Customer Reviews

Targus AWE45US HeatDefense for Laptops (Gray/Black)

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

My Sony laptop's fan broke, so it shuts down after 45 mins. At that point, the bottom is VERY hot, almost untouchable. Bought this pad as a part of an HP deal without reading the negative comments here first.

This pad does what it is supposed to do very well. Now I can use my laptop for 5 hours straight. And it's light, easy to fold and carry, just like a small size towel.

Having said that, after 5 hours, the crystals become fully liquid. Then the pad is just slightly better than a normal pad. It takes sometime for the liquid to go back to crystal state - I use my refrigerator to speed up the process.

In summary:

Pros: Light, portable, no external power.
Cons: Cannot use for long hours unless your laptop is not too hot. Otherwise, get something with powered fans.
Takes time for the pad to recover.
Soft, so you still need some flat hard surface when put on your lap.

I've gone through a wide range of laptop cooling devices over the years. My biggest beef dwith most of them is that they just weren't adaptable enough to all the environments I use my laptop in. Many were too bulky to travel with, or drained my laptop power on airplane flights, or just weren't comfortable for lap use. This pad definitely gets around all of that -- it is easy to shove in my bag with the laptop, doesn't use any power, and because it's cloth and flexible, is much more comfy on my lap than something rigid and plastic.

And even though I often use my laptop (a macbook air) for 6-8 hours a day, I've had much better luck with it truly helping with cooling than the other reviewers seem to have experienced. When you first start using it, you can feel the crystals in the pad being all stiff and crunchy. As the heat dissipates from the laptop into the pad, the crystals melt, and it starts to feel more like that goo inside ice packs. But, like just about any laptop, mine doesn't leak heat evenly across the surface -- so when one part of the mat has liquefied, others are still crunchy. So after every hour or two of use, I flip the mat around, so that the parts of the mat that are still crunchy crystals are underneath the hottest part of my laptop. Yes, it takes a little doing -- but for me, that is well worth the benefits this pad has for me over the other cooling options I've tried.

The biggest drawback for me -- and the main reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 -- is that the surface of the pad is relatively slick, and when I sometimes have problems with my laptop slipping around on it. I tried sticking the mat inside a pillowcase and using it that way, and it seems to solve the slippage issue without affecting how well it works by much.

Altogether, this was well worth the money for me -- but I could see how that might not be the case for someone using a heavier, hotter running laptop.

I got one of these cheap on clearance.

First, I used it by itself on my lap beneath my laptop. Not a good idea. The pad isn't completely stiff, so it buckles some between my legs. Also, while it does absorb heat, some of that heat does slowly seep through the bottom side to your legs.

The solution for me is to use a rigid plastic box about the size of the Targus pad as my foundation, layering on the pad and then the laptop. This has two benefits: one, it allows the pad to do its thing with no worry about seepage; two, the plastic box is thick enough that it raises the laptop keyboard to a much more comfortable level/angle for typing.

Like many people, I bought this with the expectation that this product would magically cure our scorched laps and keep our computers from boiling the atmosphere. Likewise, I quickly came to realize that this would not be the case, being mediocre at best, and annoying to use at worse. It really would have helped to have a grippy surface to keep from sliding everywhere. I honestly couldn't use it on my lap for any period of time without worrying about it sliding off. The only plus it had was that it drew no power, and was semi-flexible. So I give it 2 stars for laptop/lap cooling and proceeded to throw it into a dark corner in my closet.

2 Years Later...

The temperatures outside are in triple digits, and it never goes below 80F, even at night. Tossing and turning in bed, with pillow drenched in sweat, it hit me. Why not use the HeatDefense Pad for cooling ME off? I quickly dug it out of my closet, and slid it into my pillowcase on top of my pillow. On contact, I could feel it cooling my head, easily feeling like 75F instantly, while the room temp was over 85F. It took a couple of seconds to adjust to the crunchy surface, but once I was settled, it felt like heaven. I dozed off for at least 3 hours before I woke up again, when the mat turned to gel. I pulled it out and went back to sleep. And here I am now, writing this review on the chill mat while sitting on it (still very, very hot at 6 am).
4 stars for unintended use.

I'm on my fourth laptop and probably the most expensive one I've owned in the last 10 years. I really wanted to take care of this one, so when I bought it, I made sure to pick up cooling unit. The first one I bought was a hard little fan unit that plugged into the usb. It kept things relatively cool, but before the year was up, the glue on the rubber feet had softened and fallen off and the large holes in the grid were all too inviting for loose hairs and tiny bugs, so the fans became very noisy.
I needed a new cooler and the price for the Targus pad seemed great, but I had no idea what I was buying. When I took it out of the package, I saw a folded up mat that seemed decidedly low tech. It doesn't plug in to anything. Baffled at the device, I looked over the packaging for some clue as to what good this bag of rocks would do to keep a laptop cool. The crystals inside leave breathing room and disperse the heat, according to the label, so I was willing to give it a try, though a little skeptical.
Much to my amazement, this pad works WONDERFULLY! I first used it on my much smaller netbook and enjoyed a very cool experience. Tonight, I sat up typing a long paper for class and my work laptop started to get very very warm, so I said, "Hey, it's worth a shot. Let's see what it can do for the 17"." FANtastic! I had tried to vent the laptop with open air for several minutes with no luck and this pad somehow took the laptop below room temperature in just a few minutes. I was so happy with the results that I had to get online and give my review. I've never been this happy with a cooling unit before! It's great!

I have a tablet computer. This product works great when I use my laptop the traditional way, but it's really bad when I use the laptop as tablet. The crystals are very hard so when I was writting, the tablet moved a little and the chill pad scratched up the bottom pretty bad.

Targus does a great job once again with the "HeatDefense for laptops". We got one as a Christmas present for one of our family members and we all just loved it, so we got a second one for me. Now I can really use my laptop on my lap.

I bought this mat on March 20, 2009 thinking that I would have a cordless heat sink for my MacBook Pro.
Was I mistaken! After less than two months use the fabric broke and the molten gel leaked out and the underside of my MacBook Pro was an absolute mess with all the gooey gel smeared all over. It got into the battery compartment crevices and it was a big job to clean the mess. I wish I could give 0 stars for this product.

June 20, 2009: I returned this messy product and Targus did replace it with a new one. I am not sure whether this will last. I will get back after a few months and report how this mat is functioning.

November 18, 2009: It has been 5 months since the replacement came. It is still functioning as it should except I am not that happy with the cooling effect but it is OK. I hope it holds out for another year. I should perhaps give it between two and three stars, perhaps more towards three stars.

November 15, 2010: It has been more than a year since this mat was replaced by Targus and is working fine. I will give it 3 stars now.

My macbook pro gets so hot after about an hour of use that it's almost too hot to touch. I bought the targus pad not expecting much, but it makes a world of difference. My computer is kept noticeably cooler. You really can't beat the convenience of having a cooling option that doesn't use a usb port and fits neatly in a laptop bag and for such a great price. A really great and unique product.

The heat protector works very well. Initially before purchasing my laptop lasted about 45 min before shutting down but with the cooling pad it last way longer than usual. Plus its reversible so if I want to use the gray side I have that option or the blacks side. Love it.