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The Cool Collar CCX is a patented two-piece personal cooling system you wear around your neck. It consists of an insulating neoprene CoolSwap™ wrap and a special cooling element, the Black Ice Personal Cooling Pack™. This cooling pack recharges in ice water, a freezer or refrigerator. It attaches to the wrap via built-in hook-and-loop fasteners, and it sits directly against the back of your neck once you put it on. The Black Ice Personal Cooling Pack is unique because it produces a regulated temperature output of 13-14°C (57°F) - a temperature that is cool, refreshing and much more safe and comfortable to apply to skin than ice or frozen gels.

Smart Ice, the coolant contained inside the Black Ice Personal Cooling Pack, is a molecular alloy formulated to produce a ~13.9°C (57°F) temperature output once "charged." The material is chemically classified as a light mineral oil, so if you were to break a pack open (please don't do that), you would find a very thin, oily liquid.

The coolant is neither toxic nor carcinogenic. It is a light-grade mineral oil, so, like most oils, some people may be sensitive to the liquid should it come in contact with their skin. In the unlikely event of a pack leak, immediately wash any skin exposed to the liquid with a grease-dispersing soap (liquid dishwashing soaps work very well). Also remove any wraps or clothing exposed to the liquid, and wash them before wearing them again.

You can recharge Black Ice Personal Cooling Packs in any of three ways*:
- Refrigerator (approximately 3 hr. recharge time)
- Freezer (approximately 1 hr. recharge time)
- Ice water (approximately 20 min. recharge time)

*Do not charge at temperatures below -20°C (-5°F)

Good question–and there is a massively complex answer. But since heat transfer is a job we leave to the engineers and their annoying little calculators, we're going to paraphrase here (Please don't tell the engineers–They really hate the term paraphrase. . . .): Thanks to the physics of heat transfer, water transfers heat much more efficiently than air. That means heat is pulled from the pack faster in ice water, which makes it charge quicker.

Super Fun Home Science Project! (adult supervision not required . . . unless you tend to be clumsy): Leave a large plastic bowl of water on the kitchen counter for an hour, then stick your hand in it. Though the water is the same temperature as the air around you, it feels colder because it's pulling more heat from your hand as compared to the air around you.