Hydrosnooze Bed Cooling System Review

Hydrosnooze is a bed cooling system designed to improve your sleep by regulating the temperature under the sheets.

My wife and I have been using bed cooling systems for many years, and they’ve been a game-changer. We no longer struggle to fall asleep because we feel too hot, or wake up in the second half of the night because we’re too cold. 

One of the downsides to most water-based bed cooling systems is their relatively high price tag. Hydrosnooze promises most of the capabilities of more expensive systems, but at a more affordable price point. 

Over the past few weeks, my family and I have been testing Hydrosnooze in our home. And in this article, I’ll share my take on whether the system delivers on its promises.

Here are the key takeaways:

• Hydrosnooze’s bed cooling performance is adequate, but the system may struggle to keep you cool if you’re an extremely hot sleeper.
• Controlling the basic functions of the unit is straightforward using the touchscreen or remote. But certain settings – such as temperature schedules – require extra steps to enable.
• The system’s setup is easy and takes only a few minutes, but the length and positioning of its tubing limit where you can place the control unit.
• It’s relatively quiet, even when operated in “turbo” mode for improved bed cooling performance. This is a big plus, as many water-based cooling systems can be louder than people expect. 
• The lack of WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity means there’s no smartphone app to control the unit, but it also reduces your exposure to potentially harmful EMFs. While that might not be a big deal for many people, it’s the main reason why we’re getting rid of our current Eight Sleep system (which requires an active WiFi and Internet connection to operate). 

In a nutshell, Hydrosnooze is a budget-friendly bed cooling solution that offers all the basic capabilities of comparable solutions. Still, it comes up lacking in top-end performance, flexibility, and advanced sleep tracking features. 

And while my wife and kids were satisfied with Hydrosnooze’s cooling performance, I consistently felt too hot despite setting it to turbo mode and dialing in the lowest supported temperature (59 degrees). 

Unboxing and Setup

Setting up Hydrosnooze is relatively simple, takes only a few minutes, and consists of the following steps:

• Place the Hydrosnooze mattress cover on top of your mattress (under the sheets).
• Position the control unit next to your mattress (on the floor or on your nightstand).
• Connect the control unit with the mattress pad using the silicone tubing.
• Fill the control unit with a mix of water and hydrogen peroxide (the latter helps prevent the growth of bacteria inside the silicone tubing).
• Connect the control unit to a power outlet and turn it on.

While the overall setup is pretty straightforward, it’s worth pointing out that the placement and length of the tubing make it challenging to position the control unit anywhere but right next to your mattress.

That’s because the tubing doesn’t attach to the mattress pad at the top or bottom, but smack in the middle. Combined with its short length, this means you can place the control unit either on the floor (right next to your bed) or on a nearby nightstand. 

Neither placement option is ideal, and I would have loved to tuck the small control unit on the floor next to or behind the nightstand. Unfortunately, neither the tubing nor the power cord is long enough to facilitate that. As a result, we positioned the control unit on our nightstand — to the dismay of my wife, who prefers a more clutter-free appearance in our bedroom.

Regardless of where you position the unit, ensure it has a couple of inches of breathing room on all sides to allow the built-in fan to dissipate air and heat. 

Another minor inconvenience is how cumbersome it is to (re)fill the unit’s built-in reservoir with water.

Both of our existing bed cooling systems (Eight Sleep and Sleep.me) feature a removable water tank that I can take to our reverse-osmosis faucet to fill them up. HydroSnooze, on the other hand, has a built-in water reservoir, which means you have to bring the water to the unit.

The problem is that the water intake opening is so small and narrow that you can only pour in a small amount of water at a time. After each pour, you have to wait for a few seconds for the water to trickle in, which makes the filling process take much longer than I prefer.

I think Hydrosnooze should include a funnel with each unit to make refilling the tank easier and less messy.

How the Cooling System Operates

For those of you who are unfamiliar with how water-based bed cooling works, it’s relatively straightforward. The control unit cools (or warms) the water to the desired temperature (59 to 131 F or 15 to 55 C) and circulates it through flexible silicone tubing sewn into the mattress pad. 

You can’t feel the silicone tubing when you’re in bed, and you can barely hear the hum of the fan that’s built into the control unit.

