Glowing reviews on amazon and chemist warehouse. Great for the cold Aussie winter.
CamelCamelCamel.
That's hot
I've been using one on and off with my neck for the past two years. It works great for me.
10 to 15min charge providing up to 8 hours run time? That's putting VOOC to shame. Is that what you get in your experience?
It does not charge - it just heats up the water inside. It's a hot water bottle with built in heating element.
10 to 15min charge providing up to 8 hours run time? That's putting VOOC to shame. Is that what you get in your experience?
As Prong says, it's not a battery, it's a 360W heating coil inside a bag of liquid. I'm not sure what liquid it is, it sounds denser than water. Maybe some kind of oil.
I measured the temperature drop; their 8 hour figure is technically correct but real-life performance is dependent on what the pack is in contact with.
I put the heat pack under a blanket. It starts off at about 56 degrees C and by the 8th hour it dropped to 39.1 degrees which would feel (barely) warm since it's above skin temperature.
Of course in reality how long the heat lasts depends on what it's in contact with, just like how an ice cube will stay frozen for longer if you put it in a styrofoam cup vs a metal cup. It's not magic so don't expect it to stay at 50 degrees for an hour.
One full heating cycle consumes 0.052kWh. At 25c/kWh, it costs 1.3c to heat up.
Thanks for the last line, that sounds pretty good. My comment was a bit tongue in cheek, I suspected it wasn't just battery powered
Nice data logging!
As it happens I did similar but left it plugged in to see how it cycles. Mine cuts heating at 58 degrees, then turns it back on at 45 degrees.
Which means you can't reheat it till it is pretty much lukewarm.
I use two of these every single night for muscle spasms, they are awesome!
These are seriously good! We have a big open house with poor insulation (like most Australian homes) so we don't run heating during winter.
Elderly person uses 4 of these in bed and is never cold. Lasts most of the night, I feel it never gets cold to the touch personally even after cooling down in the bed. Plus because of how portable it is and the fact that it never needs to be refilled means it can be used on the couch, in the car, out camping etc. I run 1 in bed which doubles as foot warmer when I'm WFH during the day.
1 of the 5 in the house is now 2 years old, vapor builds up over time in the bag but I don't feel it affects the function much. So far no leakage or failure of the electronics on any of them.
At this price, do yourself a favour and buy 1 or 2 even if it's to try.
no where near the run time stated fyi
charges quickly but is lucky to maintain an hour to 90 mins of heat even under the blanket. My partner has one also and gets the same run time
In case anyone's interested, this is the actual measured runtime of mine. The stated 8 hours is technically achievable - if nothing else is touching the bag. I mention a bit more above.
Bought one because my partner loves a hot water bottle, but we hate having to fill it up.
It's ok, but not great.
It heats up to 58 degrees in 5 - 10 mins, depending on the starting temp. The internal thermostat does not allow it to be reheated until it has dropped to 45 degrees, which feels lukewarm at best.
The negative reviews on Amazon are pretty bang on - but they are just downsides, not showstoppers. (no smoke from mine though…)
It does have a strong plastic smell.
Plugging it in is awkward. The internal heating element and plug is a weird shape (to make it easier to plug in the cord), so makes it uncomfortable for resting any part of you on it. So no good for putting behind your back while sitting due to the solid, pokey plastic bits inside.
It feels much like when you fill up a hot water bottle with hot tap water, rather then delightfully scalding boiling water, like they advise not to for safeties sake. So the nice warmth lasts about 30 minutes, and an hour or so more at warmish temps before it needs reheating.
From a 4 star review:
"I also saw a couple plumes of smoke coming from the unit while heating so now I stay with it while it's heating."