Given that I am in my 6th week post total knee replacement, I just got finished a period of using the Breg Polarcare Wave extensively. Rather than the feel of hard-edged ice cubes, which can easily damage skin and become uncomfortable, this thing provides a flow of ice water through the body-part attachment. It provides ice cold water for about three hours, cold water for another three, and then starts to drop off. While that may be shorter than the advertised cooling capacity time, it is still great.
Not having to bother with making enough ice when you’ll need it for weeks on end makes a huge difference. No damaged skin; no leaks; no dripping water; no having to keep refreshing your ice.
Prior to surgery I was turned off by the price. Well, the moment I got home from the hospital I spent the better part of two weeks constantly icing, I could have cared less about the price relative to what it offered me.
The one suboptimal thing was the attachment. It worked great at first, but after about four weeks of hard use the Velcro on the attachment straps started to fail. That said, it was an intensive four weeks of use, and I could continue to use it as is. However, despite that my days of intense icing are over and will continue decreasing rapidly, I still bought a new attachment. I’m through with the intense portion of the recovery, but will inevitably have swelling that requires icing over the next year. I could have just purchased the non-Breg Velcro straps that are sold aftermarket, but to me, the cost of another attachment is worth it when I consider how hassle free this thing makes the icing process.
I used four frozen bottles of water as the main form of ice rather than the Breg cubes, and topped off the required amount of ice needed to fill the Wave with regular ice cubes, and all was well. Purchase without reservation!
