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Heat Insulators for Laptops
Alex Bischoff writes "The Gadgeteer has a review of a product called LapPads from LapLogic. They're heat-insulating pads to protect you from cooking your lap when using your laptop. Depending on the model, they apparently provide up to 57 degrees (F) reduction in heat transfer. Why didn't someone think of this sooner?"
I'm sure this guy is really wishing this would have been made sooner...
Then again, if it were out at the time, would he have used it?
The first thing I thought on reading this headline was, Where does the heat that used to be dissipated in the user go?
It appears that there is a textured surface on the pad, one might assume to allow SOME airflow. However, the reviewer was using it wrong:
(Of course, any hardware that uses the operator as a heat-sink is ASKING to lose.)
How does the Slashdot Effect happen given that no slashdotters ever RTFA?
Has there been any investigation into the effect this has on the laptop computer itself? After all, you're keeping in the heat that the laptop was trying to dissipate.
I use one of those cookie sheets with the insulating air space between two sheets of steel/aluminum/whatever. Provides a big dissipation area, the underside is warm but not roasty-toasty, and it cost about $4...
Some feel thinking is a pleasure. Others feel it's a chore. Most, having never tried it, have no feel for it at all.
This was out back in '98 with the Wallstreet PowerBooks.
personal attacks hurt, especially when deserved
I use a tray with a "bean bag" attached to the bottom - they're commonly available over here in the UK for people who eat TV dinners etc - it's just the right size for my Linux Laptop, it's rigid, and no heat! I wouldn't want to carry it around outside the house though...
Most laptop instruction books I've read (not too many though), say the laptop should be used on a flat surface that does not block the ventalition.
An insulator may just help the laptop fry itself more, a piece of laptop sized wood is probably more helpful, though not "cool" to be seen with.
mailto:EatSpamAndDie@princeweb.com
Which, while not ideal, is marginally preferable to cooking your genitals.
What about the CoolPad?
I've had one for my iBook since early 2002 and it's great for that kind of thing. The swivel feature is neat when I'm working with someone and want to show them something on the screen.
I am not who I say you are.
They're called towels.
Have you read my blog lately?
With a 57 deg gradient, I have to think that a pad that size should be able to reclaim some energy, a la peltier effect. With todays tech, it might not be much, maybe enough to extend battery live a minute - but it is a start.
I firmly believe that devices of the future will attempt to reclaim whatever energy they can, which would go a long way. I forsee our kids looking back and thinking how wasteful we were, we would just let heat go off into the atmosphere without converting some of it back to usable energy.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
A hot computer on my lap is the only action I get.
Best Windows Freeware
Remember the old IBM Thinkpad 760 series? They had a silicon pad on the bottom of it (wasn't on the original models, added sometime in their production run) to keep you from burning yourself. It was their "fix" for a computer that had no fan, and got way too hot. And those were only P120-P166 models.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
People seem to get really upset and mad when they smell burnt testicle.
;-)
Perhaps now some penis oven mitts?
Some say this heat thing is a problem... I say kill the sperm. My laptop is my birth control method
Cooler laps are well and good, but I note the reviewer didn't do any analysis of what happened to the CPU temperature when using these pads. If the heat is being redirected right back at the laptop, it may be defeating the coolant systems on the laptop.
For example, Dell Inspirons have a fan on the bottom that blows straight down. Not bad on a hard desk where the air will blow away. Not good on a bed comfortor that smothers the airflow. Where will these pads fit in on the spectrum?
I think what's needed is a pad that works to draw the heat away from both lap and laptop, maybe something like the Chillow for laptops.
Possibly because we all had Apple laptops that weren't burning our laps? Seriously, my wife's Toshiba burned itself out when it failed to go to sleep properly. And laptops with fans? Why don't people just use a full size machine if they need the computing power that would require fans? You can get far with SSH and VLC.
A frustrated former hot laptop owner,
F.O. Dobbs
I've used these inventions before, they work really well. Only we used to call them pillows.
You had me at "dicks fuck assholes".
I call it "pants"
57 degrees reduction in surface temperature doesn't just depend on the pad, it assumes a a laptop with certain thermal characteristics and surface area and power use. It could be any laptop, since they don't tell you which, so they might as well be pulling the number out of their ass. The thermal resistivity of a planar surface should just be quoted in watts per degree celcius per square centimeter, ok? This is ridiculous. It reminds me of the History channel talking about "pounds of energy" in a wave. Get the units straight or you might as well be pulling a number out of your ass.
Hey, for some of us, the laptop and the genitals are in symbiosis - neither would get much use without the other.
The delicate balance of this relationship is mediated by DSL, screen cleaner and paper towels.
