How übertherm Technology Works

The übertherm cold wrap is designed around a thermal conduction regulating material made up of alternating layers of conducting and insulating materials. These materials work together to deliver cold therapy gradually, penetrating over time.

View our cold compression products here, or contact us online for more information.

What’s Wrong with Conventional Cold Wraps?

The medical science has long shown that aggressively freezing body tissues is unhealthy. Freezing is a burn, and just like a sunburn (even a light one), it’s bad for you. If you freeze muscles and tendons—especially those already trying to heal from an injury or stress—you injure them and delay healing.

The reason is fairly simple: freezing leads to ice crystal formation. Look under a microscope, and you’ll see that those ice crystals look just like needles and razor blades, easily cutting into nearby cell membranes and delicate internal organelles, setting off a cellular injury response—the first step of which is inflammation (exactly what you don’t want).

Conventional ice packs are simply overzealous, freezing muscles and tendons to temperatures so low that they suffer ice burns, nerve injuries, and sometimes even frostbite. Even a short ice burn can trigger or worsen existing inflammation. Freezing also makes muscles and tendons brittle and prone to re-injury. It’s cooling, not freezing, that is the trick to helping slow the cycle of chronic inflammation and calm the nerves that transmit pain.

Why Are übertherm Cold Therapy Wraps Better?

We incorporated the scientific principle of thermal conduction into every step of the design process. Put simply, thermal conduction is a measure of how quickly something transfers heat (cold is just heat leaving your body). Things that conduct quickly are more likely to cause burns and be painful, and when dealing with extreme temperatures near our bodies, conduction becomes very important.

To illustrate this issue, we can think of how saunas are designed. Saunas often use cedar wood floors and benches to prevent skin burns. Cedar has a very low thermal conduction rate, so even when the temperature is very hot, the heat is transferred slowly, and so we sense warmth, not burning. With all materials, it’s not how hot or cold they are, but how quickly they conduct that determines their safety and how they feel to us. Slow cooling is an excellent way to calm inflammation and ease chronic pain; freezing is not.

Learn more about how cold compression therapy helps

Why Our Cold Therapy System Works

In the case of cold therapy, we set out to reach a conduction rate similar to that of cedar wood (0.2 watts per meter Kelvin if you want to be technical). We experimented with hundreds of different ideas, combining conducting and insulating materials in layers until we arrived at just the right formula to support the latest science.

We then wove those materials into a fabric-like pocket material that goes between you and the source of cold, allowing for gradual, sting-free cooling without the risk of tissue freezing, ice burns, and pain. The result is our line of übertherm cold compression products and the future of cold therapy. No more ice burned tissues, no more frozen muscles and tendons, just perfect cooling as never before.

You can now shop our series of sports recovery products, including knee, elbow, shoulder, and foot and ankle wraps to support your health and comfort.

Shown using infrared photography, we see how conventional ice packs overdo it. That dark purple area in the circle on the left image above is already well below freezing at 10 minutes, showing the beginnings of an ice burn and where ice crystals will likely form. On the right, also at 10 minutes, we see the übertherm elbow wrap cooling evenly and completely, while remaining comfortably above the freezing point.

What Injuries & Conditions Does This Technology Treat?

• Joint pain or inflammation
• Foot, ankle, elbow, heel, or knee pain
• Runner’s knee, golfer’s knee, or tennis elbow
• An injury such as an ACL injury or torn meniscus
• Baker’s cyst, epicondylitis, Achilles tendinitis, plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, or bone spurs
• Pain after surgery, such as a knee replacement surgery
• And more

Have a question about cold therapy not answered here? Get in touch with übertherm today!