About Site Chill
We got sick of cooking on site
Site Chill builds fan cooling gear for Australian conditions. Not office-air-con conditions. Not European summer conditions. Forty-two degrees in a roof cavity in February, with two hours left on the job.
- Started
- 2021, in a shed
- Tradies kitted out
- 12,000+
- Ships from
- Australia
- Owned by
- Tradies, not VCs
How it started
A bad day in a roof cavity
Summer of 2021. One of us was pulling cable through a roof in western Sydney, second-last day before the Christmas shutdown. Came down the ladder, sat on the slab, and couldn't stand back up for twenty minutes. Not heroic. Just the normal end of a hot day that everyone on that site treated as normal.
The gear on offer was ice vests. Freeze them overnight, wear them for forty minutes, then carry two kilos of warm water around for the rest of the shift. Everyone we knew had tried one. Nobody we knew still used one.
So we bought a dozen fan vests off overseas suppliers and wore them. Most were rubbish. Fans mounted flat on the back so you couldn't lean on a ladder or sit in the ute. Batteries that died at lunch. Sizing that stopped at XL, which rules out a fair chunk of the trades.
We took the two that were nearly right and spent eighteen months fixing them: fans moved into the side panels, a bigger battery, sizes up to 5XL, and a shell that survives a real wash. That became the V1. The V2 is what happens after four summers of blokes telling us what still annoyed them.
What we hold to
Four rules we don't bend
Test it on site, not in a lab
Every change goes out to a crew of working tradies for a full summer before it ships. If it annoys them in week three, it doesn't make the cut, no matter how good the spec sheet reads.
Sizes that fit real blokes
S through 5XL on every style, in every colour, at the same price. Nobody pays extra for being a big unit, and nobody gets told their size is out of stock all summer.
Straight answers
We tell you where the gear falls short. It does less in Darwin humidity than in dry heat, and the dark colourways aren't taped for night work. You'd rather know before you order than after.
Fix it, don't bin it
Fans, batteries and filters are all sold separately and swap out by hand. A dead fan costs you a part, not a new garment, and the battery carries across every style we make.
How we run it
Small outfit, short chain
There's no showroom and no sales team. We design the gear here, have it built to our spec by a factory we've used since the V1, and ship it ourselves from our own warehouse. Every order gets checked on the bench before it's boxed.
- Stocked and shipped in Australia. Order before 2pm on a weekday and it goes out the same day, express, at no charge.
- You get a person, not a bot. Sizing and warranty emails are answered by someone who has worn the gear on a job.
- 30 days to decide. Wear it on a hot day. If it doesn't earn its spot, send it back for a full refund, swaps included.
Who's wearing it
Started with sparkies and roof plumbers, because that's who we knew. These days it's most of the trades, plus a fair few outside them.
Sparkies
Chippies
Plumbers
Concreters
Landscapers
Warehouse
"Ordered four for the crew after the first one lasted a full Perth summer. That's the whole review."
Where we stand
Heat is a safety issue, not a soft one
Working in heat isn't just uncomfortable. It slows your reactions, shortens your temper and makes mistakes far more likely, on jobs where a mistake means a fall or a live wire. Most blokes push through it because that's the culture, and then drive home tired.
A fan vest is not a cure. Shade, water, rest breaks and sensible scheduling do the heavy lifting, and no bit of gear replaces stopping when you need to. What airflow does is keep sweat evaporating so your body's own cooling keeps working, which buys you back a chunk of the day.
We say that plainly because overselling it would put someone in a roof who should be on the ground. If you're feeling dizzy, cramping or you've stopped sweating, get out of the heat and get help. Gear can't fix that.
Straight answers
Are you an Australian business?
Yes. We design the gear here, hold the stock here and ship every order from our own warehouse. The garments themselves are manufactured overseas to our spec, which we're upfront about rather than dressing it up as made local.
Do you sell to companies and crews?
We do. Most of our bigger orders are builders and contractors kitting out a crew before summer. Email us with sizes and rough numbers and we'll sort pricing and a single invoice.
Can I get my company logo on them?
On crew orders, yes, embroidered on the chest. Get in touch with your artwork and we'll let you know lead times, which run longer than a standard order.
What happens if something breaks?
Two years on the fans and battery, twelve months on the shell and zips. Email us your order number and what's gone wrong and we'll post a replacement part. Normal wear on site is covered. Reversing the ute over it is not.
How do I get hold of you?
Email is best and gets answered inside a business day, usually faster. Sizing questions, warranty, crew orders, or telling us what's wrong with the gear: all the same inbox, and we read the lot.
Hear it before summer hits
New gear, restocks and the odd heads-up when stock is about to go. A few emails a summer, not a few a week.
Built by blokes who cop the heat
Three styles, five colours, S to 5XL. Free express shipping and 30 days to send it back if it doesn't earn its spot.
Shop the gear