Polar Products Active Ice® 3.0 Cold Therapy System w/Programmable Timer, Extended Coverage Back, Hip and Limb Compression Pad, 9 Quart Cooler, Quiet Pump, Strong Cryotherapy Pain Relief Treatment

If you’ve ever had surgery you know that using ice 20 min on and 20 min off for at the very least 48 hours is a huge key in reducing post-operative pain. It’s almost impossible to do that when there is a mobility issue immediately following surgery and/or relying on someone to do it for you including throughout the night. I purchased this unit recently for an upcoming back surgery. My insurance actually covers renting a unit but a majority of health insurances do not. I was told by the company and my doctor that companies do not have pads for the back. So I started researching affordable units when I came across the Polar Cube. I’m a week post op and this cooling unit controlled my pain and swelling extremely well. It has a programmable timer which I have set for 20 min on and 20 min off. This is a priceless feature! It does all the work for you so you can rest and heal. The unit is whisper quiet as you can hear so it doesn’t disrupt sleep. Instead of using ice, which in my opinion would be messy, we froze 12 bottles of water which my husband rotates out twice a day. The unit fits 6 frozen bottles at one time. He found if he added a few thin ice packs with the frozen water bottles he could spread out swapping out the ice packs. When it's time to rotate the other 6 frozen bottles are ready to go. Super easy, zero mess. You can see in the video how we have ours set up. I purchased the extra large pad since I wasn’t sure where and how extensive my incision would be. I thought the extra large pad would be a versatile size for future surgeries or injuries as well. The pad is pretty big and comes with a nice size Velcro band so you can custom fit this right where you need it to go. It stays in place. It’s easy to remove if I need to get up and move around. The Polar Cube is light weight and easy to move from room to room. We live in a 2 story home and my husband quickly moves the unit upstairs during the night. When using the unit place the pad directly over your clothing and not against your skin. It turns on and it fills with icy water in seconds. When the 20 minutes are up the unit automatically turns off and the cold water instantly stops, 20 min later it turns itself back on and the process continues until you turn it off! You can set the timer for many different variations. They offer an extended warranty in case it breaks in the next 3 yrs. I included the warranty in my purchase for $33. The warranty covers replacement if the unit breaks or can’t be repaired. My husband had to borrow it for a few hours when he pulled a muscle in his back working outside. He couldn’t believe how helpful it was in reducing the amount of pain he was in and it reduced the inflammation. He was moving around with ease by the next day. I would highly recommend this unit!!

If you are debating if this is worth the price, do not debate about it. It is worth far more than you can imagine. I am a retired hospital nurse and this system is as close to if not better than the set up we used on the orthopedic post op floor, and sent home with the patient. The water/ice storage unit is a quality cooler with an excellent reinforced leak proof panel for the tubing and electrical supply. It has an easy open, attached lid that closes tightly. There is room for 6 frozen water bottles (500ml each) and plenty of water for circulation through the tubes and heavy duty cooling mat. The tubing is of adequate length and is covered in a blue insulation to assure the water stays cold during circulation. The connector clamps are a professional grade that do not leak and it comes with extra O rings. The pump and return tubing are firmly adhered to the cooler. Super quiet motor! The cooling mat has a soft fabric side and a black rubber like side so it is easy to tell which side faces out (the blue fabric side.). It also comes with a 40" long, wide heavy duty velcro strap to make sure the cooling mat stays wrapped around your affected limb. The controls are easy to use and it has 4 temperature settings for the circulating water (1-4, 4 being coldest.). It can also be programmed for time on ice and time off ice as well as continuous therapy vs. one time treatment. The cooling mat is light weight and stays cold, it is very comfortable when wrapped around and secured with the velcro strap. It does not weigh heavily on the incision or sensitive area around the knee. Being able to snug the mat to the surgical area gives it support and keeps the cool where it needs to be! My only regret is not having this from post op day one! I am three weeks out from my knee surgery and am so glad that I went ahead and ordered this. Instant relief from the pain and inflammation of PT! If you are allergic to NSAIDS, as I am, this Active Ice Cold Therapy Unit is a necessity for your recovery! I also want to mention that I was NOT paid for this endorsement, I purchased it at full cost, no perks for this review. There is a plethora of different cooling mats and tubing extenders, that are available to purchase from polarproducts.com. I will have to look into the migraine cap next!

