REVIEW – Having your knees hurt after activity sucks. I’m speaking from experience here. Getting to review a heating knee massager seemed like a dream come true. Today, we’re going to look at the Snailax Cordless Knee Massager with Heat and Vibration to see if it can make these old joints feel young again.
What is it?
The Snailax Cordless Vibration and Infrared device is a knee massager that can also deliver heat and red light for a total knee therapy solution. It is cordless and battery-operated.
What’s in the box?
- Snailax Cordless Vibration and Infrared Heating Knee Massager
- USB-A to USB-C charging cable (not pictured)
- Warranty card
- User manual
Hardware specs
- Construction: Hard plastic shell with soft fabric and foam inside
- Attachment method: Dual velcro straps
- Control and display: Capacitive touch control with LED indicators
- Massage levels: 3 – auto, low, high
- Heat levels: 3 – 113F – 131F, infrared
- Additional therapy: Red light therapy (listed as “Laser”)
- Battery: 3000 mAh
- Timer: 10 minutes
Design and features
The Snailax Cordless Vibration and Infrared Heating Knee Massager attaches to your leg with a pair of Velcro straps that feed through plastic rings and then double back on themselves. It is highly adjustable and should fit nearly everyone. I don’t particularly like this specific design as I have to fully remove the straps from the rings and then feed them through each time. I would prefer a velcro pad on the right side so I could just wrap and attach it. A minor quibble. Of course, this system is much more secure than a simple press to attach Velcro pad, so perhaps I’m just too picky.
Here, you can see the massager on my knee. The thin blue line is the power and charging indicator. You can see the control panel as well.
The control panel is intuitively laid out and straightforward to use.
Holding the power button on the bottom left turns the unit on or off. When on, applicable LEDs light up to indicate the current mode. Pressing the middle massage button cycles through auto/low/high modes. Pressing the right heat button cycles through low/medium/high heat modes. Pressing the power button cycles the other therapy modes as follows: infrared + laser / infrared only / laser only / neither.
At the top of the unit, just below the top of the control pane, you can just see the USB-C charging port.
The therapy lights are shown here.
The oblong item at the bottom of the light ring is a sensor. When it is covered, meaning that the unit is being worn, it enables the laser light mode.
Setup
The only setup needed for the Snailax Cordless Vibration and Infrared Heating Knee Massager is to charge the unit until the power/charge indicator light turns on solid.
Performance
I’m pretty impressed with this unit. It just works. The auto massage mode is fairly intense and quite relaxing. It varies the speed and intensity throughout the very pleasant massage. Its only downfall is that it is quite noisy. Using it while watching TV at night means the volume on the TV will go up until the massage is done. The heating is nice if not that hot. The heat is balanced above the knee and directly on the kneecap. There has been a lot of buzz lately about infrared heating and red light therapy and this offers both. I can’t say whether it is doing anything, but supposedly, it is, reducing inflammation and pain. All I can tell you is that after using it, my knees, at least temporarily, feel better.
One thing I don’t like about the Snailax Cordless Vibration and Infrared Heating Knee Massager is the ten-minute timer. Ten minutes for me is the point when things are just starting to feel better. I’d like to use this for 20 minutes at least, without interruption. Yes, I can just turn it back on, but why?
Because of the hard shell design, you really can’t walk around when wearing it, as it doesn’t bend with your knee. I guess that I’ll just have to sit and enjoy the massage. Oh, darn.
So far, battery life has been great. I’ve done somewhere between 10-15 sessions between charges. I chose to proactively charge so it doesn’t die during a session. It would be nice if there was a charge indicator so I have a better idea of when it needs to be charged.
What I like
- The massage and heat feel great
- The addition of infrared heating and red light therapy is nice
- The control panel is intuitive and simple to use
What I’d change
- I wish the timer was longer
- I’d like a little more heat
- The massage is noisy and could disturb others
- I’d prefer an easier strap-attaching method
- A charge level indicator would be a nice addition
Final thoughts
I’ve taken to icing my knees at night. I have a freezer pack that wraps around my knee, delivering strong cold to the area. After 20 minutes, I take it off, put it on the other knee, and then put the Snailax massager on the cold knee. The heat warms my knee and the massage relaxes it. The cold/warm combo with massage makes my aching knees feel better and that’s a good thing. I just wish the timer was longer as 20 minutes would be perfect. If I could get the noise level lowered a bit, this would be a perfect solution. Even with those minor complaints, this is still a great solution to help with achy knees. I see this getting a lot of use.
Price: $109.99
Where to buy: Amazon and Snailax ($119.99 and 30% off using code SL2024 as of this writing)
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Snailax.
