Shark - ChillPill 3-in-1 Personal Cooling System with Fan, InstaChill Cooling Plate & Dry-Touch Mist - Haze

Highlights: * Long-life rechargeable battery * Can swap out the cooling method between a fan only, a misting fan or a skin-contact cooling plate * Includes a carrying bag for the two output accessories that aren’t being used * Unique twisting twin-barrel design allows for multiple angles to prop it up * Easy to use controls; sliding power lock switch and twist display to set speeds * Includes 4 wicks for the dry mister attachment; 1 preinstalled and 3 spares Considerations: * Battery life varies between Great (11 hours at Fan-only on level 1) to Not So Great (1 hour for Mist on level 10 or Cooling Plate on level 2) * Display is hard to see in direct sunlight * Water reservoir for the misting attachment is small and difficult to fill * Cannot operate while plugged in * Battery status display is not suitable for color-blind people * Misting function can be on with the misting door closed * Combined weight of device and all 3 attachments is not very light * Lowest fan speed is not exactly quiet and it gets much louder from there * Always turns on at low speed instead of the last-used speed This uniquely-design portable fan has 3 separate modalities to help keep you feeling cooler. Sure, it can just be a portable fan to direct a breeze at your face (or elsewhere) with 10 fan speeds. With a quick twist, you can swap out the fan cap for the misting attachment and now it’s a misting fan! Or swap that out for the cooling plate and now you have a chilled metal cooling pad to hold to your neck, forehead, wrist or elsewhere. Each method has its benefits and considerations, but each can be equally effective. From empty, this fan needs about 3.5 hours to charge via USB-C and cannot be used while charging. While I appreciate the portability factor, it would have been nice to be able to plug it in to an external USB battery for extended runtimes while at home or during longer outdoor sessions - especially when used with higher fan speeds or with the Mist or Cooling Plate options which both consume the battery much faster than the lower speeds in fan-only mode. Swapping out the various accessories is fast and easy. A pouch is provided to store the 2 that aren’t in use so you have options available, but this means that the pack weight for the unit plus all 3 is 326g or about 11.5oz if you want to bring your options with you. Battery life on the low fan speed as just a fan is great at 11 hours. If you’re using the Misting head, that drops to 4 hours max and using the Cooling plate on level 1 drops it to just 2 hours of use on a full charge. Keep in mind that you can’t sue this fan while its charging and it may need over 3 hours to recharge between uses. I appreciate the slide switch on the side to lock the unit off or enable it to work. This prevents it from accidentally turning on in a pocket or purse. I found that sometimes it would get confused if that switch was on when swapping the accessories so best practices might be to lock the unit off before swapping modes. Once enabled (switch on), pressing in on the screen at the top of the smaller of the two tubes will turn on the unit to the lowest speed/setting for that mode. It would have been nice to return to that last-used setting for the installed accessory, but it doesn’t. Not a huge deal but something that would have been appreciated. Depending on the accessory/mode, rotating the screen will adjust the fan speed as indicated by a single digit shown on the display from 1-10. The mode is represented by an icon for Water, Cool plate or a lack of icon for Fan-only and is determined by which accessory is installed. The screen isn’t the easiest to see outdoors in full sun but a bit shade with your hand helps, if needed. Battery life is indicated by a solid battery icon and the battery level is represented by the color of this icon from Green (at least 70%), through Orange and Red. Those with forms of color blindness may have difficulty determining the battery level by icon color, but a blinking red icon is your sign to recharge the battery so even if you can’t tell the difference in color, you can at least notice a blinking battery icon for time to charge. The unique two-barrel twisting design looks like a pair of binoculars. It isn’t very useful while being held but is super helpful when propping it up on a desk or clipped to something during non-held use. You can twist the two parts such that the fan is aimed where you want. There are even accessories to clip the unit onto handlebars of bikes, strollers, etc. The fan itself is deep in the base of the larger tube and not part of the Fan accessory. This means that the blades are not anywhere near where the air comes out. There’s a removable and replaceable inlet filter grille on the bottom, though. If something does get caught in there, you can pop off the grille and clean things out. Otherwise you won’t need to worry much about fan blades. The misting attachment is interesting. It is basically the guts of a humidifier in the space of the cap. With the accessory removed, you flip over the cap and open what was the bottom of the cap to fill it with up to 14ml of water. That isn’t much and it isn’t very easy to fill, but there are no moving parts so it should be safe to get the whole thing wet during filling as long as you dry it off before using in the fan. There is no indication of when the water tank is empty other than the lack of a visible mist during operation. Estimates are about 15 minutes of water life on a full tank before a refill. To prevent any water from leaking out while in a bag, there is a cover that twists to open or close the outlet like the lens cover of a fancy older camera. Just be aware that this cover is fully manual and you can turn on the Misting function with the cover closed which will make a bit of a mess when you open it again. That said, the misting function works quite well. The mist travels far enough to hold the unit in your hand and feel the effects on your face provided there’s not a stiff wind. You can choose between intermittent or continuous misting but as mentioned above, you’ll get no more than about 15 minutes of use between water tank fills, and a max of 4 hours of fan time on a charge at low fan speed. The cooling plate is surprisingly effective, too. It requires skin contact to work and is very noticeable when placed on your neck or wrist. This mode recedes the battery life the most down to as little as 1 hour of use in 8 minute timed cycles. Overall, this product is remarkably effective for making you feel more comfortable when the temperature rises. Battery life is a concern and the weight is to be considered, but it definitely gets the job done when the heat rises.

