REVIEW – This spring my wife broke her hand, and surgery required twelve screws to hold the bones in place. The surgery combined with being a cast caused the muscles in her hand to become very tight. This has made every part of physical therapy (PT) harder, so she has to start every PT session at home by loosening the muscles using a heating pad and stretching exercises. When I saw the Comfier massager, I wondered if it would be a help to my wife. Spoiler alert: Yes, it is!
What is it?
The Comfier hand massager (model CF-4803) is small, portable gadget that heats and massages a person’s hand. It has three levels of heat and three levels of pressure, uses a rechargeable battery, and is lightweight. Comfier’s mission is “to improve the quality of life for people everywhere through innovative ideas in massager products.”
What’s in the box?
- Massager
- USB cable
- Manual
- Warranty card
- Stickers
Specifications
- Size: 7.4 x 7.2 x 2.5 inches
- Weight: 2.45 lbs
- Power: 8 watts
- Battery type: Non-replaceable lithium ion
- Battery runtime: over 90 minutes
- Auto shutoff timer: 15 minutes
- Colors: White, black, pink
Design and features
Comfier’s massager looks a bit like a clam that has just started to open its shell. It’s made entirely of plastic and has three buttons on top, a USB-C port on one side, and four rubber feet on the bottom. The front has an open gap to insert the hand, and the back has three smaller holes for the tips of the fingers to poke out. It’s an odd-looking, function-over-form design.
Installation and setup
The massager arrived well-protected in a box, so I started by removing the packaging.
As this is a battery-powered gadget, the next step was to charge it up. The USB-C end went into the gadget, and the USB-A end into my old Soundcore Wakey. I wish that Comfier would include a modern cable that is USB-C on both ends.
Performance
Using this device is not rocket science. My wife inserts her hand, sets the pressure and the heat to their maximum settings, and then watches YouTube or reads a book for 15 minutes. That’s all there is to it.
When my wife is in the PT office, the therapists use fluidotherapy machines to heat up her entire hand before they begin any of the exercises, and my wife needs to be able to do the same thing when she’s doing the exercises at home. She purchased a heating pad on Amazon, but it doesn’t form to her hand very well, making the heat transfer much less effective. The Comfier hand massager heats all sides and into each of the fingers evenly, and my wife loves this feature; it’s way better than her heating pad. She would be even happier if it could get a bit warmer, closer to the heat levels of the machines in the PT office.
This gadget also massages each of her fingers individually. My wife has observed that it applies more pressure the longer it massages; by the end of the 15 minutes it’s almost too much for her. My wife has been doing PT for a while, and she has small hands, so she is able to endure the max pressure despite the pain. Someone with bigger hands or new to PT might find the max settings too painful and need to back off. She likes how it uses complex patterns to massage her hand; it’s not a simple, even message.
The end result is that the massager significantly loosens the tight muscles in her hand and reduces the tension. This allows her to move her hand without pain and complete the exercises from her physical therapist. She is very happy that we are testing this gadget for The Gadgeteer.
The only issue that she found was that the massager does not allow her thumb to be completely inserted. There are dividers inside the massager that keep each finger separated from each other, and these really should be a bit further in as they keep her thumb too far out.
What I like
- Heats entire hand
- Massages tight muscles
- Portable
What I’d change
- Make a higher heat setting
- Allow thumb to be completely inserted
Final thoughts
The Comfier hand massager is a one-trick pony: It simply heats and massages your hand. But if you happen to need this trick, as my wife does, it’s a wonderful gadget to have. My wife loves this little guy and uses it two or three times a day. Her only regret is that she didn’t have him when she first started PT.
Price: $53.99 or $74.99
Where to buy: Amazon or Comfier’s online store
Source: The sample for this review was provided by Comfier.
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I love the full bed massage, i purchased the CF3606 for my roommate/ friend he absolutely loves it. So do due to the purchase price.