Do laptop cooling pads really work? do they lower down the temperature of your laptop?, according to studies done by authoritative sources on the web, and obviously according to my own experience, I’ve come to a conclusion that yes, laptop cooling pads indeed lower down the temperature of your laptop.
But the reason I’m writing this post is to explain why you need a laptop cooling pad. To truly understand why you need a laptop cooling pad we first have to
Understand How Normal Laptop Cooling Works
Laptops , unlike desktop computers, have a cramped up space inside of them , the air inside doesn’t have enough room to circulate, which is why all of the laptops come with vents, to dissipate the hot air generated inside the laptop.
To dissipate that air, laptops usually come with built in fans to throw the hot air out of your laptop, thus keeping it cool and maintaining temperatures.
But overtime, if your laptop is not well maintained or cleaned, it starts to gather up dust inside of it which results in blocked fans and clogged vents. The result of that is, you guessed it right, overheating.
And this is where cooling pads really come into play.
Here’s Why You Need A Laptop Cooling Pad
1. Your Laptop Is Overheating: Overheating laptops are usually why people buy cooling pads, and if overheating is not controlled then your laptop hardware will suffer, leading it to break down overtime and eventually getting damaged.
2. Maintaining Temperatures: Maintaining temperatures is crucial to the longevity of your laptop, because regular laptops aren’t as good as gaming laptops when it comes to managing temperatures and a cooling pad can lower temperatures and keep them in check.
3. If You’re a hardcore gamer: If you’re a hardcore gamer then you definitely need a cooling pad because it will help you keep the temperatures of your gaming laptop maintained, gaming is a GPU intensive task and a cooling pad would be the perfect thing for a long gaming session.
How Do Laptop Cooling Pads Work?
The basic idea is pushing air into your laptop right? but there’s more to it than that.
There are 2 types of laptop cooling pads, the active laptop cooling pad and the vacuum laptop cooling device.
- The Active laptop cooling pad is the average cooling pad that you usually see, this cooling pad usually comes in configurations of 1, 2 , 3 or 4 fans and can be plugged in to the laptop via a 2way USB cable, having an RPM of around 1200-1300, these fans suck air from the bottom vents and push it into your laptop, cooling it down by 12-13 degrees as a result.
- The Vacuum cooling device is a small laptop cooling device just the size of your palm, this one works by pulling hot air out of your laptop, it can be connected via the USB port on your laptop and fixes on the right or left side vent of your laptop, pulling the hot air from the inside and pushing it out.
How Effective Is A Laptop Cooling Pad?
The effectiveness of a laptop cooling pad depends on many factors, including the ambient room temperature, the weather, the placement of the cooling pad, fan speed etc.
The last thing you want is your money to get wasted, so to truly maximize the effectiveness of your cooling pad you need to make sure that you do the following stuff.
- Place Your Cooling Pad On A Dust-Free Surface: Always clean the surface on which you’re going to be placing your cooling pad on, because if the surface is not clean then instead of cooling down your laptop, your cooling pad will simply push all of the dust inside it, which can be detrimental to your laptops overall health.
- Use Your Cooling Pad In A Chilled Room: This one is optional but using your cooling pad in an airconditioned room can reduce temperatures by as much as 20 degrees! so there’s a huge difference between using your cooling pad in a cold room versus a normal room.
- Check The Fan Speed: Make sure that your laptop cooling pad has a good fan RPM, some cooling pads come with adjustable fan speed settings so set the speed of the fans to the highest setting for maximum cooling.
- Clean Your Cooling Pad: Overtime, your cooling pad will accumulate dust inside of it, so before it get’s filled with dust, clean it thoroughly with either canned air or isopropyl alcohol.
- Place It Correctly: Be sure to place your laptop cooling pad right underneath the vents of your laptop so they provide direct air to your laptop, the bottom fans of your laptop usually suck air and throw it out the side vents so make sure that the cooling pad aligns with the bottom fans of your laptop.
Does Buying An Expensive Cooling Pad Mean Better Performance?
Rookie laptop gamers believe that the more expensive a cooling pad is, the better it’s going to be, but that is simply not the case, a $20 cooling pad is as effective as a $100 cooling pad, but a $100 cooling pad is more feature rich.
So only buy an expensive cooling pad when you know that the features outweigh the cost of the cooling pad. Regarding the cooling capabilities, both types of cooling pads provide similar performance so the price point really doesn’t matter.
A cheaper one performs the same as an expensive one.
Does Laptop Cooling Pad Improve Performance?
When you’re using a cooling pad with a gaming laptop then don’t expect to see much of a difference, infact the improvement will hardly be noticeable.
But when it comes to regular or old laptops then you might see a big difference in performance, because old laptops typically accumulate dust and tend to start overheating as the years pass by but a cooling pad will lower down the temperatures and prevent overheating, thus , increasing the performance of your laptop.
The overall improvement depends upon what kind of laptop you’re using a cooling pad with and how old your laptop is.
But in simple terms, yes, cooling pads do increase the performance of your laptop, in some laptops, the performance boost is close to nothing, but in others it’s a marginal boost.
Types Of Cooling Pads And Their Effectiveness
There are 3 Types of cooling pads and each works in a different way, providing different types of cooling capabilities.
- The Passive Cooling Pad: This type of cooling pad is also known as a laptop stand, with no other function other than elevating a laptop for comfort, the way it works is by giving the laptop sufficient space from underneath to suck the air from the bottom.
- The Active Cooling Pad: This type of cooling pad is what’s commonly associated with reducing overheating problems, the active type of cooling pad usually comes with a 4fan formation, a 2 fan formation or a single fan formation. The way it works is by pushing air into your laptop from the bottom.
- The Vacuum Cooling Device: This is not the most popular one but works really well in conjunction with the the active laptop pad, because the vacuum cooling device is plugged in through the USB port and it works by extracting hot air out of your laptop. Using an active cooling pad along with the vacuum cooling pad will ensure that there are proper exists for hot air and entrances for cold air.
Are Laptop Cooling Pads Worth It?
If you’re asking me whether laptop cooling pads are worth the money then yes they are. Think of it this way, a generic cooling pad will cost you around $20.
With just $20 , you can prolong your laptop life by as much as 3 years, cooling pads are perhaps the best bang for the money, for just $20, a cooling pad will keep your laptop from overheating and protect it from internal damage from overheating.
So if you’re asking me if laptop cooling pads are worth it then you should definitely get one, especially if you’re a gamer then you should buy a laptop cooling pad.
$20 will save your laptop from overheating.
Are Cooling Pads Bad For Laptops?
Cooling pads aren’t bad for laptops, they don’t damage anything inside your laptop, however, they do have disadvantages such as:
- Draining A lot Of Power From The Battery
- Cooling Pads Are Noisy
- They’re Useless For New Laptops
- Need To Be Paired Up With Another Kind Of Cooling Solution To Maximize Output
- Take A Lot Of Space
- Accumulate Dust
- Short Term Solution To Long Term Problem
- Trouble Carrying Around
These are some of the reasons why cooling pads are bad , but they’re not that bad, you can and should use them to control and lower down the temperatures of your laptop
Honest Answer
According to the research done by laptopmag, different cooling pads provide different types of effectiveness but on average, there was a drop of 13 degrees in the laptops where cooling pads were used.
And regarding the performance, the performance did increase, but by a very minimal amount, so , do you need a cooling pad?
Yes! a cooling pad will ensure that the temperatures of your laptop or gaming laptop are kept under check and will increase your laptops life and health as a result.
