Chery Pits Vs Lava Sand: Which Is The Better Heating Pad?
Lava sand and cherry pits are both good options for your heating pad.
But when you compare the two together, one stands out more than the other.
When we compare cherry pits to lava sand, the lava sand wins because it comes in a very durable pad and cover, it retains the heat longer, and it will never give off a bad smell no matter how many times you heat it up, and you won't be able to beat the cost for your choices.
Read on to find out our reasoning for lava sand.
Cost
When considering cherry pit heating pads, there isn't much to choose from.
Unlike other heating pads like rice and wheat, there are so many different people and companies that make those kind of heating pads.
Going through Amazon, it's hard to pick just one heating pad.
But for cherry pit heating pads, it seems like there are so few companies that actually make them.
Nestani makes a cherry pit heating pad available on Amazon and can be found here.
These heating pads are one size and at the time of posting are around $26 for the heating pad.
Outside of Amazon, I found a company called Cherry-Pit-Pac that sell cherry pit heating pads as well.
They have 11 different choices of heating pads, and those prices range from $15 to $40.
Pricing can be found here.
LavaHQ is the only company that currently sell lava sand heating pads.
This is probably because most places you can get lava sand it is not legal, but LavaHQ legally sources this lava sand and cleans the lava sand before they are packed into a heating pad.
Lava sand heating pads come in different shapes and sizes.
There is a full back heating pad that sells for around $120, a standard size that goes for around $60, and a wrap for your shoulders for around $60 as well.
You can also purchase different covers for your lava sand heating pads for around $10 a piece.
This is nice because if your cover gets dirty, all you have to do is put a new cover on it instead of purchasing a new heating pad.
So because you have a variety of heating pads AND covers, lava sand wins in this category.
Advantage: lava sand
Durability
You want your heating pad to be durable.
First, it has to be able to handle going from the heat to cold and then back to heat again.
Or maybe cold to heat and then back to cold.
Either way, your heating pad should be able to withstand these changes in temperature multiple times and then continue to go on as a heating pad.
If this isn't the case, then your heating pad is only good for a few heatings and then you have to purchase another one.
The lava sand heating pad is the best in all circumstances.
I can tell you from personal experience that we've used our lava sand heating pad for both hot and cold instances and it never fails to do what it needs to do.
Since it is made from a form of sand, you won't ever find that it has rotted from being overheated or cracking from being in the freezer for too long.
And this is great because it means that the sand will never go bad on you.
The only instance where you have to worry about the durability of your lava sand heating pad is if you get your heating pad completely soaking wet.
In that case, you need to get the heating pad completely dried out before it get moldy.
The mold with then ruin the cover of the heating pad.
If that happens, then you need to turn your oven on to 200 degrees and place the heating pad on a drying rack.
Then place the drying rack in the oven and leave the heating pad in there for a few hours.
You will want to place the heating pad on the drying rack since the racks in the oven are usually dirty and you don't want to get the heating pad dirty.
And you can do this multiple times without worrying about hurting the heating pad.
Just make sure the oven isn't set higher than 200 degrees.
Otherwise you might end up ruining the cover to the heating pad.
The cherry pit heating pad is pretty durable as well.
You can wash the heating pad, much like you can with the lava sand, though you have to do it in a different way.
First, start off by pushing the cherry pits to one side of the heating pad and then run that one side of the heating pad under the water.
Then once you'd cleaned the one side of the heating pad, move the cherry pits to the other side and clean the other side.
Once you've got both sides cleaned, put the heating pad in the microwave for only up to 90 seconds at a time until the heating pad is completely dried out.
Be careful not to get the cherry pits wet.
While they probably won't get ruined the first time you get them wet, but the more and more they get wet, the more likely they are to rot out.
Because you don't have to worry about the insides of the heating pad while washing it, this category will go to lava sand.
Advantage: lava sand
Heat
Now onto one of the most important topics when it comes to your heating pad.
