115
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #237,707 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
Not cool
Pros: Warms quickly and well, fits on the bed nicely, easy to clean
Cons: Clicks all night long, display is really bright in the room, does not cool adequately, remotes drain batteries quickly, does not easily fit under bed, poor customer service
My husband purchased the Chilipad for me 6 months ago. For medical reasons, my husband needs a humidifier in the bedroom which makes me very warm. We thought a cooling mat would be perfect and allow us to sleep comfortably in the same room. Upon unpacking it, we noticed that the display on one of the units had a black spot on it that made the display difficult to read. We went ahead and set up the unit to see how effective the pad is. We could easily feel it quickly warm up, but the cooling was less noticable. I thought that maybe once I was under covers and sleeping it would be more noticable. It wasn't. I had the temp set to 68 all night and was still warm. It was the same night after night. On top of that, my remote would go through a set of batteries every week even though I rarely changed the temperature. I used it mainly to turn the unit on and off. Add that to the fact that the unit does not slide easily out from under the bed, and I couldn't see what temp the unit was set to anyway because of the big, black spot on the display, and it became worthless.
At the time, the website for Chili Technology said that there was a 90 satisfaction guarantee, but did not say that you had to purchase from their website for it to be applicable. Since the Brookstone price was slightly cheaper, we purchased from them. After we decided the product did not satify our needs, we were told that the guarantee only applied if we purchased from the Chili Technology website - something that is NOW advertised on there.
We were then promised that the company would call us back in 3 months and offer an exchange for the newer units which cool down to 46 degrees. It's been 6 months, the unit is advertised on their website and still no call.
The pad had been on our bed unused all summer, but now that it's cooling down outside, my husband wanted to use the warming feature. His remote drained the batteries in a week as well. So once again it will sit unused. Only because my heart can't take the idea of throwing away a $1000 piece of junk.
If you want heat, buy an electric mattress pad. It's cheaper, doesn't click all night long, doesn't need to be refilled with water, and doesn't need new batteries in the remote every week.
UPDATE: Still no call a year after purchase from customer service. I was using this with the sleep timer to warm my bed over the winter. I went to turn it on last night and my unit will not work. The power light is on, but pressing buttons on the unit or using a remote with fresh batteries does nothing. If I could move this to a one star review I would. It is now a completely worthless device.
October 2008 · Home and Kitchen