Arctic Hat is a hat that keeps your head cool with an inner liner that uses evaporative water cooling. Does it really work? Here is my Arctic Hat review.
Where to Purchase
You can find Arctic Hat for about $20 at numerous retailers, including Amazon (link to buy). It can be also be purchased from the official website (discussed below) for the same price, with free shipping. I’ve also seen it in stores such as Walmart, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Ace Hardware.
About Arctic Hat
Arctic Hat is a hat that combines sun protection with an evaporative cooling liner that requires cold water to keep your head cool. The official product website is buyarctichat.com, which was registered in July 2018. The screenshot below shows how the product website looked in May 2019.
Claims & Features
- Helps you stay cool
- Apply cold water to inner lining to lower temperature of head by 20 degrees
- Material reflects 99% of sun’s UV rays
- 80% of sun’s heat is reflected
- Mesh fabric is ventilated, lightweight and sturdy
- One size fits almost anyone
Arctic Hat Review
Arctic Hat is an As Seen On TV cooling hat that I first noticed in early 2019. Having reviewed the company’s Arctic Air and Arctic Air Ultra, I found a “cooling hat” to seem a bit amusing but nevertheless wanted to give it a fair evaluation to see if it really worked.
I bought the Arctic Hat for about $20 at an As Seen On TV store in Las Vegas. Over a two week period, I tested the Arctic Hat in both the dry weather of Nevada and the humid climate of Florida.
First I tested the Arctic Hat while hiking in the desert around Vegas and compared it to a regular baseball cap that I also got wet. Before leaving on my 20-minute hike, I applied cold water to the inner lining of the Arctic Hat. It did stay pretty cool, and it kept the sun off of my face and neck. According to the adverting, the hat is supposed to keep your head 20 degrees cooler than the ambient temperature. During my hike, it was around 96 degrees Fahrenheit with 9% humidity. Using a digital thermometer, my head measured 87 degrees while the inner lining of the hat measured 59.9 degrees. So the material against your head is cooler, but it doesn’t necessarily keep your head 20 degrees cooler.
For the 20 minute walk back, I applied cold water to the regular baseball cap. The Arctic Hat did keep my head cooler than this control hat, and it also blocked more of the sun. I noticed that the baseball cap warmed up much quicker than the Arctic Hat.
This is not the first evaporative cooling product that I’ve reviewed. I also reviewed the Mission Cooling Towel in 2017 and the Koldtec Towel in 2018 and compared both in Nevada and Florida due to the differences in humidity.
For my Florida tests, it was 88 degrees with 63% humidity. After walking around for about 15 minutes, I observed that the Arctic Hat had started warming up. Evaporative cooling does not work well in humidity, so the hat worked well in the dry climate of Nevada, but did not perform as well in the humid climate of Florida. It just felt like warm water on my head, yet it still performed well in blocking out the sun.
Again, I used the regular hat as a control. I dipped it in the ocean water and walked around for several minutes. As with the Arctic Hat, it warmed up quickly while not providing as much protection from the sunshine.
In the end, Arctic Hat isn’t really a style of hat I would normally wear – and it does not work as well in humidity – but it did keep me cooler in the dry climate of Las Vegas. It also provided some protection from the sun, though I’m not so sure it is that much different from the protection provided by any wide-brimmed hat. As it turned out, the Florida sun was quite punishing on my trip there, and I ended up wearing the Arctic Hat everywhere I went, not because of its evaporative cooling, but because it protected my neck and shoulders better than a regular hat.
If you live in a dry area, I believe the Arctic Hat will serve you well, but if you’re in a more humid area, I suggest having limited expectations. Be sure to glance over the Arctic Hat comments on Amazon to see the wide range of opinions.
One Year Update (June 2020)
I continued to use the Arctic Hat throughout the grueling desert heat all through 2019 and, although I never really got it wet to use the “cooling” feature, I did find it to be an acceptable wide brim hat. I also found myself using the drawstring to take the hat off and rest it on my back when entering stores. When I pulled it out in April 2020, the cooling part of the hat appears to have shrunk. I can’t quite explain why, but the hat definitely did not fit as well as it did the previous summer. I did wet the hat and put it on my head to stretch it out, which worked to some extent, but the hat doesn’t quite feel the same to me as it did the year prior. I have embedded that video below.
Video Reviews
Below is my full video review of Arctic Air, and my brief one year update is below that (around the 5:13 mark of that video).
Alternatives
You may be surprised to find that there are a number of cooling hats on the Market. Mission also offers a baseball hat. Fur the ultimate neck protection, you may want to consider something like this wide brim fishing hat.
Your Arctic Hat Reviews
Have you used Arctic Hat or something like it? Tell me what you think in the comments below.
Bought the hat in July, returned it the next week. It did not cool me despite pouring cold water into it. It is a phony product
Do you live in a humid climate? I didn’t find that it did much in higher humidity.
Obviously if you live in a humid location it won’t do a damn thing you slow guy. In a dry climate like New Mexico, this thing is awesome.
I’m in Canada. How well do you think the hat would work here in the summers?
Also, just a suggestion, when you put down temperatures, can you please include Celcius?
If it’s dry, it will work. It becomes less effective as humidity rises. And I’ll try to remember to include Celsius!
I was just given one of these hats. “One Size fits all” is an outright lie. it will not cover the crown of my head. Disappointed to say the least. Makes me look like a clown with a tiny had.
Yeah for me it was a tight fit when I first bought it but over time it got even tighter.