Uni-Patch Versa-Pac Reusable Hot and Cold Gel Pack 5" X 10-1/2" each

Just keep it in the freezer until you need it. Its great for any soreness and aches you are feeling. It soothes your aches away. I use for this parts of the body,back, groin area , legs and neck as needed. I actually have 3 of these. This way you can switch off. Sometimes I use 2 at a time. For any injury Ice it FIRST for 24-48hrs, 15-20 min's at a time several times a day. wrap it with a dish towel. Its an alternative to a heating pad. I only use it as a Ice Pac I don't heat it but you can.

I got these gel packs because they were advertized to be packaged in a tougher plastic material. When I pulle them out of the box, I was encouraged by the feel of the thicker plastic. (I had kept my previous blue-ice pack in a freezer bag to protect the fragile packaging.) Unfortuntely, I've already had a gel leak in my cooler, and I am down to two packs, and they don't fit into the usual 1 qt freezer bag. I'll be more careful, but I'll have to wait to see how long they'll end up lasting. Another thing to note is that the gel packs don't seem to freeze into a block of ice like blue-ice did. The is good for packing in confined space, but there are other effects. The gel is actually below freezing when I get them out of the freezer, so they tend to cause ice to form in my drinks, cookies, and sandwiches, in the first hour or so. Not a bad thing for my lunch. However, the gel packs also lose temperature over time, where-as the phase-change of the blue-ice (melting) tended to keep the ice-packs at the same temperature until all the ice was melted. The gel-packs seem to have a larger volume to compensate for this effect, but I think the ice phase-change absorbs more heat than the extra-cold heat sink of the gel-pack in equal volumes. Also, be careful of applying gel-types directly to skin (sports injuries) while the pack is below freezing - use a cloth barrier to slow down heat transfer.

These are so nice to have when you have a sprain or pulled muscle. I got one from the ER when I messed up my knee and this one is just as nice. Stays cold for a good amount of time and stays flexible so I could wrap an ace bandage around it for my elbow. I'll be buying another one soon. Can't have to many and an extra means I could rotate them out and always have a cold one.

very nice. i keep this in the freezer in preparation of need. which usually occurs when I need to ice my ankle/calf after a run. I notice that it can get very very cold depending on where it is placed in the freezer. enough that frost will form on the surface of the pack. this is probably too cold for placing over the skin directly. the size is great for calf/ankle/shoulder. but probably a bit large if need to cold treat a fever.

I bought this for a knee injury. I would say the Pac stays cold for about fifteen minutes tops. I have switched to a home made one now using water and rubbing alcohol. Mix two parts water to one part alcohol. This DYI ice pack does not freeze solid and stays cold for at least 45 minutes.

These get extremely cold, but don't freeze solid hard, so they are very malleable which makes them ideal for wrapping around a sore knee. We received a velcro cold pack holder from the hospital after our son had knee surgery, and these pacs are the perfect size to place in the holder. Very happy with these and would definitely purchase again.

Product is not useful because it stayed liquid and did not partially freeze even at a temperature of -5 F. To be effective these gel paks must at least become an icey slush in the freezer. I gave this product a 1 star in 2015 because of the same complaint, however shortly thereafter the gel paks back then did partially freeze and have been very effective and durable for almost 4 years now (I should have updated my 2015 review to a 5 star). But the ones I received in Jan 2018 would not partially freeze at all and therefore are useless.

I received one of these free from my Dr for use on my sore neck and jaw, and it has worked very well for me over the years. I recently bought another one from Amazon because they really don't stay cold very long and with 2 I can keep one in the freezer while using the other one. So anyway, the reviews are all true: they only stay cold enough for about 15-20 minutes, the first 5 minutes are really cold so you need something between the pack and your skin, and the packaging is made out of plastic not fabric. However, even with all of those seemingly negative things, it still works really great for me and I would definitely buy more if needed.