Re-freezable ice gel for medical therapy

[roller]

Can anyone recommend a brand of re-freezable ice gel, the type used for medical therapy? While the ice pack works well, I'm wondering if there's a better mousetrap out there.

I recently tried and returned the chemical-style compress in which you fold the compress in half, combining the two chemicals and thus ending up with a cool (but not super-cold) pack.

I'm wondering if the blue gel packs that have been around for many years is what I'm looking for. Any idea how long these (or others styles) last when you pull them out of the freezer?

Thanks!

 

[Tom Bomb]

No recommendations. But I'd say go for quality. I've had a few give up the ghost. It's not a good look
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[Winslow]

Look for packs by TheraPearl. Instead of one gelatinous mass in a bag that tends to bind together when it freezes, it's made up of a bunch of tiny round capsules of the gel that don't stick to each other, making the pack worlds more flexible right out of the freezer:

The only hiccup is that they thaw out a little more quickly than the old-style gel packs (the ones we have stay cold for ~20 minutes or so), but that's easily mitigated by having more than one in the freezer, so you just rotate them out. They can also be microwaved to be used for heat therapy.

Once I switched to these things, the old gel packs only got used in the drink cooler.

 

[TOOL460002]

Back problems since 2008 and I have used everything from chemical ones to circulating ice water machines and this is the brand that has always worked and happens to be at a lot of chain drugstores. They'll eventually fail, but they get very cold (do not put directly one skin; you will make that mistake no more than once I promise). They last a long time. Durable. Comfortable. On sale they're a great buy.

 

[LastJaguar]

Chattanooga Colpac.

 

[fdeck]

The tricky part is that water has exceptionally high values for both heat of fusion and specific heat compared to other materials, meaning that ice will last a long time. Other materials might be more convenient or flexible.

 

[roller]

I found a couple of these TheraPearl packs for a decent price on eBay... looking forward to giving them a whirl.

Thanks, everyone.

Look for packs by TheraPearl. Instead of one gelatinous mass in a bag that tends to bind together when it freezes, it's made up of a bunch of tiny round capsules of the gel that don't stick to each other, making the pack worlds more flexible right out of the freezer:

The only hiccup is that they thaw out a little more quickly than the old-style gel packs (the ones we have stay cold for ~20 minutes or so), but that's easily mitigated by having more than one in the freezer, so you just rotate them out. They can also be microwaved to be used for heat therapy.

Once I switched to these things, the old gel packs only got used in the drink cooler.

 

[Tom Bomb]

The pearls are excellent Lots of DIYing about the place …

This looks like a goer,

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Use pool salt, not table salt If you can weld plastic, not so hard to do, you're in business.
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[bobba66]

I use a bag of frozen peas.

 

[steve_ss]

I'm not sure what body part you want to ice, but maybe this will help?

 

[Funky Ghost]

A large size bag of frozen peas put into a pillow case. It was good enough for Grandma and gosh darn it it's good enough for you

 

[Bassball Fever]

I've used a quart size freezer ziploc with about 1/2 water and 1/2 isopropyl alcohol. That usually stayed cold for as long as I needed, and it kept the flexibility.