The Shark Chill Pill enters a personal fan market that is crowded by cheap, plastic fans powered by a couple of AA batteries and featuring hi and low speeds, if you’re lucky. The Chill Pill features an innovative design, rechargeable battery and 3 distinctly different ways to cool yourself when you need it. The design is unlike anything else on the market. Two cylinders are joined together in the middle with a twistable joint, allowing you to position it in whatever way works for you. One of the cylinders holds the rechargeable battery and features a round led screen showing battery level, fan speed and mode icons. The other cylinder holds the fan outlet at one end and a metal mesh filter at the other. The fan features 10 speeds. Shark recommends the first 5 for indoors and the others for outdoor use. Of course, this is entirely dependent on how hot you are, but one reason for suggesting the lower speeds for indoor use is that this little device is rather loud. You might not want to use this next to someone sleeping next to you. The fan is actually bladeless, but it moves a lot of air and is very effective at providing relief from the heat. Keep in mind that this is personal fan, since it’s small size makes it effective only for one, but that’s why you’re interested in this, right? Perhaps the most innovative feature of the Chill Pill is the cooling plate, something I haven’t seen anywhere else. Swap out the fan for the cooling plate and start it up. There are 2 levels of cooling to choose from. A smooth, shiny metal plate cools quickly and you simply press the plate to your skin to experience soothing coolness wherever you need it. This is great for providing instant relief when you need it, especially for things like headaches. This is much more convenient than using ice cubes and dealing with the melting. The third mode of operation is dry-touch mist. This involves a small tank that uses a white wick (4 are included) to absorb water that put into the tiny tank. This then produces a mist that, together with the 10 speeds of cool air, cools you down even more. Shark calls it a “dry mist”, but you wouldn’t want to point this at your face while wearing glasses, unless you don’t mind them getting wet. However, it really is a very fine mist that seems to evaporate before it falls. I tested this by sitting the Chill Pill on a flat surface, with a dry paper towel under the area where the mist fell. Neither the towel nor the surface exhibited any moisture at all. This mode is especially useful on a hot day outside. The tank will last about 8-10 minutes of continuous use, but if you take a bottle of water with you, it’s easy to refill. The Chill Pill is designed to be a personal cooling device, and it does a great job at that. Shark offers accessories like a clip, cross-body strap, and bike clamp, but none of these is included. In the box you get the Chill Pill, 3 caps for the different operational modes, charging cable, and drawstring bag for holding the caps. The Chill Pill allows you to get some relief from the heat without the need to carry a bulky fan or search for power. While I haven’t done enough testing to really know how long the battery lasts, I’m impressed with how much I’ve been able to use it while hardly impacting the battery. This is truly a personal device that you can take anywhere. I’m looking forward to seeing how well it can do at a hot football game in August. I think it’ll be up to the task. The Chill Pill retails for $149. It’s very well built, just like everything Shark makes. It does what it promises to do, but this is a pretty expensive item. You do get what you pay for, and you won’t be disappointed with the Chill Pill, but you’ll need to be able to swallow the price to do so.

