Tourmaline Far infrared Heating Mat

I have back and neck issues so coming home after a long day I crank up the heat to relax my muscles, but I also use it on a low setting to stay warm at night because I produce very little body heat. Finally something that can stay on for more than an hour or two. The small rocks can sometimes bunch up and I wish it came with 2 covers.

I took a chance on this item, because it was a fraction of the cost of similar FIR stone heating mats. 🤔 Consequently, I was rather concerned about EMF exposure, but as the photos show, the mat produces almost no magnetic field (the photo was taken after about a minute of the mat being powered, with the thermostat all the way up—and the mat was getting quite warm so I’m sure it was receiving power).

Many of these Chinese thermostatically-controlled mat manufacturers use electrically-shielded carbon fiber as their heating elements. I don’t know if that’s the case for this particular mat (no claim is made for it, at least at the time of this review), but whatever element is used, it is producing no appreciable field—at least in the geometrical configuration being used (closely-spaced counter-winding of wires will tend to cancel EMF).

For comparison, I include a photo of a powered OMI PEMF therapy ring running at 20 Hz, which is clearly producing a 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 strong magnetic field. The close-up also shows an astronomical RF field that was being produced by the phone used to take the picture, which was about 6 inches from the meter and probably syncing with the cell tower at the moment the photo was taken. But it’s the magnetic field we’re interested in, and the wider photo shows that it is ~250-300 milli-Gauss. Compare that with the 2 mG emitted by the mat—which is just slightly more than the 1.5 mG in my ambient environment.

The third photo shows the radiation being emitted from the plastic window of a desktop computer, laying on its side (you can’t see the window because the meter is blocking the view). For this photo I was more careful to keep the phone at least 3 feet away from the meter, making use of zoom instead.

I will spare you a meter reading of an operating microwave oven. 😵 I refuse even to be in the same room with one. 🥺

The bottom line is, if you’re concerned about EMF radiation, as I was, you probably don’t have anything to worry about 𝑎𝑠 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑠 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑝𝑙𝑢𝑔 𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑛𝑜𝑖𝑠𝑦 𝑠𝑤𝑖𝑡𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑚𝑒 𝑝𝑜𝑤𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑎𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑚𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑙𝑢𝑔𝑔𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜. The mat is essentially a rather large antenna, and it 𝑤𝑖𝑙𝑙 radiate any high-frequency power line noise. This tendency might have been mitigated by the addition of an internal line filter by the manufacturer, but they probably saw no need for it; you can add one externally if you’re concerned about any appliances or “wall warts” that might be plugged into the same circuit as the mat.

The bare mat is definitely 𝑛𝑜𝑡 plush—rather like resting on cement. 🤕 Fortunately, since FIR radiation is very penetrative, you can cover it with quite a bit of padding (a basic sanitary liner is included with the mat) and make the surface more forgiving to sleep on.

Overall: 👍