Best Heating Pads to Comfort Sore Muscles

The Geniani heating pad is soft, reliable, and easy to use. It has three heat levels, is offered at a reasonable price, and boasts key features like a long cord with a rapid disconnect feature so that you don’t rip the cord from the pad if it gets stuck or you tug on it too hard. Instead, it disconnects on its own and you can reconnect it. It has an auto-shutoff function, but only after 120 minutes (other models, like the Renpho, below, offer more shutoff time options). According to our lab tests, its temperature range was between 76° F on its lowest setting and 110° F on its highest setting. 

I enjoyed using this heating pad on many body parts, such as across the back of the shoulders and lower back. When I turned the pad vertically, I could use it for the entire back, abdomen, and more. Pressing the power button cycles through the three heat options, and a bright red light indicates which setting you are on, even in a dark room. The settings are also well labeled, unlike some of the other pads.

Amézquita observed that it takes just over 5 minutes for the pad to heat up to its maximum temperature at the lowest setting. Compared with other pads that have similar temperature ranges, the Geniani is 12 minutes faster than the Walgreens King Size Heating Pad and 10 minutes faster than the Renpho heating pad. This is our top pick because it delivers pain relief quicker than some other options. It comes in 13 color options and three sizes.

If you wish the area from your neck down to your lower back could be heated all at once, this whole-spine wrap-around style heating pad looks and feels more like a robe than a heating pad. It’s ideal for those with much larger areas to heat up and can be repurposed for other body parts. For example, you can wrap up sore legs and feet in the pad and use the rope tie to secure it. 

The pad features large buttons and six heat levels (double the settings of many other options). It feels heavy and cozy, almost like a weighted blanket.

According to the manufacturer, the pad’s heat ranges from 100° F to 150° F, but our lab testing revealed lower temperatures: The pad heated up to a maximum of 79° F on its lowest temperature setting and 122° F on its highest setting, which is warm but not as hot as the Sunbeam Heating Pad, below. One gripe: The +/- buttons began wearing off even after the first few uses. The wrap comes in two sizes and six colors.

The Sunbeam Heating Pad reached the highest temperature of all of the pads we tested in our labs. “The Sunbeam Heating Pad does not have an auto-shutoff timer, and its temperature keeps increasing with time,” Amézquita says. “It reached the highest temperature among the models on our list at 136° F. It is important for consumers to remember to turn this one off when they are done and not to use it for a long time since it will keep increasing the heat as time passes.” 

This pad’s fabric was scratchier than others and had a more plastic (not plush) feel. However, the cover is removable and easier to access and wash than some others. It also has a ridge that you slide up and down, rather than a button to push, which can increase ease of use and accessibility for some. While evaluating this feature at home, we found it got too hot to use after 10 to 15 minutes on its highest heat setting. Even if you prefer hot temperatures, promptly turn it down or off if it gets too hot for you.

With large settings buttons and a light-up remote, the Pure Enrichment heating pad is a good choice for seniors or anyone with accessibility concerns. However, it has a less luxurious-feeling fabric than other options. Its maximum temperature is also more forgiving than some other models. Although the manufacturer provides a temperature range of 105° F to 140° F, our testing revealed it reached 77° F on its lowest setting and 111° F on its highest setting.

“Pure Enrichment PureRelief XL Heating Pad can be set to provide continuous heat, but its maximum temperature of 111° F was not as high as that of the Sunbeam Heating Pad,” Amézquita says. “It can be set to auto-shutoff at 120 minutes.”

However, those using the auto-shutoff function on this pad or others should consider that most experts we interviewed recommend 20 minutes of heat, so 120 minutes is considered excessive. If you fall asleep with it on, you’ll still likely be getting much more heat exposure than recommended by experts. 

This heating pad has six heat levels and comes in three colors.

When you need muscle comfort at 3 a.m. and don’t want to wake anyone else up by turning on the light, this heating pad by Target is ideal because you can operate it without even looking at the settings. It has raised dots to indicate which level you are on simply by feel. This can help if you have trouble seeing, either because it’s dark or, like me, because you aren’t near your glasses in the middle of the night. It also has decent-sized buttons, making it simple to use. 

But it missed the mark in terms of heat levels. The manufacturer claims it has a temperature range of 113° F to 149° F, but our tests revealed it only heated up to 72° F on its lowest setting and 94° F on its highest setting.

While heating pad covers are typically washable, some require the cover to be removed and thrown into the washer and dryer, and others require the whole heating pad (without the cord) to go into the washer. This heating pad is one of the easier ones to wash because of its detachable cover. The material is a plush waffle fabric style that is cozy and comfortable.

This CVS heating pad heats up quickly and has a plush, soft-to-the-touch textured material. The cord isn’t quite as long as some others, and the buttons aren’t as big, so people might need to be a bit more careful in selecting the buttons than when using some others with larger, easier-to-push buttons. 

The only confusing aspect of using this heating pad was figuring out the differences among the four heat levels. “Low” and “warm” settings seem similar and might be unclear to some users. 

This very thin heating pad doesn’t have any fabric texture, and really not much fabric at all, which makes it less comfortable than the other pads. In our lab tests, it also took the longest average time to reach its maximum temperature on the lowest setting—around 17 minutes compared with around 5 minutes for most others. In our lab tests, it also had a much lower average temperature on its highest setting, at just 107° F. With the exception of the Up&Up, all the other heating pads had higher temperatures on their hottest setting.