Let me start by saying that the ChiliPad obviously isn't for everyone, considering the price. But for some people (like... me), it's close to perfect. I'll mention some VERY minor imperfections at the end of this review, but the rest of this review will be glowing, because I REALLY like this product. In a moment I'll go into the details of how the ChiliPad actually feels, but first some context: Some of us can only get a good night's sleep when the temperature is "just right." And often times our preferred temperature is dramatically different from the person we sleep with. This means that one of us piles on covers to keep warm, while the other throws off covers in an often vain attempt at getting cool enough. The ChiliPad comes to the rescue! In my case, I use it to cool down my side of the bed, which allows us to keep the room temperature warm so my wife doesn't have to use every blanket in the house. But the ChiliPad can also be used to warm up the bed, so during the winter, we may decide to switch it to her side of the bed. The ChiliPad is basically a matress cover that has water flowing through it. But that's just a technical description. Don't imagine something like an inflatable mattress or something like that - when you're laying on it, it feels basically like any other mattress pad. You don't really even notice there's water running through it. In my case, we have a "Sleep Number" bed, "king" size. We currently have only one ChiliPad, "twin" size, so I just lay it on my side of the mattress, on top of the normal mattress pad, but underneath our normal fitted mattress sheet. It works perfectly that way. Now on to how the ChiliPad actually feels. I haven't used it to warm up the bed, but I think it's easy enough to imagine what that would feel like. I was concerned that cooling down the bed would feel strange somehow - like sleeping on an ice pad or something. But it's nothing like that at all. The ChiliPad feels wonderful. You set the desired temperature using an easy-to-use remote control (which I'll describe below). When the temperature is only a little cooler than normal, I barely notice it. But often times this is enough to stop me from sweating all night, and that's just what the doctor ordered. Other times I set it significantly cooler than normal, and, as ESPN's Stuart Scott is fond of saying, it's "cool as the other side of the pillow." And unlike the pillow, it stays that way! The odd thing about setting the ChiliPad to a cooler temperature is that I still use blankets. Obviously you don't have to, but I find this the perfect combination. The bottom line is it just works. Plain and simple, just as promised. I mentioned the remote control. It's great. In the middle of the night, with the lights out, I can grab the remote from my bedside table and press a button, any button, and the remote's display lights up. It doesn't matter what button you press, because it ignores the first button press except to light up the remote. This is a great feature, which makes it simple to get the remote's display to light up, yet prevents you from making accidental changes to your settings. Once the remote's display has lit up, it shows the current temperature setting in degrees (68, 72, etc.). There's a button to make it warmer and one to make it cooler, and they're located on the very left or right of the remote, which makes them easy to find in the dark. Pressing either button changes the temperature by one degree each time you press it. When you get it to your desired temperature, you press the "enter" button, which is right in the middle of the remote (easy to find with the lights off), and the machine beeps once to acknowledge your command. The remote also allows you to set the "sleep time", which basically tells it when to turn off automatically. So if you want it to shut off during the night, you use this feature. Now for a few minor quibbles: 1) Near as I can tell, there's no way to turn off the lighted display on the main unit. This is not a problem for me, since I'm able to put the main unit under the bed. But if I couldn't do that - if I had to put it beside the bed for instance - then the lighted display might bother me during the night, since it's quite bright. 2) When you press "Enter" on the remote control, or you turn the unit on or off using the remote control, the machine beeps to acknowledge the instruction. The beep is loud (at least in the middle of the night), and sounds exactly like a pager. My wife has a pager, and sometimes it wakes her up and she thinks she's gotten a page. I calm her down quickly enough, but I wish the beep wasn't so loud. Or better yet, they could eliminate the beep by having the display on the remote momentarily change from showing the temperature to saying "OK" or something like that. 3) When the fan in the machine comes on, it's not exactly quiet. It's not unbearably loud, but it's not quiet. I got used to it pretty quickly. Your mileage may vary. 4) On my machine, I found it too easy to accidentally over-tighten the cap on the water reservoir. It's not that big a deal, since all that happens is it makes a "click" and it goes from being tight back to being loose, and I have to keep turning it until it gets tight again. Maybe they consider this a feature, so that you don't tighten it so tight that you can't get it open later. I guess that's a real possibility - if so, I wish they would say that somewhere so I know I'm not doing something wrong. As I said, these are very minor quibbles. Just things that keep the ChiliPad from being 100% perfect, instead of 99.9%. I whole-heartedly recommend the ChiliPad to anyone with temperature issues during sleep. A good night's sleep is critical to a happy life, and in my opinion, the price is well worth it. more...
