Cold Water Therapy - Circulating Personal Cold Water Therapy Ice Machine by Arctic Ice (AIS w/Universal Pad - 2nd Gen)

First let me say that I have had zero problems with this device and I believe that is because I brew beer and have a significant amount of experience with light duty submersible pumps like what is used here. My explanation is a bit nerdy, give me a thumbs up if you would like to see a video if that will explain it better. It is highly likely that those neg reviewers didn't understand how this type of pump works. The sellers photo shows a person sitting with their injury very close and low to the ice box. This is a non self priming light duty submersible pump it isnt designed for you to lay in bed and pump water the length of the tubing nearly verical against gravity. Worry not if you need to do this I had to this laying in bed myself. If you are using it high above the box, just move the box to a night stand or something higher so that you are not fighting gravity with more than a twonfoot verticle climb from the top of the PUMP not the ice box. This is the best way but there is one more option. The first way will help your ice last slightly longer because the pump will not get as warm. If you must pump ice water vertically for over 2.5 feet from the ground then make sure that you turn the pump on before putting the pad on your body. In fact lay it down at ground level to make sure that the lines are primed. Also, you must check for kinks in the line EVERY TIME even a few minutes of very low or no flow will damage the pump. Follow the ice and water level instructions exactly by putting the water in first. If you put more ice bc you think the ice will just melt after a bit and then you'll have closer to the proper water level and not have to fill the ice box as often to boot... think again. If you don't like any of thos options then buy a similar $350 $750 one with a heavy duty pump. I will warn you that if you neglect that more expensive one you'll ruin it just the same. Side notes, this device should be used by no more than two people daily, i mean if you are putting this in your medical office you are nuts. Get a commercial cryo like you should. Also the way this device's water tubes connect with the pad is the most common and most reliable for protecting against leaks. Should you need a specialty pad of some kind it will most likely fit this pump.

This machine is so easy to use, just add ice, water to the fill line, shut the top, attach it to your leg or water, plug it in and turn it on. It keeps your body part icy cold for as long as you want. I use it for an hour at a time and it's nice and cold all the way through. Sometimes I even ice it again an hour or so later and I don't even have to replace the ice since it's still cold. It has a nice strap that helps carry it around. I highly recommend it.

UPDATED 1/02/23: I can no longer recommend this machine in good conscience with my review on Amazon. I aim to be truthful about the quality of products, because that’s important to me when I read reviews about products I myself am considering. If something is happening regularly with a product, if you start to read the 1 star reviews, you will see it quickly. I actually had my original machine replaced shortly after I got it because I felt a small amount of water that had to have come out from the bottom knob, which is pretty close to the power cord and I didn’t know if it would continue or if it was a danger but I called the number on a piece of paper that came with the machine and somehow was given another number (I don’t recall) how I got the second number, but the person who gave it to me said it was the best number to call. I spoke with someone quickly after calling and explained what was happening and they said they would send me a replacement immediately. The person I spoke with said my machine was probably going to stop working within a couple of days and I questioned that they would just send me a replacement without requiring proof that I even purchased it and they said that it was unlikely that I would know that this was an issue that had happened with other machines (though he was wrong because I remember reading about it in another review on Amazon). I got the replacement, which seemed to take a little while to be shipped after I was told it would be sent immediately. But meanwhile I had continued to use the original machine without the problem recurring, so I got the replacement and figured I’d just keep using the original until it had some issue that forced me to stop using it. I stopped using it for a while and put it aside until just before Christmas 2022 when I needed to ice an ankle injury. I opened my cold therapy machine and saw some mold had developed (probably wasn’t completely dry when I closed it and set it aside. I could have cleaned it out, but decided to test the replacement out since I will be having another shoulder surgery and I will need a cold therapy machine. Within a day or so of using it, I noticed that the water level was dropping below the fill line every day and I just kept topping it off. I hadn’t needed to do this with the original. It wasn’t long before I realized that it was sitting in a puddle of water on the tray I keep my cold therapy machines on just in case of issues like this. I emailed the manufacturer and they were pretty defensive about the problem I described, saying it could happen if the hose was accidentally pulled on and I never did anything like that with my replacement, it was in the box since I’d received it and I had only used it for a few days. I sent them screenshots and a video from reviews describing the same exact problem I encountered and they said that they were aware that it was an issue with a weak gasket (which they determined from inspecting machines returned for the same problem) and they were reinforcing future machines or something so it wouldn’t happen. I still think this machine was incredibly helpful in replacing the need for ice packs, but I can’t give it more than one star with a problem like this that seems to be pretty common. Leaking is unacceptable to me as water damage is no joke. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I’m about 3 months post op from shoulder surgery to repair a labrum tear and I joined a support group before having my surgery. Almost everyone encouraged me to invest in a cold therapy machine, saying that it would bring me more relief than any medication could and would be easier than filling constantly ice packs. But I didn’t feel like it would be worth the money. Until I had complications from the surgery and a fall that resulted in more pain-at that point I decided to purchase this machine and I liked it immediately, but found that the universal pad that comes with the machine isn’t easy to put on the shoulder. I then bought the shoulder pad that the manufacturer also makes. That was an improvement but I ended up buying another one by a different manufacturer that surrounds the whole shoulder better, though it doesn’t seem to get as cold as the pads by this manufacturer. That’s one thing I noticed about all the pads I’ve since bought-back pad, hand and wrist wrap, all of them get very cold (it is necessary to cover the area with something when using cold therapy pads, it can be your clothes or a dish towel). This machine is currently being used for a wrist sprain and it’s much more effective than any ice pack because it surrounds the whole hand and wrist up and all the way up the forearm. I use frozen water bottles in the machine rather than ice cubes because they don’t melt as fast and I wouldn’t be able to make enough ice to keep it as cold as I need it to be. I like that I can keep it on for as long as I want to rather than 20 minutes on, 20 minutes off like with ice packs.