Obviously, there should be a better design that doesn't rely on human flesh to get rid of excess heat. If someone sues, the manufacturers will be forced to have labels on it warning people not to put their laptop on their lap or serious injury might occur, including roasted nuts and inability to reproduce.
I use a phone book. Sure, it doesn't look as cool, but it's virtually free. Of course, I had to move to a larger city first, as the Elyria county book is less than a cm thick, and tended to let a lot of the heat through.
This is where I get my recommended daily allowance of "Foot in Mouth."
I have a Case Logic neoprene laptop sleeve that protects my laptop when I throw it into my backpack, and doubles as a lap protector. The neoprene is a very good insulator, and this is much more useful than a dedicated laptop crotch protector.
* mild mannered physics grad student by day *
* daring code hacker by night *
http://www.silent-tristero.com
Because most of us wear pants when using a laptop?
sulli
RTFJ.
Rangefinders for cars? Durr, what about oncoming traffic--it'd make your car flip out! Robotic vaccuum cleaner? Hah hah, what about my stairs? Hard-drive based music player? What if you drop it? Wouldn't it a-splode? Drinking straw? What if you accidentally put it up your nose instead of in your mouth? Huh? What then? Chaos!
Reading the FA aside, does it ever occur to people that a company in the business of making heat-dissipating pads specifically designed to work with laptops just might take the internal temperature of the laptop into consideration? Do people really think that products are designed by an army of Mr. Magoo clones?
Yeah, design mistakes happen, but seriously--if you're able to think of a potential problem after ten seconds' worth of thought, do you really think it likely that the design team wouldn't have considered the exact same thing?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
it never hurts to RTFA though, or research this before posting opinions. laplogic claims the CPU will run cooler or as cool as on a table.
it's somewhat disappointing that they didn't dramatically improve the cooling as well though.
My laptop is my birth control method
I think that goes without saying in this crowd...
They've already got pads with built in usb powered cooling fans of varying designs and number of fans.
What about a full on LAPDESK for your laptop?
Or, as another poster pointed out, they have cooling pads that can rotate and elevate your laptop that also come in varying designs.
And don't forget about cooling yourself off!
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...
Heat transfer is not measured in degrees! Here's a quick thermal lesson for you electrical guys....
Temperature rise is equivalent to voltage or potential.
Heat flow (Q) in Watts is equivalent to current in amps
Thermal resistance, measured in Degrees per Watt is the same as resistance measured in ohms.
The equations work the same way too. For most instances of steady state heat dissipation what you have is a constant power dissipation or in electrical terms a constant current. The thermal circuit in this case has the heat generating components at V+ and the room can be considered to be ground. There are resistances in the path and the the higher the resistance, the higher the temperature rise there is between nodes.
What this blanket does is to stick a high thermal resistance between the laptop and one of the heat paths and as a result there is a higher "potential".
But indeed the "current" (or watts) is still constant, so by increasing the resistance through one of the paths, you increase the current flowing through the other paths (and as you know from electricity for a constant resistance, will result in higher voltage across those resistances.
So yes, you keep you lap cool... at the expense of the components in your laptop. Be careful what you wish for.
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
I downloaded a program for Toshibas thats runs the fan all the time - keeps the laptop cooler - uses a bit more juice I suppose - but who really uses bateries for anything more than shoulder strain?
cost is $2 - save yourself the $45 dollar (with shipping) silly thing
AIK
The website states:
"LapLogic specializes in Laptop Desks & LapPads that provide up to 57F protection from laptop heat without increasing CPU temperatures. In fact, with our Traveler LapPads,
your CPU will actually run cooler! "
If the heat is "bounced back" into the laptop, how is the CPU running cooler?
Macally has had soemthing like this for quite a while. Although I think I might get that Kona model (teh one that folds up). I do the same as Julie. Recline and compute at the same time.
Gorkman
I have a 900MHz Dell laptop that I have set to not go above 700MHz. Even at the lower setting it gets warm, but if I run it at 900MHz it will literally burn you if you max out the cpu and touch your hand or bare leg to it. Why these retards released a product that gets so hot you can't touch it is f*cking beyond me. What were they thinking? Did they just assume nobody would ever use a product called a "laptop" on their lap? The other side benefits of running at a lower speed are of course longer battery life and no loud annoying fan to deal with.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
The current generation of Aluminum PowerBooks doesn't run hot. A little warm, yes, but you need that on those cold summer San Francisco nights.
sulli
RTFJ.
As mentioned before, the heat stays in your lappy.
This cooler (active) or this cooler (passive) look like better alternatives.
--> Insert Funny Sig Here
Quoting from Laplogic:
/.logic.
"Traveler LapPads - 54F of Heat Protection and Cooler CPU Temperatures
Our Traveler Series LapPads are designed to keep you and your laptop cool. The Traveler Series LapPads can provide up to 54F of laptop heat protection for you while keeping your CPU cooler."
