foam as insulation, I do not think it is a good idea

FOAM AS INSULATION

Every now and then I get a call from someone asking me what I think of foam insulation used in outerwear. My first response is where did you hear about this? He read it on the internet. The internet as far as I am concerned is the encyclopedia one thousand times over, so it has all kinds of information. Foam is good for home insulation.

My response is foam can be a dangerous product when used as insulation for cold weather clothing. Historically a guy named Jim Phillips was financed by Burlington Industries in the 1970’s I believe to make and test cold weather clothing using open cell foam as the insulation. The garments were made with I believe one inch thick foam made by Burlington with nylon shell fabrics made by Burlington. Jim wore these garments and he jumped into 40 degree water up in Alaska. How long he was in the water I do not know but the garments were eventually patented by Burlington. Several years later I was at an Outdoor Retailer trade show and I saw their exhibit. I tried to sell them the Lamilite knowing it was certainly a far and away better product. Years later a new owner of the company which was called Northern Outfitters did buy the Lamilite because he received an order from the National Science Foundation contractor Antarctic Support Associates for parkas used in Antarctica, on one condition the insulation had to be Lamilite. They knew from field testing Lamilite was far superior to the foam. To the best of my knowledge Northern Outfitters is no longer in business because they stopped using Lamilite. So there must be other companies that think foam is a good insulation. I have not researched the web to find out how many there are, but I am sure very few since all of the outerwear companies we know of get product made for them in Asia and only use polyester or down.

I do know from dog mushers specifically two men who ran the Yukon Quest which takes place in February and is colder than the Iditarod race they wore the Northern Outfitter garments for a part of the race and because all of their sweat was absorbed into the foam and froze they were freezing. In essence they were building an ice box around themselves. This story was written up in the Anchorage Alaska newspaper at the time. They said the arms froze straight out. They threw the garments away and finished the race with other clothing. Open cell foam is a sponge; it is used for sponges made for washing stuff like dishes or cars because it holds water so well. Closed cell foam such as Ensolite is used for flotation garments, because water cannot penetrate it. Go into any marine shop and almost all of the flotation garments have Ensolite in them.

The open cell foam has been tried in other products as well as clothing over the years as an in insulating medium even in sleeping bags always without success. If it did work polyester fiberfill would most likely not be in existence because foam has been around I think as early as the 1930’s. But foam proved that it is not an acceptable form of insulation when used in cold weather outerwear.

Now if you were to get into one of these garments and sat still on a cold day it would keep you warm.Of course you would really look like the Michelin man. There is no drape around your body like Lamilite offers. It basically stands away from you. You want the garment to hug you which foam does not do. Like down when moisture comes out of your body it is trapped in the down and in the case of foam, it is trapped in the foam. This is reality.

I further suggested that he read the two articles I published in August 2015 for a greater amount of information. The titles are about foam insulation.

Now the question is; will he heed my warning about the potential dangers if worn in very cold weather that being sub-zero temperatures being active so he is sweating and ultimately realizing that the moisture i.e. sweat is trapped in the foam, who knows.

For those of you who have not read about foam used as insulation in outerwear I suggest the two articles noted. Also, keep in mind my purpose in offering this information is to educate people about insulations in general that are used in outerwear or sleeping bags so they can make the best possible decision when they are going to buy these types  products.