Thermacell Proflex Heated Insoles – in fact, these insoles have been freed from the power cord, allowing them to be used in a much wider range of situations, such as on the edge of the municipal outdoor rink watching your son skate or for a police officer at an accident scene directing traffic on a freezing night. Activation or deactivation of the insoles is done with a remote control that the user keeps in his pocket.
The concept of these insoles is not to overheat the foot like heat bags would, but to keep the foot at the right temperature. The insoles have three intensities. The first one leaves the insoles in stand-by position and still consumes 2% of the batteries’ energy per hour. The second keeps the foot at 100 oF and the third at 111 oF. The stand-by mode is necessary to receive signals from the remote control when the time comes.
Knowing that the normal body temperature is 98.7 oF, the temperature differential between your skin and the sole at the lowest temperature will be too small for you to feel any heat. On the other hand, the foot will be kept at the right temperature and this will avoid excessive sweating which will transpire the foot afterwards.
When you open the box, you find a pair of insoles, two rechargeable lithium-ion batteries with charger, the remote control and a small nylon bag to store the insoles. The presentation of the set is impeccable and the materials used breathe quality. The sole is made of a flexible polyurethane which, although stiffer than a conventional sole, does not affect walking. The buyer can order them in his or her size, as sizes are available in half sizes. The soles can be trimmed by only a quarter inch around the edges to fit the shoe. They are water resistant, but not waterproof. That is, if you get your boot wet and the boot’s felt gets wet, it won’t damage the sole, but the sole is not designed to be immersed in water.
In use, we found an autonomy of 4.5 hours in position 2 (medium), which can be considered consistent with the claims of the manufacturer. The heat is sufficient to keep the foot warm and we found the performance sufficient. In position 3 (high), the autonomy is about two hours. The autonomy of electric batteries can bring the fear of running out of fuel syndrome similar to the user of the 100% electric car, but it is possible to keep a constant functionality. The trick is to have a second set of batteries in your charger that you keep plugged in the trunk of the quad. Since a full charge takes about 5 hours, they will always be available when the ones in the soles are empty.
By consulting the comments of the users on the net, we note a worrying presence of complaint of soles which stop working after a few days. It seems that the connection between the battery and its receptacle in the sole is at fault. We examined the battery carefully and it cannot move once in place: it is held laterally in a rigid plastic frame and vertically, well supported on the equally rigid bottom. In addition, the connector in the base allows for some play due to its flexibility. As far as we are concerned, the soles worked properly during the test. Moreover, they are guaranteed one year after the date of purchase for manufacturing defects.
THERMACELL PROFLEX HEATING INSERTS (RETAIL PRICE: $199.00)
Themacell products are smartly designed and the build quality is undeniable. The rechargeable nature of the devices will require more sophisticated energy management, but it is possible to operate anyway. The products are recommended, keeping the invoice for the one-year warranty of the heating inserts, just in case…
