Review: ThermaPAK HeatShift Laptop Cooler

Recently I had the chance to review a product that was desperately needed in my home- this pretty pink laptop cooler from ThermaPAK! We're currently a one-computer household, and all of our computing is done on our laptop. It's been a great computer, but lately we've been unable to get the fan to stop running and we've had a lot of problems with the computer getting very hot and sometimes shutting off in the middle of something.  We tried moving it off the glass table to a different surface, we made sure to put the computer to sleep every time we walked away from it, and we even tried a different type of laptop cool pad. Nothing worked well, and nothing worked for very long. The overheating was getting so bad that I actually burned my wrist one day when I was using the laptop for an extended period of time (which, let's be honest, I am most days).

So, when the nice people from ThermaPAK contacted me about hosting a giveaway for my readers, I begged to be allowed to do a review as well.  And I am so grateful to them for agreeing!  This laptop cooler has been so great for our computer. Here's some information from the ThermaPAK website on how the cooler works:

How It Works

A device that transfers heat by conduction AND convection provides the maximum amount of heat exchange. Conduction is heat transferred directly from one object to another by physically touching. Convection is heat transferred by the movement of liquid molecules from warmer areas to cooler ones. HeatShift Technology™ pads utilize both conduction and convection to cool your laptop - and your lap! For more information about the effectiveness of HeatShift Technology™, please refer to our labratory results and notebook cooler product reviews.

When a laptop cooler featuring HeatShift Technology™ is placed under any notebook computer, the crystals inside are in a solid state. As the underside of the laptop begins to warm up, this heat is transferred to the HeatShift Technology™ device. This transferral of heat gradually changes the PCM crystals into a liquid. ThermaPAK's pad grooves channel air under the laptop, and use the second law of thermodynamics (which states that heat will tend to flow from hot areas to cold ones to reach equilibrium) to draw heat from the laptop. Our lab results, as well as those of independent reviewers, have seen temperature decreases of up to 6°C (11°F). After the laptop begins to cool, the HeatShift Technology™ device changes back to a solid crystal - ready for the next use.

Since we've been using this, our computer has been cool to the touch, the fan isn't running all the time and it's stopped shutting itself down because of overheating.  I like that the laptop cooler is small and discrete- it sits nicely under my laptop without lifting it up very far. And it's easy to move around with the computer when I need to.

There was one evening last week when I was suddenly concerned that the laptop cooler wasn't performing as it had been- I was sitting on the couch and my husband was at the desk with the laptop. Suddenly I heard the fan going at its old level and I thought we had a problem again. But when I asked Daniel if he had the laptop cooler under the laptop, he didn't! I was all the way across the room and could tell the difference.

If you have a laptop, you really should consider purchasing one of these laptop coolers. They come in a variety of sizes and colors. You can also get laptop coolers for your Mac, if that's the type of computer you're using. The laptop coolers sell for $27.99-34.99, depending on size. That's a lot cheaper than investing in a new computer!

If you'd like the chance to win one of these great laptop coolers, drop by my giveaway here! The contest will close on March 25, so click on that link now!