I purchased a dual-zone King sized Chilipad about 1 1/2 years ago. Previously I would often waking up sweating at night, even if the room was cool. The Chilipad has helped significantly. I generally sleep cooler, and wake up less.
Unfortunately, this a great idea in need of some further engineering and refinement, and I am not so happy with the quality. After 1 1/2 years of use, here are my observations:
-The pad never quite gets as cool as I would like. After a couple of hours, its noticeably cool. But I wish it would get a bit cooler. Sometimes when the room is too warm, the unit cant keep up and I still wake up hot.
-The lights and controls on the cooling units need to be thought out better. I would be much happier with a simple on/off switch for maximum cooling... without the bright lights and the loud beeping. The lights on the top of the cooling units are extremely bright; I have to place a shoe or something on top of each unit in order to darken the room. The unit beeps quite loudly every time you turn it on or make an adjustment, which is distracting if someone else is already in bed sleeping. To set the unit for cooling, you have to first push the on button, which beeps loudly, then hold down the temp button for a few moments til you get to the lowest temp, and then you can finally set the temp. Its an unnecessarily long and loud process. If the unit is bumped when its running then it shuts down and resets, and you have to go through all the button pushing and beeping again.
-My pad recently developed a leak, which caused a big wet spot to form. I spoke to Becky in their customer service department, and she said that LEAKS are NOT covered under their "2 year warranty". She says that if it develops a leak, even under normal use and during the warranty period, you have to pay $90 for a new pad. So I paid the $90.
-One of my two cooling units recently stopped cooling. It would power on... bright lights, loud beeping and everything... but it would not cool. As a result, one half of the pad would not work. I had to ship the cooling unit back to them for a repair, which was completed promptly and it works fine now.
I hope they re-design this product in the future and fix some of these issues. When its working right, its pretty good. In spite of my frustrations with it, I would probably buy it again. I think it has the potential to be a great item if they come out with a higher quality version.
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I have been using the chili pad for about a week now, after reading a pretty good review on gizmodo I decided to give it a try.
It advertises itself as being able to reach a temperature as low as 46 F, the lowest It's gone is around 59, which would be fair if it didn't go up to 70 as soon as you lie down on it, and it takes around 2 hours for the thing to reach this temperature. So you can forget about turning it on as soon as you lie down. This is on an Air conditioned room at around 67 F.
I called the company and they told me that to use a really thick blanket to trap the air. I was already doing that. They also told me to make sure that the control unit had at least 24 inches on all sides of cleared space, which it did since I actually read the manual.
What made me a little angry was the Rep's attitude towards me. After I told her I had tried all of those tips, she instantly told me that they offer a 90 day money back guarantee. I kept telling her that I just wanted to see if I didn't have a faulty unit since some reviews on amazon stated that the unit worked pretty well and cooled really fast (including the gizmodo review), and again she insisted on the money back guarantee. I mean, I want to like the product and give it a fair chance but she assured me that it's working correctly even though its performance is sub-par.
So I have mixed feelings about this. If it would get near the temp its advertised to reach (46) quickly and maintained it, then I would rate it 5 stars immediately, but since the rep told me that my unit was working correctly without even attempting to troubleshoot it somehow or ask me to send it back, then it gets only 2 stars from me.
It's a very expensive product, at the very least I would expect decent customer service. I didn't get this for pleasure either, I got this for my mom who experiences hot flashes and can't sleep well at night.
Since there are no videos of this thing on youtube, i'm thinking of creating a video to film the Temp indicator and show that the whole setup is done according to the manual and demonstrate how long it takes to cool and how it does not reach the advertised temperature. I will update it when I have it.
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Let me start by saying, yes, I understand it's expensive, HOWEVER, in the 2 months I've had it, my heating bill is already lower, and I can see that with winter and summer heating bill savings, it will end up paying for itself.
The temperature control is fantastic!!! If your body heats up at night, the chili-pad will cool you down, and if you cool off, it will heat you up. It will heat or cool to the temperature you set it too, so you stay comfortable all night!
I really LOVE the dual zone. I sleep at 73degrees (winter temperature), and my girlfriend sleeps at 80. We both sleep ALL night in a deep, restful sleep. Both of us can set our own temperature to whatever makes us comfortable.
