nor the BikeAir entered mass production. However, you can buy Peltier cooler vests today.
You can even buy a spectacularly expensive vest that has water pipes and a mini compressor-based refrigeration unit attached to it. Here’s what a thermal chiller vest from Compcooler looks like:
Either way, this idea has been pitched by various companies and designers for more than 16 years now. Something I’m curious about, and something that hasn’t yet been addressed by Chiltier, is what happens in a crash. Will the tubes just pop out? Will this require a special mount to fit onto a motorcycle?
Then there was that whole efficiency claim made at the start of this. As a reminder, Sahni thinks air-conditioners are inefficient. The sort of hilarious twist is that Peltier coolers are known for their rather horrible efficiency. There’s a reason why your kitchen’s refrigerator isn’t using this tech. But wait, there’s more! From the U.S. Department of Energy:
TEC is entirely dependent on the ambient temperature for its ability to cool. Unlike a compressor system, which can maintain sub-freezing temperatures in certain applications, a thermoelectric device can only bring down the temperature to a certain point below room temperature. This may not be a problem indoors if you have central heating and air conditioning to limit extremes in temperatures, but the temperature difference can be a big deal in RVs or camping applications. While thermoelectric cooling does offer fine temperature control, it’s crucial to understand that this is only within the range allowed by the outside temperature on any given day.
Thermoelectric coolers also don’t dehumidify the air around them. The ceramic plates simply transfer heat away from one area and into another, leaving the moisture content of the air intact. This is wonderful when dehumidifying may not be a desired result; for example, cigar humidors which should stay quite moist as they cool. Since TEC doesn’t have any influence over the humidity levels in a humidor, it is much easier to keep humidity levels steady without having to constantly add moisture to keep up with a compressor’s dehumidification. In cold climates a thermoelectric cooler can also be run in reverse, which will allow it to operate as a heater to maintain the perfect temperatures for cigars all year round.
Coming Eventually?
To say that another way, Peltier coolers don’t work as well in the extreme heat conditions that you’ll likely want to use them in while riding a motorcycle. It’s possible that, by using more than one TEC and having the tubes, the Chiltier will remain cool on a really hot day. However, Chiltier offers no real explanation of its device’s actual performance.
Chiltier is expecting to put its device on Kickstarter in the coming days, with a launch possibly sometime this year. Apparently, the company has taken in no external funding at this time, and Chiltier has a total of four employees. Pricing hasn’t been announced yet, but the company is directly targeting the U.S. and European motorcycle markets.
Admittedly, I’m not all that sold on the Chiltier. I don’t want to attach an inefficient mini fridge to the back of my motorcycle, and existing cooled vest solutions seem to work fine for most riders. However, the idea of a motorcycle “air-conditioner” is fascinating. Of course, this is a super tiny startup that’s going to rely on Kickstarter, so it could also be entirely vaporware. But at the very least, it is fun to think about. If you ride a motorcycle, hike, or ride a bicycle, would you strap a Peltier cooler to yourself?
Top graphic image: Chiltier
There was a startup at the BMW rally in 2015 who was selling a TEC based system. I heard that they got purchased by Klim but they never took it to market.
IIRC, the system drew a lot of power (over 100w) – enough that only touring bikes could realistically handle the load.
I found this with a bit of searching – it draws 200w(!):
https://www.compcooler.shop/en-ca/collections/racing-driver-and-motorcycle-rider-cooling-unit/products/compcooler-motorcycle-riders-chiller-cooling-system-12v-dc-operated-200w-cooling-capacity
Cool (no pun intended) but I’ll wait until someone comes up with a vehicle that fully encloses its driver and passenger in a climate-controlled environment. While they’re at it maybe add another wheel or two for greater stability
Not a terrible idea, but by the time I do all that might as well take the car.
I don’t get hot on motorcycles unless A) I’m stuck in traffic/construction or B) It’s above about 95 degrees air temperature.
