Other than portable fans and blowers, not much has been done by tool manufacturers to keep workers cool during the heat. That is until now that Makita has come out with some of the strangest, wierdest, or most innovative products of their kind or all three, with a new cordless 18V helmet fan and 18V fan jacket.
The first product available now is their 18V LXT helmet fan BCF050Z. This is an inexpensive head mounted fan unit with a head band that mounts over your safety helmet (safety helmet sold separately) and blows air either inside the helmet circulating air around your head or directly at the back of your neck. It has 2 mode settings low and high and can run up to 20 hours using an 18V 3.0 ah battery and is also cross compatible with Makita 14.4V lithium ion batteries. This is actually a 2 piece tool with the head mounted fan module with strap as one piece and also has a separate power source where the battery slides into with wire that connects and feeds power to the fan module. The power source has a belt clip so you can conveniently clip the power source onto your belt. The only negative I can think of is having to run a power cord from your belt all the way up to the back of your safety helmet. This may get uncomfortable and might even snag on something as your traveling through the jobsite but workers will definitely appreciate it’s ability to cool your head. More so for those working outside directly in the sun.
The second product might seem the most odd as it’s a jacket that cools! The Makita 18V LXT fan jacket FJ200DZ uses a built in fan at the bottom of the rear exterior of the jacket and circulates air throughout the entire jacket even the sleeves. This jacket seems more at place in the future from back to the future.
It also includes a separate power source to attach 18V and 14.4V Makita lithium ion batteries and features 3 speeds. Also like current heated jackets from competing brands, the jacket power source also doubles as a power bank for portable devices with a built in USB port rated for 2.1 amps for fast charging.
This jacket will be available in sizes M, L, XL, and 2XL. I like it because of the idea of cooling but at the same time I ask myself if at some point it will just recirculate warm air once the air inside gets warm. This problem can easily be solved if there is some sort of exhaust port on the jacket to release warm air from inside. I can’t officially say if it does or doesn’t have this feature as I wasn’t able to translate the documentation from Japanese so it may or may not vent hot air. My next concern is fashion, as the jacket is working, the jacket expands, inflates, however you want to call it. In other words you will look “bloated” while it’s operating. But if you don’t care about how you look and appreciate being cooled off, then this might be for you.
As for availability, I found the fan jacket listed on the Japanese Amazon as unavailable which usually means coming soon. No word if the fan jacket will arrive here in the USA. As for the helmet fan, I seen it being sold on a USA website and it retails for around $25.99 making it very affordable.
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