Heat exchanger masks for cold weather cycling (2019)

I don&#x27;t feel the need for this for commuting by bike, even in cold Norway. Mostly because I for commuting am never that out of breath that my lungs hurt.<p>However, I use the Lung Plus variant often when cross country skiing. When it&#x27;s -15C and below, pushing myself for an hour or more outdoors can make me cough all evening. Lots of people have cold induced asthma from training too hard outdoors in their youths. But with this I&#x27;m fine.<p>Also, the main point for me isn&#x27;t necessarily the temperature, but that it retains more moisture. -15C can feel vastly different in humid Oslo, compared to the dryness of the mountain pass Hardangervidda. This feels like it &quot;helps&quot; avoiding dry coughing.<p>I don&#x27;t really like the mask variants. If covid thought people with glasses anything, it&#x27;s that masks fogs everything up! My Lung Plus mostly fogs if I&#x27;m standing still, then I breath straight ahead and into my glasses, otherwise it&#x27;s fine. My girlfriend however recently bought a &quot;OXYO one&quot;, which is the same concept. But it has more of a &quot;snorkel&quot; bite piece, and moves the air to the sides instead. So it&#x27;s a bit smarter in that regard.<p>I guess looks is the main drawback. And how the saliva freezes, heh, look at the icicle in my picture. This is me the other day in -24C:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;NXm8P79" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;a&#x2F;NXm8P79</a>

The site is down, so here&#x27;s a working archive link: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20240125111236&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.coldbike.com&#x2F;2019&#x2F;02&#x2F;13&#x2F;heat-exchanger-masks-a-love-story&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20240125111236&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.coldb...</a>

I used to commute on bike into Boston year round from 12 miles away for a few years.<p>Getting dressed in the winter was always an art and I often thought about making some kind of a clothes chooser website that took into account the temperature and a bunch of other factors.<p>I wish I had known of these masks. Keeping your glasses not fogged up was always a challenge.<p>Winter biking in general is no joke around here because of the weather and the drivers. I started to wear a camera after I got hit by a car... see: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;2hJ_hzjlQsw?si=28yM2wmbCiQuOlJ7" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;2hJ_hzjlQsw?si=28yM2wmbCiQuOlJ7</a>

I live where temperatures go below -20C routinely in the winter. I also cycle year round (commute, groceries, etc), and there&#x27;s definitely an art to gearing up for physical activity in that type of weather.<p>Majority of face coverings seem to have the same weakness: moisture. Exhaled breath dampens them, and if that&#x27;s not gross enough, as inhaled breath pulls cold air in, they freeze up.<p>The best solution I&#x27;ve found is the 3M Aura valved N95 respirator. It&#x27;s breathable enough so that even with moderate to high cardio activity I don&#x27;t feel short of breath. The exhalation valve routes most of the warm moist air out -- while condensation drips off the valve, the filter material remains relatively dry and does not freeze up. This, combined with a helmet, balaclava and wraparound ski goggles makes for a pretty impervious getup [1].<p>The heat exchanger feature is an interesting one. One idea that immediately comes to mind is using body heat to warm the air intake. A piece of avalanche safety gear called Avalung [2] could provide a starting point (eg, if worn under winter clothing instead of on top of it). I imagine other solutions from industries where people work in hazardous air conditions could also be adapted.<p>Personally, I&#x27;d love me a little DIY hazmat rig that can effectively filter intake air, neatly deal with the exhale moisture, while rocking that post-apocalypse punk aesthetic. The era of insidious airborne pathogens seems to be upon us, and with the climate upheaval, the oppressive forest fire smoke of last year will seem quaint so very soon.<p>1: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;CheNY96.png" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;i.imgur.com&#x2F;CheNY96.png</a> (earlier iteration before the valved Aura)<p>2: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.alpineinstitute.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;12&#x2F;the-avalung.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;blog.alpineinstitute.com&#x2F;2012&#x2F;12&#x2F;the-avalung.html</a>