A peltier/TEC is exactly the wrong technology to use here. They’re great if you need something incredibly tiny or it has to have no moving parts, but the efficiency is just tragically bad. As a comparison, your average phase-change cooler (just a regular air conditioner) can get a COP of 3-4, meaning it can move 3 to 4 times as much heat energy as it consumes as input power. A peltier system usually has a COP of less than 1.
One could relatively easily fit an actual phase-change chiller into a form factor like this if they, I dunno, paid an actual engineer to make a real product instead of slapping together a bunch of pie-in-the-sky marketing bullshit to bilk people out of their kickstarter money.
Strike 1, it’s Kickstarter. Strike 2, it’s a Peltier device and those suck as noted.
Also, there is a refrigerant heat pump based cooling vest at Aliexpress.
edit: they had one some years ago. Can’t find it now.
Ok, 22 coments already, won’t anyone call it ?!?
Poisson d’Avril !!!
Bad timing on the article, they have been advertising in facebook for a couple weeks now.
Unless it comes with a crotch vent, no dice. Also, 20dB? That’s a safety hazard. How are the other motorists going to hear my straight pipes over that?
Last summer I made a home brew cooling vest using a small coleman cooler, a giant block of ice (25ish lbs), and a small motor to pump and regulate the speed. It looks bonkers going down the road, but it’s cheap and it works for 5+ hrs. Plus you can keep some cold drinks in there. Cost maybe $100 of parts, counting all the wrong parts I ordered.
Yeah, that might be the cheapest and effective solution. You can get ice at most gas stations, so you can refill the ice as you go.
Exactly. If anyone wants the “plans” to make your own, lemme know. It makes a huge difference
I did the same after seeing the price of a “Veskimo” cooler. The most expensive part was the vest. I purchased one from coolsuits (IIRC). I used a livewell pump to control the flow but I might upgrade to a pump with adjustable flow.
Yeah I started with an all-in-one vest system that came with this camelbak “hump” on the back. It only lasted 45 min which inspired my build. I just use a potentiometer to control the pump speed. I’ve also got a paddlewheel flow meter so I can make sure it’s actually working. And temp sensors. Maybe I overbuilt this thing…
Reminds me of the Apollo astronauts walking in their spacesuits carrying “portable” air conditioner units: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo/Skylab_spacesuit#/media/File:Astp-KSC-75PC-409HR.2.jpg
You could make your own. Adam Savage, from the Myth Busters, has a YouTube video were a NASA engineer builds one for him.
https://youtu.be/z_Ti4GP0ntE?si=JM2-lmMvj5bHN7_X
“…Summer is coming, which means that many Americans will start to bake under their motorcycle jackets as they commute to work.”
Wouldn’t it be easier and cheaper to simply wear a light-colored, heat-reflective jacket – constructed in such a way that cooling vents pull air towards the body?
Which incidentally makes the rider more visible, day and night?
It totally depends on the ambient temperature. Once ambient temperature goes above 97F, no amount of air flow will make you feel cool.
As a convertible driver – I get that completely.
However there’s probably a @ 90% use case for lighter outerwear and helmets with passive cooling features. Which makes more sense than wearing the same black leather jacket & helmet in midsummer heat that one wears the rest of the year – and will be easier to use and more affordable than the contraption described in the article.
Harley Davidson dealerships should sell these to their aging boomer customers for insulin storage.
As a fan of BattleTech, I want this to be a thing.
As a fan of Technology Connections, I know it’s a bad idea.
Battletech and technology connections?
Did we just become best friends?
Based on my own experience of peltiers, this is definitely not going to work well.
For those who want cheaper and more practical cooling solutions (and also fun home science experiments), may I recommend the youtuber NightHawkInLight’s salt-based phase change material videos (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqxjfp4Gi0k). His homemade PCMs are tuned to freeze at elevated temperatures that are more comfortable to wear than conventional ice packs, stay cool longer, and can be refrozen in a regular fridge or even on a cold floor. I made some myself and can vouch that they work.
> I don’t want to attach an inefficient mini fridge to the back of my motorcycle
And that’s the essential problem.