I am not accident prone...BUT.. I have needed ice therapy/cold therapy for healing of some kind over a dozen times in the past 4 years. Ice packs are never cold enough for long and leak. Cold packs or cold water bottles just turn into warm packs. Other cold therapy machines are heavy (and usually after surgery I have been on a 10 pound lifting restriction so carrying the unit to fill it again was out of the question! ) and you need to add so much water and ice just to turn them on. THIS machine is a total game changer! Not only does it operate using a small amount of water (literally OUNCES not GALLONS! Which means i can replace the ice bottles myself and not rely on anyone else to do it!!) but it doesn't have the annoying lid with the 2 or 3 tubes on it that you have to jam into place around your ice . It will fit bottles of ice (I have been using 6 - 16 ounce water bottles and 28 ounce powerade bottles and anything else I can fit in my freezer to stock my machine and keep it cold all night. The design is brilliant and keeps circulating the water over the icy bottles for maximum effectiveness. Plus..to follow the guidelines of minutes on and then minutes off of cold, they have a built-in timer on the cord that you can program to do that for you...even when you are asleep. Set it for 10 on and 10 off .or 100 on and 100 off......or continuously on... options are endless..and it will cycle on that setting..... forever?? (Or until you change it) Turn it off and back on and it saves the settings! It even shows a countdown clock for each cycle of on/off. GENIUS! NO obnoxious beeping when the timer is up or the water temp gets warmer than the ice itself (my last one would beep every 10 seconds if it was above 45 degrees..usually right after I fell asleep!) I know this is a lengthy review, but with these machines, so much can be wrong.... or if you go with this one... so much is PERFECT! The pad I chose was large and perfect for a complex surgical aftercare..it covered from hip to hip and the variable speed (yes! 4 speeds!) made sure that all corners were always cold. Any glitches and their customer service is at the ready to help you trouble shoot and help solve your issue in record time. (Thanks, Terri!) Get. This. Machine. No need to keep looking. This is the one.

The design of this long pad is awesome for hip replacement and swelling (or any other hip, back or leg injury). I wrap it around my hip, or I wrap it around my leg, and can use it lengthwise too. The pain and swelling post total anterior hip replacement surgery was intense. I also had a 2nd surgery at the same time on the side of my hip to remove the 3 titanium screws that failed from my first surgery 4.5 months ago. I bought this ice machine and started using it 4 days post surgery and my pain level went from a 10+ to about a 2 or 3 in just several days and I was able to stop the opioid pain Rx and only take Tylenol. The decrease in pain and swelling was extraordinary! Seriously it was. I don't work for Polar Products nor am a paid participant. I just want anyone considering this product to knit its value. All the other brands have complaints of leaking tubes too. This one gets good reviews. I also spoke with the company before purchasing. They are a small Ohio based, American company and stand behind and will replace any faulty parts. My leg, from hip to knee, q¹was very swollen and I initially used this 3 times a day and my entire leg was normal size within 4 days. I'm 13 days post surgery today and am still using it 2 times a day to maintain my great results and you can't even tell I had a total anterior hip replacement less than 2 weeks ago. The Physical therapist I saw yesterday told me swelling can last up to 6 weeks. She was astounded when I showed her my leg and told her mine all went away within 5 days after using this ice machine. I think the long pad design of this one is so versatile and has a lot more uses than the other smaller pads offer. I can however see the advantage of the ankle or knee specific designs, but for knee surgery, I still think this one would work better since you can treat more area of the entire leg for swelling and pain. I also need to mention the convenience of the timer and the closed cooling system! Just fill the cooler with the 6 frozen water bottles, add some water and your good to go. Set the timer for 10, 20, 30 or for how many minutes you want and let it run. It will shut off automatically but then it restarts after a break. If you don't want it to restart, just turn it off at the dial until you want to use it again. The water stays cold for the entire day for multiple uses. Well worth every penny! PS: If ordering from the company's website, they provide an addition, smaller strap. I wanted overnight, free delivery so I ordered from Amazon. Initially, I used another velcro type of strap that I had, but discovered these I really don't need it nor have used it again, so the 1 large strap that comes with this unit is fine.

The Polar Active Ice System is the only way to go! I ordered this system because I was going to have a Hip Replacement surgery. The Doctor recommended an ice therapy system that was going to cost $200/wk to rent. Knowing I also need the other hip replaced, sometime in the future, I opted to purchase the Polar Active Ice System. It was a no brainer. To save money, I originally purchased another brand that was half the cost. It was a flexible cooler bag with the power cord and the cooling tubes running out through a zippered top. So if the bag was to tip over, the water would be all over the place. It was not a closed system with the connections on the outside of a hard plastic cooler like Polar Active Ice. The Polar Active System was a life saver. I filled the cooler with water and frozen water bottles instead of ice cubes. It stayed cold for hours before the frozen bottles had to be changed. The system has a convenient hand held timer which could be set for so many minutes on and so many minutes off. I used 40 min on, 10 min off. You can adjust the timer in 10 min increments or you can have it run all the time and shut it off when needed. It also has coldness settings 1 through 4. So if it is too cold, you can adjust the water flow to a lower setting. You have multiple options of pads for different parts of your body. I got the rectangular pad that covered my hip and thigh with 2 compression belts to hold the cooling pad tight to my body. Worked like a charm and made me very comfortable. Another nice feature is that the different pads available are plug and play. So if you need one pad for your hip and next time you need a different one for your knee, just order it. No need to buy the whole system, just the pad you need. Customer service is second to none. Because of the timing of my surgery , I had to order a system that was lacking one of the compression belts. I explained the situation to customer service and the same day they sent me the compression belt I needed, at no charge. Do yourself a favor and buy the Polar Active Ice Therapy System. You will be glad you did.