The article doesn&#x27;t describe exactly how these work... I could see 2 potential designs:<p>Design 1:<p>A high thermal mass piece of porous material, which air flows in and out through the same holes. As air is exhaled, the material warms up. As air is inhaled, the material gives collected heat to the incoming air.<p>Design 2:<p>As above, but there are two sets of paths through the material. The paths are in a checkerboard pattern so there is good thermal conductivity between them. One set is for incoming fresh air and the other for used air. One way valves ensure air travels in the correct direction through each hole.<p>Design 1 is great for keeping both heat and moisture (air will be pre humidified on the way in). However, it has the downside that all of the air in the tubes will be re-inhaled in each breath. Effectively your lung capacity will be reduced by the volume of the mask.<p>Design 2 is more mechanically complex, gives you very dry air to breathe in, and will be prone to clogging with condensation, but has the advantage that you aren&#x27;t rebreathing any CO2 laden air. And just 2% breathed back in causes &quot;complaints of drowsiness and poor air&quot;[1]<p>[1]: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dhs.wisconsin.gov&#x2F;chemical&#x2F;carbondioxide.htm" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.dhs.wisconsin.gov&#x2F;chemical&#x2F;carbondioxide.htm</a>

Growing up in Iceland[1] I learned to breathe in through my mouth, out the nose, with the chin tucked into my collar.<p>It requires tightly fitted clothing and folded clothing layers, and a bit of practice, but by doing this you can breathe pre-heated air, as it&#x27;s been passing over your body.<p>As far as modern solutions go, USB charged heated socks and other actively heated clothing has become cheap and light in recent years.<p>1. Yeah it&#x27;s not that cold there compared to further inland, but usually windy as hell. I&#x27;d mostly use this to avoid inhaling snow.

Very helpful review, but imho, unless you’re biking in extreme cold (below 0F), you don’t need these. I’ve been cycling in 0-30F weather in just a cloth balaclava for a decade without issue (and I’m not especially resistant to cold).

I just designed this 3D printed &quot;antimask&quot; to keep my face warm without fogging my glasses: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thingiverse.com&#x2F;thing:6438319" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thingiverse.com&#x2F;thing:6438319</a><p>Somebody suggested adding a sloping nose&#x2F;mouth shield, and I said what I really needed was a heat exchanger... nice to see that they actually exist.

This is kind of cool but I do have one question: I notice a lot of cold-bragging going on, people talking about how it&#x27;s negative -20C or -30C outside, etc. When I google typical winter temperatures in the area those people live it usually turns out that the quoted temp is the 10 or 20 year record.<p>And don&#x27;t get me started about windchill...

As someone whose body is getting more cowardly to cold by the year, I&#x27;d wear these as a pedestrian. I decided to keep wearing optimus prime style face mask during winter because it does a good job of keeping my face shielded without getting too moist.

This would be perfect to integrate into a stormtrooper helmet. You would get eye protection from the wind (not sure if stormtrooper helmet lenses had polarization or UV blocking) along with the heat exchanger.

The recent cold snap in Edmonton had me commuting in -37°C. I&#x27;ve never had to rely on face coverings while cycling.<p>Last August however I attempted to cycle from Edmonton to Vancouver but was shut down due to wildfire smoke. My next chance to attempt is again in August, and I don&#x27;t expect the smoke conditions to be any better. I could go for a cycling or sports specific PAP.

I bought an oversized polyester fleece balaclava with drawstring at a truck stop. Because it&#x27;s too big for me it leaves room within the balaclava, so it retains warm air, but still breathes well. I haven&#x27;t tried it in arctic temps but it works decently at -10F with wind.

I have worn the cold avenger (just google, it should be in the top 10 hits) in the south and north polar areas, and for high altitude.<p>It&#x27;s surprising how warm the air gets, I actually had to take it off at times whilst working hard.

I tend to get exercise-induced asthma when I run if it’s near or below freezing. I wonder which of these would be suitable for that.

Funny, I was just thinking about making something like this during cold weather last week.

Is it just me or the website won’t open?

Your body has a built-in device that does exactly what all these devices described do, along with providing some filtration of air before it gets to your lungs.<p>It&#x27;s called &quot;your nose.&quot;<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=athletes+nasal+breathing" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=athletes+nasal+breathing</a>

Have you considered buying a car?