AquaBed AB-550 Heating & Cooling System (Full)

After waiting for a couple of years and also comparing multiple products, I finally decided to pull the trigger and get the king size dual module version of this product.I read some of the other reviews where they complain that the temperature doesn't cool down enough, etc. Here are my views, and also hopefully some helpful advise.I got my unit in June, so heating has not been tested. To the cooling function:My room gets pretty warm in summer, between 75-80 degrees. The AquaBed says it can cool down to 55, but realistically 60 is more that gets achieved. Mine is set to 65 degrees, and it starts 1.5 hrs before I usually go to bed. The temperature will increase to something around 73 degrees after you lay down. What it does it transfers the body heat away, but since it is water cooled and not an actual AC unit is build in, it reaches its limits and can't hold 65 when you just had laid down (given your temperature sinks when in deep sleep, it will eventually catch up). Now, that said you will feel cold in the early morning, around 4 am, since by then your room temperature and also body temperature have gone down. I turn mine off at 4:30, or I'd wake up from being cold. If your body is large enough to cover the entire bed, it will never cool down sufficiently, that's just too much body heat (you may wanna look for a nuclear powered cooling unit instead).The water lines are very tiny, it is not that you are laying on 1" tubes, so the water circulation amount is limited. I use distilled water (4 USD/gallon, you need maybe 0.1 gallon/unit), to avoid crap clogging the water lines on the long run. All connections are solid, I have not lost any water as of today. I don't feel the water lines with the thin matrass protector I use above the cooling sheet, not sure how others can't sleep because of them. The unit is very quiet, I have them located on the front of my bed on the floor.What they don't tell you:While the unit is quiet, there is a photo in the description where you see them nicely placed on the night stand. Forget that. Those units discharge heat to their left and right side. So when you lay in bed, you get a hot air fan blowing on you while you try to sleep colder. That heat, while it is not really enough to do any harm to your overall room temperature, is enough that you feel it when you place the unit too close to your head. Hence my position on the footrest side of the bed.The water lines are always filled with water. Water itself is a good heat transmitter. So when the unit is not turned on, you are sleeping on those filled water lines, and heat them up with your body heat. That heat stays there, so you actually feel warmer, not necessarily hot, but more warm than on a regular bed with our such a unit. That applies for all those water based sheet cooling units though. So if the room is lets say 72 degrees, and you don't turn it on to cool, you might end up sleeping to warm and wake up from it. Since setting it up is not as easy as changing a bed sheet, I expect my unit to remain on the bed year around, whether for heating or cooling. Since I use a waterproof matrass protector, I feel it's not bad to do that.When you fill or change the water tank, you literally need only one cup of water, maybe two, but that is. Make sure you have an empty cub close by, since the water starts running our the hose and water tank as soon as you disconnect the line. Yes, there are rubber plugs for each end, by the time you pushed them in you have already a puddle of water around the unit.Overall, I do recommend the unit. I only paid 500 USD for the dual unit king size version, new. I believe the heat will don just fine, since it can go up to 150, which is lobster cooking temperature. Even if it only goes to 100, I believe it will do the job. A remote control would be nice to be honest, but once you programmed it, it runs fine.If your house is +80 degrees constantly and you weigh more than 400 lb, no unit will do the job you are looking for. Those boxes are not a mini freezer, there is no coolant in them besides the water you filled in them. You can definitely feel the side of the bed which is turned on to be much cooler. I used to have a fan blowing into my room to get more cold air from the house. That fan I don't need any more.One last thing, after getting the unit I had a sore throat for a week since I got a cold from sleeping on the cooled unit, and I was not used to it. Programming it to turn of around 4 AM helped.

Unit puts off a lot of heat. You have to turn air down to keep up.Update left unit stopped cooling completely.

Good product, simple to setup and easy to use. To make it more functional would have liked more control in the settings. Still recommend if you are on a budget for a reliable product.

My husband and I absolutely love this product. It’s the best of both worlds with the dual controls, he can have a cold temperature and I can have a warm temperature. Customer service was also very helpful when I had a minor problem..

I've had the Chilisleep Cube for a few years, and when that thing pretty much died on me, I bought the Aquabed AB-550.I've had this for almost 6 months now, so I can give a pretty decent review on it.First of all, installation was easy, but removing it is more of a challenge. The Chilisleep Cube has valves which shut down the flow of water when you disconnect the tubes. The Aquabed AB-550 does not: when you disconnect the tubes from the main unit, you are SOL and will get wet. The water simply starts oozing out.In terms of performance: the AB-550 is no match whatsoever for the Chilisleep Cube. My use case is cooling only, so this rating concerns the cooling part only. That said: the AB-550 cannot cool properly. Whereas the Chilisleep Cube will actually cool the water (albeit slow), the AB-550 is unable to cool the water once it's at room temperature.The only way to get any cooling benefit is to empty it prior to bedtime, and fill it up with ice water. It will manage to keep the water cold-ish until roughly halfway through the night, and my room is generally between 72 and 74F (22-23 C, for our international readers).The same thing applies to noise levels. Although initially the AB-550 was slightly less noisy, the sound it emits is far worse than the Chilisleep Cube. As I've had it longer and longer, the noise level appears to be increasing. I suspect the ball bearings on the fan(s) are starting to let go.The mattress pad of both products are similar, and you can feel the tubes. However, these don't bother me that much.Another downside of the AB-550 is the absence of a remote control. I use a $10 remote controlled power outlet from Home Depot for this.All in all, it will keep you cool until you're asleep enough to not notice the heat anymore, but I will not be purchasing this product again.

I am here to tell you, you will not regret this. I looked over many reviews of this product and decided to jump and go ahead and get one. I got a king size with duel controls. The heat that comes from this is soft that's the only way I can describe it, you don't have the hot spots like with other heated blankets. Some people complained of the size of the control box, we have put the control boxes right under the edge of our bed it is simple to use the light up display is easy to read. I have no complaints what so ever. I would recommend this to any one. This is sept. And we bought it in July and have used it every night I did not want to give a review this right after I got it. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to give a honest review of this product. No regrets!

My wife loved it for the 1st week. Everything seemed to work great. After about a week it did not seem cool any longer. I have been trying to get support but that seems to be non existent. Now we are passed the 30 day return on a product my wife likes but I have no clue if there is something wrong or not. A lot of money for no customer service.

Worked great for 2 weeks. Best sleep ever. But declined quickly and by 4 weeks didn’t cool at all. Switched to the other side and same issue except it just stopped working at all. Wish I could have sent it back but waited lasted just long enough. Do not buy.