Belkin F5L001 Laptop Cooling Pad
by Belkin Components
|
List Price: Our Price: $17.49 You Save: $12.50 (42%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $14.00 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
|---|
Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Belkin F5L001 Laptop Cooling Pad
Customer Review: EXCELLENT!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the few laptop coolers where the fan blows air directly on the computer instead of trying to suck the hot air away from the computer bottom, and it is highly effective! I have tried the Antec, Targus CoolPad (original model), and a couple of others, all of which suck the hot air instead of blowing directly on the computer bottom. Targus recently came out with a newer two-fan, non-suck (ie. direct blow) 4-port USB cooler which also cools great (bought that one too), BUT it sounds like a jet plane taking off. The noise is absolutely intolerable. I exchanged it for another, but the noise was the same. The Belkin F5L001 has one VERY quiet fan blowing directly onto the computer bottom, and does a great job. I have no complaint with the build quality, and the tilt door seems to work fine. One thing that MUST be noted (as a caution) is that if you do not use the built-in tilt stand (a little door that folds down from the cooler body), then the fan air intake will be blocked, thus possibly damaging the fan and/or preventing airflow for cooling. If you use the cooler on a flat surface, you MUST use the tilt stand. If you use it on your lap, use the tilt stand also, or position your legs/clothing in a way to allow good airflow to the fan intake. I was surprised this was not a caution item in the instructions, and I think failure to abide by this caution is probably the reason for some of the failures/complaints in the reviews on this product. I can't comment on the longevity of the cooler, but so far it seems to run in a relaxed fashion, IF you keep the fan intake clear. In summary, I have about $150 worth of various coolers, and the Belkin is the best by far. Whatever you do purchase, make sure it is a blow-cooler (blows air onto the bottom of the PC, rather than a suck type. After all, how do you cool a hot piece of food on your fork, or a hot liquid etc.? I dpn't suck the heat away, I blow it away. Thermal dynamics seems to confirm blowing is the most efficient, and I don't understand how the engineers decided on the suck type. The Belkin is Excellent! Good luck.Customer Review: I'm finally done looking for a laptop stand...
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been through four or five different stands over the past year or so. I spend a lot of time working from home in the IT field, and many late nights reclining on the couch while I remote into networks. Every other one I got had airflow from top to bottom. Did me no good because my Thinkpad pulls air in from the bottom to flow through the unit and out the sides. So having fans try to pull air DOWN actually would worsen my thermal situation.
All of them had fan units that couldn't be reversed, and they all had something klunky about them anyway. Most sounded like a jet at the end of runway running up its engines. A few had nasty little screw hole covers as "feet" that were nothing but soft material with sticky backs that never held them in the bases - and I'd find them stuck to my pants, to my shirt, to my table...
This one is top noch. The bottom of the base is curved, so if you don't have the rear support in the "down" position, it fits incredibly comfortably on the lap, no edges digging in that will get annoying after an hour or two. The fan is dead center, so even with the feet up and the unit on the lap, it will get air coming into the fan from the "valley" created by the legs.
Fan is nice and quite. NOT silent, by any means, but after everything else I've had, it's darn close. Not something that would get annoying after a while. I'm using it without the fan more often than not since even just having this on the lap gives more room for airflow under the laptop than it has sitting on a desk or table anyway.
Great unit, worth every penny. Wish I had got this one much sooner.
Customer Review: Just what I needed
Summary: 5 Stars
It does exactly what you need. Kept my HP laptop, and my MacBookPro cool. The Mac ended up warming up a little bit after a full day use even with the fan, but in comparison to the heat it outputs with out the cooling stand it was nothing.
You can hear the fan running, but it's still pretty quiet and wouldn't bother anyone. The fan is strong and steady if anything will bother a person near by is the occasional breeze, seriously.
I hate batteries so the USB power cord is great. Note that if your not tethered to a power outlet, and your battery doesn't hold a GREAT charge already. The fan will drain your laptop quicker than you'd like. In which case your better off dealing with the heat. The Cooling pad is best used for 2 hours or more, when connected to a power outlet.
I like the lightweight and compactness of it, but do wish it was a bit more sturdy. It's entirely plastic so pressure directly in the center of your laptop from your wrist, or sitting the cooling stand on one leg for example will cause the fan to rub against the sides of the cooling stand. Although it posing no damage to the computer and little I'd imagine to the stand, the sound is jarring none the less.
One last request would be some sort of elevation options. The laptop sits at only a slight incline, doing nothing for your visibility. But if you sit high enough it's very comfy on your wrist. This is offset to be by the continued discomfort you find in your neck.
I use it daily, and for the price it can't be beat. Does exactly what you want, COOL your laptop.
Customer Review: Belkin Listened!
Summary: 5 Stars
'Bought the original version of this cooler April (2008) and soon after, the connector from cooler to USB wire fell out, so the fan had nothing to power it, but it still kept the laptop fan vents unobstructed. After reviewing other models, I still liked this best for the price & based on reviews. I decided to get another one.
I ordered it yesterday (Feb 19th) and it arrived today (feb 20th) with Super Saver Shipping (yay, Amazon)- that's just the plus...
I couldn't wait to share with you all how much BETTER the new model is! Check out the side by side photo I posted for you. There's better finger protection, better riser with feet so the USB power wire isn't problematic (and it's attached) and it looks cleaner/classier!
Out of all the reviews, folks, Belkin listened! Thanks to all of you who took the time to post your complaints and desires, I now have an improved laptop cooler that's inexpensive, light, blows a bunch of cool air at my comp's bottom while leaving plenty of circulation space should something happen with the power!
It's quieter than my laptop's DVD player, too. If you consider it to be loud, perhaps it may need to be cleaned, oiled or maybe you are too particular, but I've worked on jets & so let's be reasonable... It's not as loud as what your desktop fan sounds like.
When this one dies, I bet I get another one. ;)
Customer Review: It Works...
Summary: 5 Stars
Hey Everyone,
This product definitely works at keeping the "enclosure bottom" of your laptop/notebook cool. I presently own a 2.2 GHZ Intel Core Duo Notebook w/ 4 GB RAM by Apple (the 13" MacBook). I ran a few programs that kicked the CPU's temperature up a few hundred degrees, which triggered the heat sink fans to kick-in. Consequently, this operation would have normally brought the enclosure bottom temperature to 90 F plus degrees. However, this device kept the enclosure bottom at a "normal" operating temperature (74 F).
The fan is kind of loud, meaning it's about the same decibel level as the internal heat sink fans on my notebook, thus you'll be getting a compounded "fan" noise when both the CPU fan is running in conjunction with the "Laptop Cooling Stand". However, I can promise you that the bottom of your laptop/notebook will be cool :)
In terms of durability, this product is slightly fragile, so I wouldn't bring it outside of an office/studio environment. The stand does work, despite other reviewers critiquing this product for its inability to hold a notebook up.
Overall, I'm giving this product five stars because of its: price, ergonomics, efficiency, and most importantly, its ability to cool the "enclosure bottom" of the computer.