Customer Reviews

ThermaPAK HS15A HeatShift Laptop Cooler for Laptops Up to 15" (Black)

5 star:		(121)
4 star:		(61)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(29)
1 star:		(26)

 

 

I bought this to try to avoid the cumbersome USB devices. Since I have one of those, I have something to compare to.

I cannot recommend this item unless you never run your laptop for longer than 3-4 hours. After that, the "crystals" soften as described, but that is where the accuracy of the manufacturer's description ends. It does not continue to cool once it becomes warm itself, no matter what they say. It's a great-sounding idea that doesn't live up to its hype.

I can definitely recommend the Belkin F5L001 Laptop Cooling Stand. It is a USB device, but I find the fan to be very quiet, the design intelligent, and the cooling effective.

Easily portable & no power usage make this product a worthy consideration.

When it is cold you can bend it and feel & hear the solid crystals crunching inside. As the pad heats up it becomes more pliable as the crystals start turning to liquid. It works, but as others have mentioned prolonged usage heats it to the point of diminishing returns. I'm considering purchasing a second pad for long work sessions. An example would be a 2 hr length movie ... by the end of the movie the pad will be warm and a bit uncomfortable if it is sitting in your lap but, for the majority of that time it works well.

For all the other advantages this cooling pad offers (0 power & total silence), I feel comfortable recommending it.

I have tried many many many fan based cooling systems they all at one point failed to work/broke/didn't do much. When I saw this I thought it was worth a try after putting in over $100 into other Cooling systems.

First of all I use my laptop for gaming so my video card can hit over 200 fahrenheit and my duo processors can hit over 150 fahrenheit. With most fan based system they lowered my processors by 20-30 and my video card by 20. Still really hot, and that was using cooling plates with 1-3 fans I found they all worked about equally well.

With some of the fan based systems, I found them to be in poor quality and often difficult.

The first one I had, had one fan. It sucked up so much dirt and lint that it would humm and ding. The sound was dreadful when trying to do any type of work or watch movies. I had to clean it out by unscrewing all the screws and pull out all the hair and lint stuck in the fan. After awhile I just ended up banging on it to stop it from making noise after a few weeks and a lot of banging it stopped working.

The Second fan system I got had well two fans, I thought more fans more cooling power. It did the exact same as the first one. The design of this one was more the problem. It had I kid you not a 3 feet cord, that had to be plugged into both the computer and the system its self. I have no idea why I would need 3 feet of cord, unless I was cooling a laptop and plugging it into a desktop/laptop 3 feet away. It came unplugged from the system its self all the time and it also had a on/off switch on the cord that would constantly get turned off no idea how but it did. After 2 months of use it just one day died.

I have had few more and they all had issues such as these, none of them lasted or were put up with for more then a few months.

So when I saw this new cooling pad that uses no power no plug nothing at all I was thrilled. But alas it didn't preform as I hoped. It cools down my laptop at the same rate as the fan based systems. But with the ability to flex and bend it easy to travel with. I don't have to deal with another cord hanging off my laptop. While it isn't going to cool your laptop down so much you can overclock it, it helps with the daily use of the laptop. I prefer this cooling pad to all the fan based systems I have so far tried.

I don't usually take the time to write a review; however, I was shocked at how many good reviews this product had received considering how ineffective it really is.

If your looking for a product that will cool your computer during 20-30 minutes of use, then maybe this product is for you. On the other hand, if your planning to use this product for an hour or more, then move on and find another product. As some of the other reviews have already described, this padding is filled with heat absorbing crystals that are designed to absorb the heat from your laptop and keep it cool. During this absorbing process, the crystals go from a solid to a liquid. From there it should almost become obvious what the problem is. Once all the crystals have liquefied, there is nothing left to assist in cooling your laptop. Furthermore, once the crystals have liquefied, the pad actually flattens and BLOCKS the airflow into the laptop!!!! As you can guess, this made my laptop heat up even faster and hotter than it did WITHOUT the pad!!! The absolute opposite of what it was designed to do.

One last issue of note, I only had this product for two (2) days before returning it. My last use and the following occurrence solidified my decision to get this thing out of my house as quickly as possible.

I had been using my computer for over an hour (as I always do) when it finally reached the point that my laptop was so hot, that I had to shut it down to avoid damaging it's components. Disappointed in my new purchase, I took the time to really look it over and study it's design. All those great little 'hills' and 'valley's' that should allow for the air to flow beneath my computer were GONE. The pad had become flat. But here's where prospective buyers should really take note. I tossed this pad on my table and left it there to cool for several hours. Upon my return, the pad was still flat. It NEVER regained its shape and the crystals never reformed. My guess is that at a certain temperature(to which my laptop reached using this product), the crystals were rendered worthless and unable to regenerate.

