Homedics Paraspa Plus Paraffin Bath

The Homedics Paraspa Plus basically is a thermostatically controlled heated bath of melted wax. Treatments are intended for improving the skin, or for heat treatments for sore and achy hands or feet from arthritis or other common joint pain that benefit from heat. In use, once you have the paraffin melted, you do a series of dips into the wax which serves to coat your hand in multiple separate layers much as you would do in making candles. The hot wax forms a coating over your hand or foot, and seals in moist heat. After your treated extremity cools down, you simply peel the cool wax off and return it to the device to re-melt and use again later. My unit is the Paraspa Plus and it includes 4 pounds of wax, a safety grate to place over the heating element, and 30 liners. Note that the liners are not intended to place into the bath. They are an option to lengthen the treatment by slowing down the cooling of the wax once it is on your hand or foot. The bath area is also designated for elbows, but this has not been tried yet since our intended use is mainly for hands. The grate helps keep you from touching the heating element directly. You use at least three pounds but at the most four pounds of wax. One potential drawback here is the unit designed as a flat bath, so you have to place your hand or foot into a shallow tub. It can be difficult to cover the entire hand without dipping both sides. If the tub was vertically arranged, it might be easier to cover the hand all at once. The unit itself has a locking lid which helps the wax heat up more quickly, and also keeps the lid from accidently being opened by knocking it inadvertently. There is an on switch in the center of the exterior near the base. When first switched on, a light glows red to inform you that the unit is heating the wax. Heating of the wax can take up to two hours or slightly longer. Time to melting varies depending on the room temperature. Note here that I see some descriptions for this unit online that suggest that it has a variable heat selector, but the manual does not mention this, and if it does exist in the unit, I have not discovered it yet. Once the ready light shows as blue, you can push to unlock the lid and proceed to dip your hand, foot or elbow. If one of your intended uses actually is arthritis, you may need help in actually pressing the on-off switch and the lid-unlock button as they can require a bit of pressure. I do not mean to suggest that it is too much pressure, but for someone who has limited use of hands, you may need help. The unit manual suggests that it is designed to leave on all of the time. But, I would caution that you really have to set the unit up in a secure area for that to make much sense. My house is not designed for this type of device to be left on all the time I would never leave it on while away from the house. This means you have to do a bit of planning for a treatment. You need to allow it to heat for at least two hours before it is ready for use. And it needs a secure area that will not be bumped as the melted wax would be a real pain to have to clean off of countertops or rugs. It is also suggested that you wash the area to be treated prior to use. And if you have more than one person using it, to change the wax more frequently as it does get dirty over time. The unit does require periodic cleaning and I assume at that time you would want to start over with new wax.