The Lowdown
Recovery comes in many forms, and it’s important to have a lot of options in your toolkit. The Bob and Brad Weighted Heating Pad is great as a heating pad, and works as a lightly weighted blanket for mild anxiety relief. It’s easy on your muscles and on your wallet.
Overall
Pros
- Comfortable and drapes nicely around your shoulders
- Heats up evenly and consistently
- Safety shutoffs mean you don’t need to stress about whether you left it on
- Offers multiple heat levels
- Weight is comforting and can reduce some anxiety
Cons
We’ve reviewed and enjoyed several Bob and Brad massage-related products. It’s unsurprising that a company founded by physical therapists excels at massage, but they also offer other recovery products. We had the chance to check out the Bob and Brad Weighted Heating Pad for Neck and Shoulders, and it’s perfect for that post-workout self-care routine!
The Bob and Brad Weighted Heating Pad is extremely well-made. It’s stitched in quadrants with ceramic beads throughout. These create the gentle 2.2-pound weight that the pad provides, but they also do a good job of evenly spreading the heat. There’s a series of snaps so you can wear it like a little cape around your shoulders. It’s also very comfortable as a lap blanket, but obviously, since it’s only 20″ x 22″, it’s truly for your lap only.
The wall plug protrudes from one corner of the pad. The remote goes down about 12ish inches and is simple to use, with only four buttons: up, down, power, and timer. You can set it to 100–145º, and the auto shutoff can be set to 30, 60, or 90 minutes. There is no option to turn off the timer, so it will automatically shut off no matter what.
In practice, the Bob and Brad Weighted Heating Pad is quite comfortable. It’s soft, and the weight is just enough to feel reassuring but not so much that it’s a lot on your shoulders. It heats up quickly and evenly. This has been quite handy lately, as we’re apparently cycling through all four seasons in a 24-hour period right now. By the time you turn the heat on because it’s cold, it’s getting hot again, so the pad has been a nice alternative solution to forcing my HVAC to flip between AC and heat.
One perk is that you can disconnect the power cable and just use it as a weighted blanket around your shoulders. The Bob and Brad Weighted Heating Pad is light, but just enough pressure to feel like a gentle hug. The weighted pad was the hero last week, when my son had a reaction to some medication that caused him to have spikes of anxiety. He sat with the pad, unheated, around his shoulders, and while it made him look like he was wearing a little short cape, it legitimately helped him get past the worst of the side effects.
Recovery comes in many forms, and it’s important to have a lot of options in your toolkit. The Bob and Brad Weighted Heating Pad is great as a heating pad, and works as a lightly weighted blanket for mild anxiety relief. It’s easy on your muscles and on your wallet, with an MSRP of $69.99 and currently on sale at Amazon for $39.99. Plus, you look oddly fashionable wandering around with your blanket snugly secured around your shoulders!
The Bob and Brad Weighted Heating Pad for Neck and Shoulders sells for $69.99; it is available on Amazon.
Source: Manufacturer-provided review sample
What I Liked: Comfortable and drapes nicely around your shoulders; Heats up evenly and consistently; Safety shutoffs mean you don’t need to stress about whether you left it on; Offers multiple heat levels; Weight is comforting and can reduce some anxiety
What Needs Improvement: Nothing, does exactly as described!