Buyers BEWARE! Avoid this product.

I thought this product looked cool and the concept is sound enough, however, when it comes to practical use it's no good.

For starters, the actual cooling process when the gel becomes a liquid really does occur, it physically gets cooler after heating up. However, if you have a laptop that creates a lot of heat and is larger, the pad becomes a gel very quickly and stops absorbing heat. (here are my specs:
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit or 64-bit)
Intel® Core 2 Duo Processor (PM965 chipset = socket P @ 667mhz or 800mhz) and (PM45 chipset = Socket P with 800mhz or 1066mhz)
3072 or 4096MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM or 4096MB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM
250GB/320GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive w/ 8MB cache2
17.0" Ultrabright TFT Active Matrix (1440 x 900 - 1920 x 1200 max. resolution)
FX Design with Copper Core Accent
Intel® PM965 Chipset and NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8800GTS with 512MB of GDDR3 discrete video memory or PM45 Chipset with NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTS with 1024MB of GDDR3
8x Multi-Format Dual Layer DVDRW with DVD-RAM featuring Labelflash(tm)Technology3
Integrated 1.3 Megapixel Web Cam).

The creators claim that even after the solid has turned to gel the pad continues to cool, this claim is false. The pad simply heats up and makes the laptop even hotter. If you use your laptop for long periods of time or if it generates a lot of heat, this product is only effective for part of the time and is not for you.

So how do you actually prevent your laptop from overheating? Do not put your laptop on a surface that prevents heat from escaping. Trapping heat will roast your laptop. Do not put your laptop on your bed, carpet or sofa. If you really want to use your laptop on the bed, then get a laptop cooling pad so that your laptop is not trapping heat between the bed and the bottom of your laptop. Also, most laptops don't have feet that are high enough to allow air to flow underneath as well, so that if you put your laptop on a table, it would also overheat.

You can either use one with a fan, or one like this heat transfer pad. They both achieve the same goal with differing approaches. The reason I prefer this over the pads with the fan is that they drain the battery, and they move dust around so more dust gets sucked into your laptop.

This does not get your laptop dirty, so it was the logical choice. I leave my laptop on the whole day and it does prevent heat from getting trapped under the laptop. The way I tested it was, my laptop was on for about 16 hours and sitting on this ThermaPAK, I felt the bottom of the laptop and it was just slightly warm. It works fine for me and works as advertised.

Make sure you buy a cooling pad that is larger than your Laptop. This will give it a larger surface area for absorbing and dissipating the heat.

I've been using this for a month now and it really works. I was afraid to buy it because there were no reviews on this item. But I thought I would try it for myself. The only thing I did not like about it, if you have it on a smooth surface it slides very easily. It is made of a cooling gel that actually cools when it is heated up. I like it alot because you don't have to waste your batteries on a fan cooler. So try it for yourself keep your receipt if you are not sure if this would work for you.

I have to admit that I was skeptical that this product would work as well as a USB fan powered cooler that I have.

I've done my own tests and it really does keep it just as cool! I have a Dell XPS m1330, dual core 2.4GHz Intel, 6GB RAM and nVidia 8400m GS with 128MB running Vista Premium 64-bit. Needless to say (if you've read any of the reviews of this laptop) it gets pretty hot.

Using 2 different tests for CPU and GPU temp my USB 2-fan cooler product keeps my laptop 10 - 15 degrees cooler than the laptop by itself on a flat cubical surface.

I had the exact same results with ThermaPak which uses NO POWER.

It's very well made and I highly recommend it.

I purchased the 17" pink thermaPAK. This is extremely effective for taking the heat away from the bottom of my 17" macbook pro and I can turn it lengthwise if I want and it really dissipates the heat from my 13" macbook air, which gets even warmer. I like it so well that I will probably buy a 13" version for my macbook air. The only thing I don't like is that the thermaPAK is very heavy especially on your lap and dips in the bedding if using in a bed. The heat goes through the pad to whatever is underneath, so you will have to turn it or reposition after a few hours, as all the beads inside it turn to liquid; and heat must go somewhere. Good product.

Blocks air flow due to natural waves of pad. Must be used on flat hard surface to deal with air flow issues.

Not practical.