It's not that hard to dispel
Who moderates the meta-moderators?
Put a 3 ring binder in your lap and the computer on top. It works perfectly.
The air space between the covers prevents the transfer of heat.
I figured this out through trial and error.
Laugh at my ignorance while I learn Rails - a Real ne
for women who don't want kids.
After countless wedgies in grammar school, I couldn't procreate if I saved up until I was 90!
Sulu: "Captain, there is a piece of paper floating in space, directly in front of our ship!"
Kirk: "What does it say? Put it on the screen."
Spock: "Use of insulating devices will interfere with your notebook's thermal design and will void your warranty."
Kirk: "Great, but what does it MEAN?"
Spock: "In Earth's 20th century, there was a software company that now makes software for the Klingons and Romulans. This ancient software consumed vast resources and even portable computers of the era generated a tremendous amount of heat. To this day, the Klingons and Romulans are trying to make their computers run cooler and stop them from being hacked by freshmen from the Federation Middle School. The existance of this paper would tend to indicate the presence of a hostile ship nearby."
Kirk: "All hands, battle stations"
I made my lap heat shield out of a car sun blind. 1. Buy car sun blind (any gas station or car parts store. about $10). It's a folded piece of foam covered in a metalic film, the size of a windshield. 2. Cut to size. 3. Tape/glue to bottom of laptop. 4. ??? 5. profit! Usually there's no need to cover the whole bottom of the laptop, just the part that generates the most heat (use hand to find it). Haven't noticed any ill effect of the heat shield on the laptop's performance. Why don't they just build them like this? Maybe with an internal heat shield.
Instead of crowing about how cool it is that someone decided to market a heat insulator for all of the "Hot Laptop bottoms", why don't we put our efforts and commentary into how to make them cooler... I am a Mac user my self and have noticed how the PB that I have gets uncomfortably hot after several hours of use. I also Have a Dell Inspiron that gets hotter yet... Yes the heat insulator works but it seems a band-aid to the real problem which is the engineering behind getting rid of excess heat. It seems that most developers of portables have no problem dissapating heat by allowing it to exit via baseplates in the laptops... ie your lap gets boiled. So really the end result is that we humans are the recipients of the excess waste heat and we are the actual end dissapators.... So the engineers in their final analysis must conclude that human flesh will be able to absorb the residual waste heat that is generated and have no problem letting the heat dissapate this way. I want a laptop that is able to be handled for its expected battery-life without being subject to a very hot plastic or metal surface. Just my 2cents
I'm not saying that products don't suffer from design flaws. I'm not saying that there are no lazy/malicious companies out there. I'm not some starry-eyed, blind-faith-in-humanity idealist. That said, I'm not some crusty, everybody-is-out-to-fuck-me-over-for-my-money kinda person, either. I like to believe that there exists some nuance to this sort of thing.
All I'm saying is that it's reasonable to assume that a design team--even a mediocre design team--would be able to envision the kind of glaringly obvious "What about X?" flotsam that gets posted on this sort of topic.
Do you honestly believe that it is more likely than not that this company developed and released this product without ever considering the internal heat levels of the laptop?
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
My friend got one of these things. It just happens to be the same size as his laptop and blocks the heat rather nicely. Pretty useful for only $15.
Will it prevent the laptop from overheating when its using is surfing pr0n sites?
... y Dios vio que Linux era bueno... Genesis 99.666
My MacAlly IcePad seems to work as well as the products in this review, but is rigid instead of fabric-based. It can lie flat, or tilt up a couple of inches. It has little airflow channels along the top surface and dissapates heat really well. It has a grippy surface and I've never had trouble with the PowerBook slipping while on it. Given how much my PB used to heat up if I had it sitting on a blanket or pillow, and how cool it runs now sitting on the IcePad, $30 is a reasonable price for not cooking the $2k computer (or me).
"There is a thin line between ignorance and arrogance, and only I have managed to erase that line." - Dr. Science
Alternatively, you could use a Radio-Shack Rechargable battery pack (couldn't find URL, but catalog no. _was_ 23-047). It's about the size of 4 cassette tapes, ~12.6oz (~350g), output voltage selectable from 3-9v output and rechargable by plugging it into a wall output or from a 12v400ma source. If you are a doit-yourselfer, buy a 4 "cell" holder and wire it in series. Radio Shack sells battery adapter extension cord and heads singlely. You could choose capacity and weight by cell size (though note, I've often seen "D" rechargable cells with same ratings as the "C" indicating they've just stuck a "C" cell in a larger container.
Externally powered, this _should_ slightly increase laptop runtime (i.e. active external cooling => less internal fan use).
It holds the laptop on rubber feet about 7mm above 2 fans sucking air from center of underside and venting out the back.
-l