Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Return-Path: blueflash@comcast.net Subject: Footbath From: Don Pomplun To: Don Pomplun A few weeks ago I thought maybe my occasionally sore dogs needed some TLC. Bought some Epsom salt at Walmart and dissolved some in hot tap water in an old Sterilite storage box. Convinced myself it was beneficial but the water got cold quickly. Had to scoop out a quart of cold and dump in a quart of hot. This got old quickly. OK what's Amazon got? Read the comments on a number of footbaths. Main complaint was that even those that claimed to keep water hot, didn't. The Pibb was moderately endorsed as having real heating capability, so I ordered one. Showed up today in typical Amazon quick style. I was skeptical so I unpacked the bath and set it up on the kitchen counter for testing. I connected it to a watt meter so I could see what & if it could really heat. Here's the results . . . The instructions are pretty useless (no surprise). There is a 4 position switch: off; vibrating massage only; heat with water circulation only; and massage and water circulation heat. The vibrate massage is nice. The floor of the bath is rigid plastic points. These can be a little harsh. They include a pair of foot-shaped rubbery pads with points that are much softer. Heat & water pump circulation always go together (as they have to so that you don't get hot spots). The sheet talks about Heat, Wave & Massage. "Wave" is just water circulation. My wattmeter shows that the heater is about 400 watts, a respectable amount! I started the test with hot tap water (107 deg). The heater easily kept the temperature up. For Geeks who understand it, it uses a proportional controller for the heater. It says you should start with hot water because it won't heat the water. . . YES it will! I dumped the hot water and filled it with cold tap water (72 deg). It took 25 minutes to get up to 110 deg before it shut off. Note that you can't adjust the temperature (I took it all apart expecting some adjustment on the circuit board, but there isn't any). 110 is a pretty warm hot tub temperature! Later when I started soaking in this, I was working up a sweat just sitting there. So here I sit writing this, soaking with heat & vibrate (and 1/4 cup of Epsom salts). When it starts feeling too hot I turn the knob to Massage Only. As it cools down I switch to Massage & Heat. It takes quite a while to cool down, so this isn't a problem. There a few silly "attachments" that are mostly useless. When I got done, I added a couple spoonfuls of Clorox for disinfection and ran it 10 minutes before emptying. The sheet talks about the fill line - there isn't any. Be careful about overfilling so your feet don't make it overflow! The tub is comfortably big for my size 11 feet. It's deep enough to get the level up to your ankle bone. But there isn't much freeboard, so using it on a waterproof floor is a plus. The whole unit seems durably constructed. I unpacked it carefully, fully expecting to return it. I'm pleasantly surprised.