130W is a lot of power, more than some bikes’ alternators have to spare. You’d need to wire up a hefty ignition-controlled relay to your battery in order to avoid draining it completely when the engine is off.
Newer Motorcycles/scooters can output that amount but at cruising speed. At idle they will struggle.
Even if they CAN, you’re putting a lot of constant strain on the electric system (when it is, presumably, already toasty from ambient heat) and you’re gonna pay for those 130 watts in worse mileage/range. Plus let’s face it, the person who buys this has for sure bought some aux lights and other electric doodads eating into the alternator capacity.
This is cool, but just another gadget that needs to be charged, takes up too much space, and is not effective enough to beat out traditional methods.
I rode through Morocco on motorbike in early November – the heat got up above 36C in the centre of town with no wind or clouds and I was comfortable the whole time. On the hottest days I was wearing merino baselayers, mesh jacket and pants, waterproof boots (so hot!), and a buff that I soaked in cool water every time I stopped for gas or a coffee. The evaporative cooling effect of a wet covering specifically around your neck is insanely effective. At 80km/h you could feel the heat being pulled out and made my entire body feel much cooler. I was more comfortable than dudes in shorts and flops because of the wicking and evap cooling effect. No batteries or hundreds of $ spent. If you want to take it a step further, get some of those terry cloth wrist bands for working out and soak those in some water then put them around your wrists.
I’m going to try that. I got one of those evap vests and all it did was make me feel wet. But the neck/wrists is a good idea. Thanks!
“Air conditioner” is the wrong term. “Cooled vest” is more accurate.
I would think that cooling (this might not get down to “chilled” levels of temps) one’s head, back of neck, and possibly a stripe down your back down to 60 degrees might be more efficient than an entire vest. I was a skeptic when starting the article, but a lot of this makes sense. Yes, I think I’d focus on a chilled helmet liner with a neck cooler before going full vest. This would simplify the setup, but might be harder to fit.
This makes a lot of sense in very humid environments, where evaporative cooling fails.
My perspective: I work with a lot of equipment which rely on Peltier cooling.
I can see why this would be an Indian invention given the temps/humidity there and the number of motorcyclists. I feel like not packaging the unit in a form that just makes it look like a normal saddlebag is a big miss, especially for western markets where motorcycles are largely used as toys for cool factor. I might have thought seriously about one of these back when I was riding daily in the phoenix area.
Don’t they make vests and base layers that allow for evaporative cooling that just use water to cool? Why would you need the extra tech when you could just use the air you are riding through to cool you, then top back up on water after a few hours?
I take long hot windy rides in the summer through the middle flat states, and upper 90’s to low 100s, high winds, dust and all can be handled with a good base layer to wick sweat, a chiller vest that you soak and ride dry. Summer riding around here is mostly about UV protection for me. I have never found it too hot, but I have been sunburned at the wrists, neck, and face when I didn’t plan accordingly. Nothing like explaining to people for weeks about how you managed to get a sunburn just on the back of your wrists like a bright red bracelet on both sides.
I don’t know enough about your climate but I live in a place where during summer you can go weeks without seeing a cloud. 100+ degrees with constant direct sun is brutal.
I moved from Vermont to South Carolina and brought my VFR750 with me in 2014. A lowside in 2011 had me on the ATGATT team.
I imagined that I would ride the bike 11 months out of the year.
I didn’t realize that sitting at the third cycle of a left turn arrow in 90 degree southern heat while sitting on what felt like a nuclear reactor between my legs was what riding 11 months out of the year felt like in reality. Again, ATGATT.
The volume of traffic here was also about 10x what I was used to, with 10x the stupids doing stupid things – including not seeing me ever.
I sold the bike in 2023 after 9 years of convincing myself that I’d ride it regularly.
Despite all of that – I can’t envision adding this cooler to a bike I owned.
The biggest surprise when I got my first Zero was realizing my other bikes were like sitting above a 10kW space heater. Doesn’t help with the Big Dumb Cagers but it keeps my temper down and awareness up.
