CHILLOW Pillow Cooling Pad - 21" X 12"

This product will keep you cool at night. I was suffering from night sweats and this pillow helped a great deal. My experience was not favorable at first. In fact, I wanted to return the item. After some encouragement from the company, I decided to keep this pillow. Here is how it works for me....I do not sleep directly on the pillow as it shows in the picture. No, not directly on it because it makes a sloshing noise and the plastic side is hard to get used to. Instead, I place the pillow right next to my regular pillow. That way, when I feel the heat coming on, I just roll over and feel the instant cool from the Chillow. Note: this pillow is cool, not cold. But it absolutely works for me and I even travel with it. I recommend it to everyone.

I was very disappointed with everything about the Chillow. The first hour it did indeed stay cool feeling, absolutely not cold but minimally cool. The cool feel of the chillow does not last anything close to all through the night and it takes several hours to cool down again. It lasts just long enough to fall asleep and then it is warm again. I also tried refrigerating it as directed in the instructions for a cooler feeling but it warmed up quickly, within 20 minutes and was completely warm again within an hour. I bought two and followed the directions very carefully when filling them. You fill them using the enclosed funnel with a specified amount of water (around 7 cups, less or more depending on personal taste, directions tell you the exact amounts). Then you roll them up while keeping them flat like a sleeping bag, to get any excess air out as they will not chill properly if there is any remaining air. Then you have to get the small plastic plug on without letting water out or air in so this has to be accomplished while it is rolled up. This is difficult and water squirted out of the hole, all over me and the counter many, many times when I did this. When that happens, you have to guess the amount of water to put back into the chillow and start the whole process over again. If it's not done right, the inner foam lining will bunch up when you use it and it won't cool properly. I'm a scientist so I know how to measure things correctly and this was still a nerve wracking pain to set up. Even when I felt that there was the specified amount of water inside, it is not easy to keep it flat, roll out the air and get the plastic cap/plug on it all at once. For one chillow it took about 6 tries and it took took three times for the second one. It was a messy, wet ordeal that needs to be done on a flat surface that you don't mind getting lots of water on. I needed to use both hands, my forearm and I had to lean my upper body across the countertop to accomplish it. Water still poured out all over me, the pillow and counter before I got the plug on. I was more successful with one chillow than the other. You have to let them sit at least 4-6 hours to activate before first use. Both seemed to have the same amount of water inside but the lining rolled up inside one of them within the first couple hours of use and was a pain to empty out, straighten the thin foam pad inside the plastic outer cover and refill again. It never was quite right. The foam sheet inside the other chillow bunched up inside after the second night and I was never able to straighten it out again. It is interesting the way that it self cools after a few hours but I believe it just dissipates the heat away from the lining and this is a slow process. It is NOT cold as you would want an ice pack for a headache or an injured body part to be but I did not expect it to be. I would not describe it as chilly either, even after it is refrigerated according to instructions it is only mildly cool feeling. They did not leak once the plug was on and they were a bit smaller all around than a standard sized pillow. I don't believe the size would have been an issue if they had worked as advertised. When filled, they are only about an inch and a half thick. I returned them both after three days.

Pros: Lats about 3 hours, feels so good.Cons: The seal is not so good, if you put regular amount of water, it has a chance of releasing some during the night if you toss during sleep. For best use, fill it slightly less than what the instructions make it.Still worth the buy.

I bought this for my husband. He has a terrible time staying cool, especially at night. Our only problem is that He has to remember to keep it under his pillow when he's not using it, because our cat love's it also . Mo (the cat) doesn't have any front claws, but he loves to dig his back claws into the Chilliow! Thus ending the life of another Chillow!!!!!!! But that doesn't stop me from buying another one. They really are perfect for my Husband!!!!! Thank You!

Have had trouble sleeping lately due to a hot head. Thought this might help. Does to a small degree but not at all what I hoped it'd be.The instructions say you can use either side. Wrong. The black side doesn't have any coolness whatsoever, even after being in the fridge.The more plasticy side is, at best, room temperature. It's never "cool". Place your head against anything smooth plastic type material and it'll feel cool for a second. That's what you get from this. I mean, it's filled with water after all. Leave a glass of water sitting on your counter for a few hours and take a drink. Is it cool and refeshing? No.It says you "can" put the pad in the fridge for 15-30 to make it cool. Can = MUST. It's the only way to get any cooling from the pad, but even then it's only cool for a while and then the coolness wears off. 15-30 isn't really enough time to do anything substantial. I have to leave mine in the fridge for a few hours and then the coolness only lasts about an hour, 90 minutes max and then you're right back to your normal temp of your pillow.Another negative is it's weight makes it hard to situate. Putting it on top of your pillow, anytime you move and lift your head up, the weight of the water shifts and causes the pad to slide off. Putting it inside the pillow case it keeps making my pillow tip over and then the pad slides down and around the edge, ending up under the pillow. Having to lean up every 10 minutes and try to maneuver what amounts to a giant sack of water back into position is not helpful when you're trying to sleep.At the end of the day there doesn't seem to be anything special or inventive about this product. The stuff inside is not some mythical space age polymer that magically keeps cool. It's simply a plastic-y type material that gets cool when you put in the fridge. You could save yourself the money by just putting a small garbage in the fridge for a few hours and then wrap it around your pillow when you go to bed. It'll stay cooler the same amount of time this does.