The Cool Shirt system is an ingenious way of keeping cool during the warmer months of the year. It is made up of a shirt that has tubing sewed into it and a cooler that pumps cold water through the shirt. You can buy the entire system or each part separately. I am pretty good at making things, but I have no interest in trying to sew tubing into a shirt. I ordered the official shirts, but figured I could make the cooler. It’s basically a bilge pump mounted inside a cooler with tubing running from the cooler to the shirt and back to the cooler. Below are links to the parts that used:
Here is the Cooler:
http://www.austinkayak.com/products/3531/Engel-13-Quart-Dry-Box-Cooler-UC-13.htmlYou will need 2 of each following couplers:
http://quickcouplings.net/osc/product_info.php?cPath=21_25&products_id=172&osCsid=90b6b25a048ddb84a90e4b33552ce70bhttp://quickcouplings.net/osc/product_info.php?cPath=21_25&products_id=193&osCsid=90b6b25a048ddb84a90e4b33552ce70bhttp://quickcouplings.net/osc/product_info.php?cPath=21_25&products_id=178&osCsid=90b6b25a048ddb84a90e4b33552ce70bThe couplers are dry break couplers (valved), so when you disconnect them, they do not leak water everywhere.
You will also need the following parts that can be bought at your local stores:
1. Bilge Pump-I bought the smallest bilge pump I could find at Wal-Mart
2. ¼” clear tubing
3. Pipe insulation-I found this at Lowes and bought the kind that was not split down the side so I did not have to tape or zip tie the insulation together after the tubing was run through it.
4. Electrical Connectors for power to the cooler. I used this one so I could easily disconnect the cooler from the power source.
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=38700035. ¾”- ¼” copper reducer with a short piece of ¾” copper pipe and a short piece of ¼” copper pipe. There are a number of ways to reduce the tubing, but I went with copper since I work for a plumbing company.
6. Short piece of ¾” tubing
The first problem that I noticed was that the threaded part of the panel mount couplers were not long enough to go all the way through the side of the cooler. I tossed around a lot of ideas, but decided to try the simplest idea first. I cut two blocks of wood that were about the same size as the area the couplers would occupy. I then placed the blocks on either side of the cooler where the couplers would be mounted. Next, I took a C clamp and slowly tightened it down over the blocks smashing the insulation between the walls of the cooler. I also heated the plastic with a hair dryer as I slowed screwed the clamp together. I was successfully able to compact this area to a point where the couplers would pass all the way through the side.
Next I marked where I wanted the couplers to be mounted, marked, took a deep breath and fired up the drill. Nothing like drilling large holes in the side of a brand new $50 cooler.

Don’t mess up this step! Next I mounted the couplers with silicone to seal any gaps.
Sorry for the fuzzy pics.


Now it’s time to mount the bilge pump. I decided to use the silicone to mount the pump, so it would not be 100% permanent in case I needed to replace it or move it. You will need to scuff up the area with some sandpaper where the pump is to be attached or the silicone won’t stick. As me how I know! Glue the pump down and let it dry overnight.
You are going to need a hole for the power wire to exit the cooler. I drilled a hole large enough to be able to install a rubber grommet on either side of the cooler. I installed them, pushed the power wire through and siliconed the area. You can see the black grommet in one of the pics above.
I thought reducing the ¾” output from the bilge pump to the ¼” coupler would be easy, but it turned out to be a PITA. I finally used a ¾” – ¼” copper reducer with a very short piece of ¾” copper pipe sticking out on one end and a short piece of ¼” copper pipe on the other end. You can then use the ¾” clear tubing and some hose clamps to connect the reducer to the pump. Then use a section of ¼” tubing to connect the other end of the reducer to the supply coupler.


