The Shark ChillPill Is Like Having a Handheld A/C, But Its Best Feature Is One Nobody Talks About

Billed as a three-in-one device, the ChillPill is a ten-speed fan, a mister and cooling plate. But to call it that actually undersells it. The fan is intensely powerful—stronger than your typical oscillating fan (and, at its top speeds, has the noise levels to back that up), and the mister provides a cool blast of “dry-touch” mist, which seemed gimmicky until I tried it. It’s an ultra-fine mist that gently cools you but doesn’t leave you feeling damp or soggy. I could run it next to my laptop without fear of damage.

And the cooling plate? I wasn’t even sure what that was at first. It’s a metal topper you twist onto the gadget, in place of the fan/mister, that can drop your skin temperature by up to 16 degrees F, according to the brand. If you’ve ever put a spoon in the freezer then touched it against your skin, it’s a lot like that—only you get that sensation as soon as the device powers up, no freezing or refrigeration necessary. That makes it great for taming hot flashes or moments when you start to feel overheated, but I found a whole new reason to love it: gently dabbing it under and around my eyes. I struggle with perpetually dry, achy (and sometimes puffy) undereyes, and I’ve tried just about every hydrogel patch and cream under the sun to combat it. The ChillPill provided even better relief in an instant. Now I find myself reaching for it on the daily.

That is, when I can snag it from my husband. He takes it on daily runs, sticking it in a chest pocket so it can mist or fan him on scorching days. And when he’s not outdoors, he’ll often swivel the base, so it stands up on his desk, fanning him as he works.

Honestly, it’s shocking how powerful it is, given its handheld size. Even more surprising is its battery life, which can run up to 11 hours on low.

“It’s very intuitive to use, and there’s a simple safety switch so it doesn’t go off when you don’t want it to, making it easy to travel with,” my husband adds. His two gripes, after a few months’ use: at the highest speed, it gets a bit loud for normal conversation “though it did invite a lot of fun discussions, since people got curious about it,” and that he wishes the battery signal—which lights up green, yellow or red—offered a bit more insight into how much time, exactly, you had left before it was drained.

Those are pretty minor cons though, especially given how effective this fan is. It outperforms any other fan or mister I’ve ever tried by a long shot. (As it should, given that it costs roughly three times as much as the typical ones I’ve tried.)

While it is pricey, its quality and durability—and oh, that cooling plate for my eyes!—made the investment seem worthwhile (especially as we divide our time between the concrete jungle of New York, the dry heat of Arizona and the swampy Gulf coast of Florida). And right now, with it being discounted for Prime Day (which runs from June 23 through 26, BTW), that price feels even more reasonable as we creep into July.