This ingenious neck fan kept me blissfully cool during a 95°F heatwave

Stuck inside without air conditioning? Doing a brutal hike on the hottest day of the year? I found a gadget that will almost instantly make you feel cooler. With temperatures rising this summer, the heat is on to find ways to quickly cool down.

Yes, it’s a fan, but it’s not one of those cheap battery fans that demands you hold it in your hand and aim it at your face. My new favorite chilling solution—available for $100 on Amazon—is a surprisingly powerful hands-free fan that you can wear on your body. Meet the Torras COOLify Air neck AC fan.

Of course, fans don’t lower the temperature of the air itself, but they do create a breeze that accelerates the evaporation of sweat to help your body cool down.

I’m writing this from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, where 97-degree temperatures are making life extremely uncomfortable (at least while I’m outside the blessed cool of the hotel AC).

Saving me daily from heatstroke and a sweaty head, the travel-friendly, adjustable COOLify Air is a neck-worn air conditioner that incorporates two fans and an extremely welcome cooling plate at the back of the neck. And how’s this for validation: I saw two more neck fan users by the pool.

Simon Jary

Thirty-six vents expel a refreshing 360-degree airflow that directs an icy breeze above and below your neck. It creates a satisfying wind chill effect almost immediately. You really do feel the difference as soon as you turn it on.

Yes, wetting a cloth with cool water and wrapping it around the back of your neck can offer similar instant relief, but when that cloth dries out, you need to wet it again to repeat the process. Not so with the COOLify Air.

The neck fan is lightweight at 14oz (400g) and beats the sensation of a wet cloth. It’s rated to keep running between 4 and 20 hours depending on which of the five air-power settings (up to 8,450rpm) you use. It’s rechargeable via USB-C.

Torras

The COOLify’s ice plate at the back of the wearable fan cools the large blood vessels near the neck’s surface, which allows body heat to escape. It turn out that cooling one’s neck is the quickest way to lower the temperature of your head and brain. The fan then blows that heat away from your body to keep you cool.

The Air is one of several COOLify neck fan models available from maker Torras. There are more expensive variants (at up to $329) with more vents and motors and specialized apps, but the $149 entry-level Air offers most of what you need for a quick or prolonged cooling at the lowest cost. At the time of this writing, you can find it at Amazon for around $110. That’s more than you’ll pay for a cheap hand fan, but you’ll thank yourself every time the mercury rises.

It is still recommended to drink lots of cold water and engage in all the other cool-down tips, but this neck AC fan is my go-to travel companion for keeping cool. I’m not going anywhere hot without it in my bag.