Electrification seems to make the most sense when paired with two wheels. I would love to see what an e-bike is all about.
Most motorcyclists around here would probably rather just wear a t-shirt and jeans…and…no helmet. That’s not smart and surely not correct, but that’s what downstate IL Harley riders fight tooth and nail for in Springfield.
On the other hand, this does have to work. And I watch Technology Connections, so I’m…dubious as to if it does. Maybe it won’t need as much cooling to give the perception of being cooled, but we as humans run at 98.6…ish…F, therefore I could see the peltiers maaaaaybe getting overwhelmed. Especially on a muscle powered bicycle rather than a Moto.
In my homebrew rig I have a temp sensor. Once the ice melts and the water gets up to 45-50 it might as well not be running. I can’t explain the physics but yeah, if this thing cools to 60 degrees or whatever, it sounds great but it’s not going to do much.
Also, counter intuitively you’ve got to wear cold weather gear to keep the heat out/cold in. Otherwise it doesn’t stand a chance against the blast furnace of 100F air at highway speeds.
That sounds questionable, because compressor-based systems are far more efficient. Peltier cooling is relatively inefficient, and has low total heat flow. The advantages are generally small size and that there’s zero moving parts. I strongly question the viability of things thing.
If you want to learn more on Peltier cooling, Technology Connections made a great video on YouTube.
As someone who owns a Peltier cooled Koolatron, they’re only OK at keeping things that are already cold, cool.
I cannot fathom a world where this would be more effective, both in performance and in power consumption, than a 12v Danfoss compressor. That’s the tech that put full tilt fridge/freezer coolers on the market for a couple hundred bucks.
If it worked, I probably wouldn’t get one. I ride year round, but my commute is 20 minutes, max. So I don’t really need it.
HOWEVER, my menopausal wife would probably LOVE this.
If it works.
I used to ride as much of the year as I could, and summer time was the worst, as I always wore coats and overpants and gloves for the safety of it. I wore a Gerbing heated jacket under my coat in the winter, but even a mesh jacket and pants weren’t enough on some hot summer days, and as the world heats up, that’s likely to get worse. If I was still riding, I’d give this a chance, as even lowering the core temperature of your body a few degrees would make a difference. One of the issues that always bugged me was when doing errands in town, I’d have to take a lot of gear off and then put it back on at every stop. This became a deal breaker after a while, and I see that as an issue with this as well.
It also feels very odd to have your midsection chilled while your head is roasting. It’s…unpleasant.
A Peliter that maxes at 132W input? It’s not going to be particularly cold. As mentioned, Peltiers are terribly inefficient, but motorcycles don’t really allow for a much higher load without a lot of added work.
Neat idea, but I think the environment limitations are going to keeps this from working very well. i think the liquid vest with some external heat exchange is the more useful aspect, if it can be done cleanly. Just don’t rely on a Peltier.
If I’ve got to have some sort of external box strapped behind me, I find it hard to believe the best option just isn’t a cooler filled with ice water and semi-frequent stops at gas stations to replenish the ice.
Yup, exaxtly my though too. It would probably be way colder. And the ice might even last longer than the tank of gas.
I do this and I use about 4lbs of ice per hour.
Heck, you could probably even develop a little PID controller with heat exchanger and variable speed pump to get closer to the temperature you want. You’re really hot? Pump is at high speed. You’re not super hot? Pump slows down, which would also extend how long the ice lasts.
The amount of heat pumped drops as the Peltier gets to max operating wattage. At max power the amount of heat pumped drops below one to one. Meaning you can power the Peltier with 132w, but it will pump less than 132 watts of heat. You can run the Peltier at lower power and get close to two to one. But the difference in temperature from the hot and cold side won’t be as great. So if you run the Peltier at half it’s max power, they could pump two watts for every watt the Peltier uses.
So, the question is, how cold with the fluid running thought the vest be in a 100F day. Will it make you feel more comfortable?