I feel like any review of this product should begin by acknowledging how wonderful it is that Shark named this thing a “Chill Pill.” Ha. I tip my hat in their direction for the rhyme and nod to ‘80s slang, and frankly can’t believe it made it past the accountants. I’ll give even more kudos for making something that has such a relatively niche use case and for doing it well. I don’t expect the ChillPill to fly off the shelf in certain parts of America, but I’m in the South, summer is approaching, humidity is a beast, and we’ve already come close to hitting 90 degrees and it’s not even May yet. There is room for the ChillPill in my life. Definitely. What I like: the device is a good size. It’s like a small-ish pair of binoculars, in a lot of ways. Very lightweight, but the materials don’t feel cheap. The silver canister is metal and houses the electronics, while the other tube is plastic and mostly hollow for the purposes of air flow. My biggest question mark around the ChillPill was whether or not the fan would actually get up to any significant amount of speed. Well, I can put that concern to rest. I’ve had small desk fans that did not move air as rapidly as the ChillPill can when it’s cranked on high. It’s impressive! Even better, it’s effective! It absolutely gives you a noticeable breeze. The end of the metal canister with the digital display is activated by pressing down on it. (Not touch controls, thankfully). That’s how you turn it on and switch to different modes, but to change the level you can actually rotate the end like a volume knob. It even has a raised texture on it to make that easier. Very well thought out. And if the fan is all you need from this, then I think you ought to give it a try. Beyond that though are the two other attachments: a mister and a cold plate, essentially. The “heads” can be swapped out very easily. Just look for the dots and line them up. The mister has a latch on the bottom, that you unlatch and then fill with a little bit of water. There’s also a sponge-like filter in there. The packaging includes three additional filters and recommends changing them every 30 days. The cold plate is a real metal knob, basically, and gets quite cold to the touch very, very quickly. This is very useful for people who have issues regulating their body temp. The mister works just fine, although I’ll say that to really feel the cool air of the mist you have to get the whole ChillPill quite close to your skin. In some ways, it seems like the least useful of the attachments but YMMV. The packaging includes a little velvety pouch for putting everything in, as well as a charger. Speaking of, so far so good with the battery. I charged it once (via USB-C), have used it intermittently for hours and still have plenty of juice. In fact, it’s still displaying that the battery is totally full. I’m hoping to give it a good test at a soccer game and just leave it on the whole time to see how long it will last, but signs are positive. If I were to nitpick I’d say the only hesitation I have with the ChillPill is that, while the way the product twists is nice for setting the device up on a table, I worry a little about how well that will hold up. You can twist it either direction, but only to a certain point. The device does not at all feel flimsy, but I’d still be cautious not to twist it too hard or to far past that point. Just seems like it could snap. As such, I’d also be a little hesitant to just hand this over to a young child. But that’s a small concern and overall I’m very happy. Curious if I can take it into a theme park or if it would get flagged at security. If so, it would be perfect for a day out like that in the heat.

The Shark Chill Pill is a nice addition to any leisure outdoor activities, or a great way to stay cool indoors. The attachments make it flexible enough to use in different situations. Though the size, and possibly the fan noise, may be a bit much for some. I think the Chill Pill excels indoors. It's a great way to cool off. It's portable enough to strap to your backpack, or maybe your purse strap to help keep you cool while walking or traveling. If sound from the fan is too much for your situation, you can use the cooling plate. And lounging outside, the misting pod was excellent. Battery life has been pretty decent in my experience. You can get close to 2 hours out of it. Depending on fan speed, of course. I found the cooling plate to be only subtle relief when outside, but still nice. The fan is more powerful than I expected. Depending on how hot it is though, you may want the misting pod instead though. I think there are a few improvements that could be made. It would be a nice touch to allow charging from the Chill Pill too. Having the added benefit of a USB power bank seems like it would make this even more useful. That would help justify having it always with you. There's also not an included, easy way to clamp it to your backpack, or anywhere else. An included clamp would have been nice. The pouch to carry the add-ons is helpful. But a way to carry/mount the Chill Pill itself would be nice. Pros: Works well. Especially the misting pod. Pretty good fan speed and power. Nicely designed. Twisting it to set on a flat surface is great. Good battery life. Cons: A little bulky, no easy way to attach or carry it, added ability of being a USB power bank would be nice

After testing this Shark ChillPinn for couple days, during some of Houston Texas heat days... It is clear that this is sophisticated step up from the average handheld fan. It is a modular cooling "ecosystem" that offers more than just moving air or a common blower. Shark is known by their very good vacuum cleaners. Moving air is indeed their game. Cooling performance: - The blower Fan: The generated airflow is indeed impressive. The manual states 1-5 for indoor, 6-10 for outdoor usages as the fan can get noisy on high settings. Still, at the highest speed, the amount of air is good and there is no noticed heat by the motor. - InstaChill plate: using Peltier cooling, Shark ChillPill is capable of dropping the plate surface temperature to 13C perfect for spot cooling pulse points like the forehead, neck and even sore muscles and joints. It feels good indeed. - Dry touch Mist: This module is able of generating a cool mist that helps cooling off without leaving you soaked. I'd say it is very effective in dry climates. Comparing it with air only module, the cooling sensation is better. Shark smart design where the ChillPill detects the attached module and adapts the controls might also allow them to create different modules that can be used with the same ChillPill. Battery life is really good. It took a bit long time to charge (first time) but the battery lasted for long time. The ChillPill came with spare wick sticks to be used with the cool mist module. Manual suggests monthly changes. I'd recommend using distilled water to prevent mineral buildup (tap water). Shark is listing 3 sticks for $4.99 (+tax and shipping). Main Cons I've noticed with this ChillPill: The plastic feels a bit on the cheap side. A higher quality plastic might help reducing noise levels. Charging speed is low: 5V, 0.8A as measured. I recommend buying this ChillPill as it offers very good cooling features.