The folks at Kewl Innovations, Inc. sent me a ClimaPak unit to play with. Not familiar with ClimpaPack? It is a portable battery powered temperature control gadget for keeping your insulin pens or vials within their approved temperature range.
It runs off of a rechargeable battery that lasts for 3-5 days on a charge. It holds 2 pens, 2 vials, or one of each. It will cool them if the environment is too hot, or it will warm them if the environment is too cold. Living in Minnesota, that warming function piqued my interest.
There are a handful of other features packed into this thing, such as a “last injection” timer and configurable alarms.
It all seems pretty impressive.
In the end, though, I’m a city boy. It’s just not for me. I don’t do any camping, no wilderness expeditions, no extreme outdoor sports, and I’m rarely more than 45-minutes away from home. My day of insulin is in my pump, and that stays pretty close to me. 43-inches or less, to be exact.
My typical environment didn’t challenge this thing one bit, so I’m sending it along to someone who might.
With all of that being said, I think it seems like a great device for people who need it. It is a spendy piece of machinery (starting at $299), but what price can you put on keeping your life-juice (insulin) safe?
Kewl Innovations has also recently announced a rental program, which offers some more affordable options.
If you’ve tried one, I’d love to hear what you think of it. I’d also love to hear if you would use something like this, and how/where.
Kewl Innovations has also offered a small coupon code (SCOTTSDIABETES25) towards the purchase of a ClimaPak.
Disclosure: Kewl Innovations sent me a ClimaPak Bundle and asked that I share my thoughts on it. The bundle was sent completely free (retail value of $349). They did not ask for or receive, any editorial control over this post or any future pieces. I do not receive any compensation or favor from the use of the above-mentioned coupon code.
Would be interested in trying out the Climapak. We have a home in FL and the temperatures can get pretty hot. You mentioned a coupon being offered from Kewl Innovations. Are these coupons still available? I agree the unit is a little pricey, but I believe it would work well in FL.//Thanks/Patti Hemingway
Hi Patti! Thanks for stopping by. It’s been a long time since I’ve been in contact with them. I’d recommend contacting them directly (http://www.kewlinnovations.com/) to ask.
I got sent the email to try this out, and I actually didn’t do it for most the reasons you describe. I am a city girl too. On an average day, I am never more than 15 minutes from my house. I just don’t have use for it. Cool product for people who lead different lives from us 😀
Thanks for the review, Scott. I hadn’t realized they also keep the insulin safe when it’s too cold – that’s a great idea!! I agree with you though, personally I don’t spend much time in the outdoors so I don’t think I’d really need something like this (although after seeing how long people were without power after Hurricane Sandy I might take my insulin storage a little more seriously). Nice of you to pass it along to Dave, I’m sure he’ll make good use of it.
I can see this being useful for people going on long trips where they need to carry multiple vials of insulin for extended periods of time, especially when that place is hot and/or humid. It would have been very useful on my trip to India years ago, when Lisa and I spent three weeks above 90F.
For the most part, though, whenever I need to travel some place with unopened vials of insulin (or to hot places with open bottles) I use a Frio cooler. It works through evaporation and does a “good enough” job keeping things cool.
I think I read somewhere that it shouldn’t be used to keep insulin cool in a hot car (if I’m wrong, someone please correct me!). To be honest, that’s when I’d need it most — if I’m out of the house in the summer and don’t want to haul my emergency spare vial (basically, what’s not in my pump reservoir at that very moment) in and out of every place I go.