Review I read before I bought this product talked about the 'noise' made by the fan from the control unit.
After turning both sides on, I could not believe that anyone would complain about it. It's barely even a whisper!! I put the two control units at the foot of my bed, and it sounds like a small fan on in an adjacent room. There is a separate remote for each side, so you don't even have to get out of bet to turn it up, down, off, or set the sleep timer.
They say to use distilled water, and it holds a surprisingly small amount of water. You have to top the water off about every 2 weeks or so.
My dog and cat also sleep on the bed. I was slightly concerned about what their claws could do, but I turns out that the tubing is well protected inside the chili-pad so no worries about the pets!
This product has FAR surpassed my expectations!!! I work nights, so I can't wait to see how cool it keeps me in the summer, while I sleep during the day! I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants a better more restful sleep!!!!
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I have also owned my Chilipad for a year. Based on my experience, I would say the other reviews so far are accurate.
PROS
Definitely cools the mattress. The area under the sleeper still heats up but you can roll over and find a cooler spot.
Cooler sleep temp allows the user to run ambient AC slightly warmer and save on cooling costs.
Can work as a heating pad too.
Pad can be washed.
CONS
Noisy (about the noise level of an ocillating fan).
Bright control unit lights, which can be irritating in a dark room.
Works better when new, cools less efficiently as it gets older. Cooling temp never reaches as low as advertised. Lowest temp depends on ambient air temp might not get below 70 in a very warm room.
Weird pressure points, you can definitely feel the tubes inside the pad.
Bottom line: It did not eliminate my insomnia and night sweats but did reduce their intensity. I recommend combining the Chilipad with a cooling pillow for maximum effectiveness. Would I buy this again knowing what I know now? It's expensive, but yes, probably.
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I bought this product less than a year ago and was stunned to find that it was leaking badly. Had I not encased my very expensive new mattress in plastic as I did when I first purchased it a year ago, my new mattress would be ruined and full of mold. That's a lot of loss to bear for any consumer. Most people do not use plastic around their mattresses, so for most people, having a product leak like this, could be catastrophic. I sleep alone and don't do gymnastics on my bed. No pets have access to my bedroom. I have treated this product with kid gloves from day one (I did not even wash it when it first arrived for fear of damaging the tubing). I even use a mattress pad over the Chilipad just to give myself added protection between myself and this extremely expensive product. I am well under the weight limit and can't think of any reason whatsoever that would make this product leak.
Like most people, I do not wash my mattress pad as often as I do my sheets, so there was no way to pinpoint when this started. It may have been leaking all along to some degree, and I just didn't notice it as the mattress pad on top of it was absorbing it until it began leaking badly enough to seep through and leave everything wet. I was horrified as I took apart all my bedding and found that everything was wet beneath me (including another protective sheet I had around the plastic that encases my mattress)! The plastic around my mattress was wet and that means that my new mattress would have been destroyed had I not had it encased in plastic, and after experiencing their customer service, I would have been left to my own devices for that as well!
They do not cover leakage of their own product! What good is a warranty if it does not cover any leaks, which is a huge issue! After reading some of the other reviews regarding this exact same issue, I am truly horrified that they force us to buy a new pad! Because my mattress has memory foam inside, and becomes insufferably hot, I felt hostage to having to shell out the money or live with the heat (and lose the huge investment I made in purchasing this unit). I paid nearly $700.00 for this contraption and they leave you on your own if it leaks! That's ludicrous!
The icing on the cake was the mold that had been slowly growing all over this pad that I have owned for less than a year and was extremely careful with! There is nothing acceptable about this situation as it is a serious health hazard, and after reading other reviews with people stating that they are having the exact same issue as well, the company should have already gone back to the drawing board by now and rectified this issue (as well as cheerfully refunding the people who have had this problem, sending them a new pad for free, and praying that they don't sue)! God only knows what laying on this mold has done to my health! They act as if it's a mere inconvenience and have the audacity to ask you to pay for a new pad!
The above is my personal opinion on this product. I would not recommend it under these circumstances. Condensation is one thing, but this kind of leakage can actually be dangerous. Either reinforce these pads with safer enclosures or use tougher, flexible, silicone in place of what is currently being used (better still-do both). This should have been fully covered, (and with this many people complaining about leaks, they should have already gone back to the drawing board on this).
