As I posted a week or so ago in my post Opening Day Must Have, the thermaCELL is designed to go with you anywhere including hunting to protect you from most any flying bugs. A good friend of mine had told me about these during the off season and so I picked one up and tried it out on opening day. I have used it several times since opening day and I must say, everything my friend told me is spot on.
The ThermaCELL really works, to test it out on opening day I waited until bugs had started to attack and I turned it on, within a minute all the bugs were gone and they did not come back! Opening day it worked great, the following morning while out hunting I turned it on before day break and it worked great, never had to deal with a single bug until on my way out of the woods when I had turned it off.
The Pros:
Well I think that is pretty self explanatory, it keeps bugs away with little effort and is user friendly to a hunter. It has little or no smell and refills can be purchased with a earth scent cover scent built into the mat which would aid in covering your own scent. When purchased the appliance comes with the unit, 3 mats and one butane cartridge. This will last you roughly 12 hours of use and a refill kit that will last another 12 hours is around $20 most places. You can also purchase a holster (pictured below) that holds the appliance which allows you to clip it onto your treestand or as I did your safety rope.
The Cons:
Well, I think from a hunting standpoint the biggest downfall is the noise it makes to click the igniter to start it. This is a little more noise than most want to make in the woods, but if you do in the processes of climbing into your tree it really makes no more noise than a lot of other things you normally do. The other con I would have to point out is $8 for 12 hours of use. For those of us who hunt or fish this could get costly. However, not being eaten alive while enjoying the outdoors no matter what your doing is priceless! Lastly, the other thing to keep in mind is this unit does get HOT you could burn yourself or melt your gear if you are not careful to know where the unit is, and to make sure you give it a couple minutes to cool before putting it away for storage.
Overall,
I think this is a great invention and I honestly have to say that it is worth the money to not get attacked and eaten alive by every little flying thing in the woods. You invest $20 on the appliance, which comes with one butane cartridge and 3 mats which last 12 hours combined and another $15 on the holster and you are good to go for several outings in the woods. I haven't tried the Earth scented cover scent mats yet to know how well they work, but if I need to purchase a refill I will try the earth scented ones just to test them out.
I think the $35 investment and $8 or so dollars every 12 hours is well worth not getting eaten and I would highly recommend these to anyone who is hunting, fishing, camping, or doing any type of outdoor activity where you can safely have one of these as they really do work and work well.
Did you try a ThermaCELL out this year? What do you think about it?
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