HealthmateForever YK15AB TENS Unit Muscle Stimulator

This is the first product of this type that i’ve ever purchased. I had great results from a professional grade TENS unit at the chiropractor I visit and I wondered if I could find a the same results in a commercial unit. I looked around on the net and through Amazon and found this Healthmate International hand held unit. The price was right and the reviews were great and so I decided to take a chance and try it myself. When it arrived, the first thing I noticed was the quality packaging, free set of three AAA batteries, instructions and eight application adhesive pads. It was easy to assemble and I was able to start using it within minutes of unwrapping the unit. The unit comes with eight body zone settings to include neck, shoulder, back, elbow, hip, ankle, knee, foot/hand, and wrist. It also has six sensation settings that include knead, ACU, tap, cupping, scraping and random. On the top of the unit it has X4 3.5mm lead ports for the application pads to be plugged into labeled A1, A2, B1, B2. Each port connects a set of two pads to the unit which can operate 2-8 applicator pads or any combination in between. The intensity control for ports A1 and A2 are located on the left side of the unit and B1 and B2 on the right side. With these controls you can adjust the intensity up or down from the lowest setting of one to a max of ten. (I have never made it to ten because it is quite intense and effective even at five). It also has a set of speed buttons in the center that allow you to adjust the speed of the cycles between the start an stop of the sensation that you choose. The best feature of this product is the durability of the adhesive pads, just remove rinse lightly with water and reapply to the plastic pad they were attached to in the packaging. I have used the same pads for over 20 applications and they still work as well as the first time I used them. I am very satisfied with the quality, versatility, and results I’ve received from this unit and would recommend it to anyone that lives with chronic pain like I do.

I’ve been using the SantaMedical TENS unit for a while now and loving it. My main, and I felt modest, problems with it were 1) no way to extend the treatment cycles and 2) even at the highest setting, I couldn’t actually feel the treatment on certain parts of my foot because of my neuropathy. This latter is not a problem with the machine but rather with my foot so I was philosophical about it. It certainly wasn’t enough for me to decide the unit wasn’t worth my time or money, and it did help me feel better. Yes, I do understand that many people feel that the TENS units operate on the placebo effect, and that’s certainly possible, but I’ve found that placebo only lasts for a certain length of time before the effect fades or goes away entirely. Even after months of using my TENS unit, I’m still getting relief. Yes, it’s temporary and it’s not going to fix my problems, but I do feel better for a while.

I introduced a friend to the TENS machines, and while researching various units (they decided on the SantaMedical unit that I have) her husband found the Healthmate here on Amazon and alerted me to it. I saw that there were 8 pads which meant that I could treat both feet, both knees, etc. in the time it normally took to treat one, which my itself was a huge selling point for me. The other? I could extend treatment time up to 80 minutes instead of being stuck at 15 minute bursts. At a price point only $10 higher than what I’d paid for the SantaMedical unit, I thought it looked like a good alternative. (A note here: My friend’s husband looked at the two units and said that he felt the two were almost certainly designed and manufactured by the same company, and were simply branded for Santa and Healthmate. If you’re a SantaMedical unit user, you might want to take a look at this Healthmate unit.)

The first thing I noticed is that the instruction manual and the acupressure/acupuncture poster are virtually useless. The poster is largely in Chinese, and printed in such tiny type that I’d have to use a magnifying glass to read it. The ACU mode flummoxed me until I connected it with acupuncture points. There was nothing in the manual that explained the meanings of modes like cupping and scraping. Yes, there are little hand gestures that occur around the perimeter of the screen, but when the screen times out at something like 2-3 seconds, and the gestures are so small they’re hard to see, they’re also not much help. In the end, I don’t think it matters much because I suspect most users are like me, and will choose the mode that feels best to them.

The first place I tried it on was my feet. Remember how I said I couldn’t feel the TENS treatment when it was on the highest setting (10) on the SantaMedical unit? Well at 1 on the Healthmate I felt it vaguely. At 5 it was too strong and I had to turn it down. That’s how much more intense this unit can be, at least in its Ankle/Foot mode. And that’s where it gets kind of interesting.

I always had the sense that no matter the mode, the SantaMedical unit’s intensity was consistent. In other words, an intensity setting of five felt roughly the same no matter whether you were using the mode for Waist or the mode for Hand. Only the pattern of pulses changed. However the Healthmate unit programs function at different intensities. I discovered this when I was using it on my back. I clicked on the Back mode and set it at level 5 which seemed optimal. I did notice, however, that on the little man on the left side of the screen, the Back treatment area is mid-back. My damage occurred below the waist, so I thought I’d try setting it to Hip and see whether that program was more effective. It turned out to be more intense to the point where I had to turn the unit down. That’s when I realized why, when you change the program, the unit resets the intensity to 1. The change could be an unpleasant surprise if it’s sudden. I have yet to to try out all the modes, and I sure haven’t turned this up to the highest intensity, but I already see where it gives a much broader scope of treatment.

So to recap briefly, the pros: Higher levels of intensity and more modes of treatment than I’ve seen with other units, adjustable treatment times, eight pads, good price point by comparison to other units. The cons: Useless documentation, and a back lit screen that might as well not be back lit at all since it times out so quickly In short, the cons are not serious or numerous enough for me to mark this down more than half a star, so it comes in as a 5 with minor reservations.

i have used it for 6 months now.. best product used by mom for knee pain and backpain .
Nothing is better than this under 10000. MUST HAVE for EVERY HOUSEHOLD.