Laptop cooler

A laptop/notebook cooler,cooler pad or chill mat is an accessory for laptop computers that helps reduce their operating temperature. Normally used when the laptop's fan device is unable to sufficiently cool the laptop, a cooling pad may house its own fans (usually 2 or 3) and rests beneath the laptop. Though many cooler pads support the use of a power adapter, they typically run on power drawn through one of the laptop's USB ports. Many cooler pads therefore compensate with a built-in USB hub. Other advanced features include card readers for various forms of media such as keydrives, Memory Sticks and 2.5" Laptop hard disk drives.

Some of these "powered" coolers are designed to draw heat from the underside of the computer; others work in the opposite way by blowing cool air towards the machine. The fan speed is adjusted manually or automatically on certain models and on others stays at a fixed speed.

The contribution of heat from the energy requirement of the cooler is very minimal impact as USB ports are limited to 2.5 watts of output power, therefore the cooling effect is dominant.

Studies conducted by California Polytechnic University show that heat build-up in notebooks are reduced by 15 to 20 percent, when a laptop is situated at an angle compared to a laptop in a horizontal position. Free air cooling which is a passive method and requires no additional power has been proven as an effective method of laptop cooling. Many coolers that utilise this passive method are also available.

There is a different type of laptop cooler that does not use fan, created by ThermaPAK, which uses a crystalline compound to cool laptops.