Yes, I read the reviews, and I knew that some people said it feels so good, and others said it doesn't stay warm long enough, etc. But a trusted person recommended it to me for my painful back, and I decided to try it. Unfortunately, while I am using it, I can't say I recommend it for others. First of all, the appearance is off-putting. It looks like something from a psych ward circa 1952. Industrial-looking canvas, odd loops of webbing at the four corners, and just clunky in every way. I made my own cover for it by folding a kitchen towel in half and stitching up 3 sides of it, and that works fine. The method of preparing to use it is also awkward. Before you use it for the first time, you have to find a container large enough to hold it, but not one made of aluminum (like my largest pot is) and soak it for 2 hours. Then if you want to use it regularly, you are advised to keep it immersed in water all the time (where? I don't have room for this!) or if you will only use it occasionally, you should store it in the freezer. And finally, for each use, you either boil it in a large pot of water (which will take 10-20 minutes) or you can submerge it in water and microwave it--but again, this is unexpectedly more trouble than you might think. I don't have a container large enough to fill with water, submerge this 10 x 12" item, and fit it into the microwave. It will take 10 minutes or more to heat all that water. And if you back hurts, do you really want to be lugging pots of water around? Finally, you are told to heat it till the water it is in reaches 160 degrees, rather than a time. So either get out your thermometer or just take a guess. After all that, you put it into a towel-cover and put it on your back. And yes, it feels great, and the warm moist heat is soothing. But the heat dissipates quickly, and now your clothes are damp, so in the end, it really is not up to 21st century expectations of convenience. Good points--moist heat feels great, and you don't need any fancy equipment to use this, just a way to boil water, so it would work on a camping trip or in primitive surroundings. Bad points--it takes longer to prepare it than the time the heat it holds lasts.