If you are using a heating pad, you don't want to get up every few minutes and heat the heating pad back up.
This is especially true if you are treating a headache, sore muscles, or injuries of many kinds.
So it is important how long your heating pad is going to stay warm.
According to CherryPitPack.com:
HEAT (OR COLD) LASTS for about 20-30 minutes. This is the amount of time recommended by most health-care professionals. Our microwaveable heating pad may be immediately re-heated if desired (takes about 1 minute).
https://www.cherrypitpac.com/cherry-pit-pac-heating-pad.html
So it looks like cherry pit packs keep its heat for about 20-30 minutes.
Which just might be enough time to help you get over your aches and pains on your body.
At which point, you'd need to get up and reheat it again if you wanted to have it heated for longer.
So if your aches and pains aren't gone at that point, you would still be in pain when you'd need to reheat the cherry pit pack.
Lava sand heating pads will last quite a bit longer for you.
The longest you probably want to heat up a lava sand heating pad is about 3 minutes.
You can heat it for longer if you think that might help you, but you won't end up ruining anything inside the heating pad if you heat it for longer.
But you might not get the amount of looking you were hoping for.
With 3 minutes of being in the microwave, the lava sand heating pad should give you an hour or more of heat before you would have to heat it again.
An hour is quite a bit of time to have heat, and should be more than enough for your aches and pains.
It is a pretty consistent heat too.
Whereas the cherry pit heating pad is going to start off strong with the heat and then slowly die down.
A lava sand heating pad will not do this.
You should have a pretty consistent heat for that hour.
Advantage: lava sand
Decay factor
You'll have to purchase a new heating pad every once in awhile.
Well, if you had a lava sand heating pad, that wouldn't be true.
As stated in its name, the heating pad is filled with lava sand, not food.
Typically, heating pads that are filled with food will eventually go bad.
The cherry pits heating pads might last longer than heating pads with rice, wheat, or other forms of food that people use for heating pads.
But that doesn't mean they are going to last forever.
Eventually those cherry pits are going to bust and break, and then they no longer become an effective source for a heating pad.
Lava sand is a different story.
Since it is sand, it won't be susceptible to decay like food would.
So no matter how many times you heat up or put your lava sand heating pad in the freezer, it is still going to come out and work well as a heating pad.
The only thing you'd have to worry about is the cover getting wet and staying wet.
This would lead to the cover getting moldy.
So if the cover ever gets wet, make sure to dry it out.
Otherwise, your lava sand heating pad should last you quite a long time.
Advantage: lava sand
Comfort
Both lava sand and cherry pits are small enough to contour to your body as needed.
Cherry pit heating pads usually have the pits free-flowing within the bag.
This means that they will go wherever gravity takes them.
The same is true with the lava sand.
So as far as comfort goes, they both should give you the same amount of comfort and be able to cover different areas of your body as needed.
Advantage: Tie
Smell
Your cherry pits heating pad might not be the best for smell.
As we've talked about before, the heating pad is essentially filled with food.
And this means that eventually the food is going to rotten or it is going to get burned.
At which point, the cherry pits are no longer going to be good for heat and it won't give off a good smell either.
It is possible that you could add essential oils to your cherry pit heating pad, but the smell would be fleeting and would need to be applied every few weeks.
The lava sand heating pad won't give you any bad smells.
The sand can absorb some of the smells, like essential oils, but just like the cherry pit heating pads, would need to be applied every so often.
But the most important part is you won't have to worry about a burn smell, since the sand won't get burnt.
Advantage: lava sand
Summary
Cherry pit heating pads have been one of the more unique heating pads options I've seen.
It takes something that people usually just throw away (because they are poisonous if you eat too many) and puts them to good use.
But compared to lava sand heating pads, they just don't stand up as well as the lava sand ones.
So if you are trying to choose between lava sand and cherry pit heating pads, the lava sand ones are the way to go.