Hi Nick,
Thank you for taking the time to share an honest account of your ICEVENTS® Classic Plate Carrier Ventilation Pontoons experience. While ICEVENTS® have tens of thousands of extremely satisfied, performance-minded customers, they are not a perfect fit for everyone. That said, we think some additional context will help set you up for success.
FEEL
We have a number of resources on our INSIGHTS blog and our YouTube Channel to help customers understand the differences between an ICEPLATE® experience and an ICEVENTS® experience. TLDR: ICEPLATE® uses conduction, so the 'feeling' will be extremely high contrast because of the power involved. ICEVENTS® use convection, so the feeling will be more subtle. Think of the difference you 'feel' from sweating...while you don’t “feel” cold, sweating cools your body thanks to the magic of physics. If you are looking for a super high contrast experience to help you maximize your performance in the field (we never underestimate the power of confidence in the field), ICEPLATE® is probably the better performance product for you. Here are some links to those resources - we hope they are helpful:
Methods of Heat Transfer
https://www.qoreperformance.com/blogs/cbrne_hazmat/the-methods-of-heat-transfer-the-science-of-ppe-cooling-heating
Human Cooling Basics:
https://www.qoreperformance.com/blogs/industrial-insights/human-cooling-basics-how-to-stay-cool-in-summer-heat
Why are ICEVENTS® so expensive?
https://www.qoreperformance.com/blogs/military-insights/unveiling-the-value-why-icevents-technology-by-qore-performance-commands-its-price
SETUP
It is important to analyze ICEVENTS® performance in the context of your specific setup. While ICEVENTS® themselves empirically outperform every other form of padding on the market today and they will improve any setup to which they are added (mileage varies), their performance can be restricted by the setup itself. When used with less breathable plate carrier designs/materials, the convective power of ICEVENTS® is limited by those materials, especially when they block the largest surface area exposure with a material like spacer mesh. The THORAX uses spacer mesh to line the cummerbund. Spacer mesh is actually an insulator which inhibits both convective air flow and heat dissipation. This is not us speaking poorly of the THORAX (quite the opposite as we’ve always enjoyed a friendly relationship with HSP and still do today, we’ve also featured their products in our marketing photography for years with products provided to us by HSP). We’re merely attempting to provide some purely empirical context for analysis. Here is an article from our INSIGHTS blog with the empirical evidence for why we do not use spacer mesh. It uses FLIR images and laser thermometer readings to show the differences in performance between spacer mesh and the materials we use to build members of the IceAge Ecosystem:
https://www.qoreperformance.com/blogs/military-insights/plate-carrier-cooling-heating-thermal-transmission-performance-of-plate-carrier-liners-like-spacermesh-sportskin
ICEVENTS®, no matter how capable, cannot make a plate carrier like the THORAX deliver the same Thermal Transmittance performance as say the Ferro Concepts FCPC V5 or the T.Rex Arms AC1.
If you’d like to see the empirical data for how THORAX performs compared to other plate carriers on the market today, including Thermal Transmittance, our Best Plate Carriers 2024 article is a great resource:
https://www.qoreperformance.com/blogs/military-insights/the-best-plate-carriers-of-2024
LOAD DISTRIBUTION
Speaking purely from an empirical/science/engineering perspective, ICEVENTS® are unrivaled in their ability to distribute load while providing convective ventilation. This detailed article from our INSIGHTS blog provides the empirical results from our testing:
https://www.qoreperformance.com/blogs/military-insights/convective-cooling-conductive-cooling-and-pressure-distribution-testing-of-life-saving-equipment
“BREAK-IN”
Again, speaking strictly from a technical standpoint, “break-in” is purely a placebo effect since the anisotropic architecture of ICEVENTS® has no memory.
EDGES
As noted on the product page, ICEVENTS® can be trimmed to accommodate any difference in body type, fit, based entirely on the preferences of the end-user.
We hope this helps, but please let us know if you have any additional questions. #StayFrosty