Hydrosnooze offers pad sizes for different mattress types (twin all the way through king) and also split versions so you and your partner can use different temperature settings.

Temperature Precision and Control Options

Your body’s core temperature changes throughout the night. And in the past, I would often have to uncover myself to fall asleep because I was too hot, only to wake up because I then felt too cold during the second half of the night.

In other words, a good bed cooling solution needs to be able to adjust based on the body’s natural temperature changes throughout the night.

The good news is that Hydrosnooze supports the concept of a temperature schedule that enables you to set a specific temperature for a particular phase of sleep. For example, you can cool down the mattress pad to 59 degrees for falling asleep, but then warm it up to 68 degrees for the second half of the night. 

It’s also worth noting that you only have to set up your desired temperature schedule once, and HydroSnooze will remember it.

The downside is that you have to activate your predefined temperature schedule every night because merely turning on the unit at bedtime won’t load the schedule. In fact, the only thing Hydrosnooze remembers and sets when you turn the unit on is the last temperature it was set to.

That’s a real bummer because it means you have to interact with the unit every night beyond just pressing a button to turn it on. I’m not a fan of making room in my bedtime routine for a gadget that I expect to do its thing without me having to interact with it. 

I realize that adding schedules and configuring other settings may be easier using a smartphone app that HydroSnooze doesn’t have. However, I believe it should be possible to have the unit come on automatically at a given time and load a pre-defined temperature schedule. That way, there would be no daily interaction with the unit, significantly reducing friction and the likelihood of waking up in the middle of the night due to HydroSnooze being stuck at an overly cold bedtime temperature that may be too cold for the second half of the night. 

Of course, if you’re waking up at a specific time every night anyway (maybe because you have to use the bathroom), you could use the touchscreen or remote to manually change the temperature. 

How Well Does It Work?

As I mentioned during the intro, Hydrosnooze does a reasonably good job of cooling down (or heating up) the surface of your mattress. While the supported temperature range is on par with more expensive bed cooling solutions (e.g., our Eight Sleep Pod 4 Ultra or the latest Pod 5), HydroSnooze struggles to maintain the temperature if you’re a hot sleeper. 

For example, I have the temperature of our Eight Seep Pod 4 Ultra set to -6 (on a scale from -10 to +10), which is approximately the mid to low 60s. Even though I tend to sleep hot, Eight Sleep maintains a consistently low bed temperature. With Hydrosnooze set to its lowest temperature (59 degrees), I still felt slightly too hot — even though the mattress pad’s surface was close to that temperature before I got into bed.

This suggests that Hydrosnooze struggles to maintain the desired temperature, likely due to an insufficiently powerful water pump and cooling mechanism. (Its peak power consumption is 170W, compared to Eight Sleep’s peak power consumption of 400W.)

To be fair, not everyone sleeps as hot as I do, and both my wife and kids had no complaints with Hydrosnooze’s bed cooling performance. 

Notable Downsides and Limitations

Besides some of the downsides mentioned earlier (tubing length, temperature scheduling and peak cooling performance), another notable limitation is the absence of a smartphone app to control the unit and sleep tracking.

Here’s the thing: I decided to test Hydrosnooze primarily because it doesn’t offer WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, allowing me to ditch Eight Sleep and turn off our WiFi router at night to reduce our exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs). 

So for me, this “downside” is generally a plus.

Another minor issue you need to pay attention to with Hydrosnooze is the propensity of the silicone tubing to kink, thus reducing water flow and cooling performance. 

Maintenance Requirements

Hydrosnooze is relatively maintenance-free except for keeping its 35 ounce (1L) water reservoir topped off. When refilling the reservoir, make sure to add some hydrogen peroxide as per the instructions to prevent bacteria and mold from growing inside the tubing. 

If you plan on not using Hydrosnooze for several weeks (e.g., when you go on vacation), I’d recommend draining the mattress pad and the control unit so you have no stagnant water inside either component.

Note that the mattress pad is not washable, so you have to spot-clean it, if necessary. 

Hydrosnooze vs. Eight Sleep and Sleep.me (Chillipad)

As I briefly mentioned, we’ve used several generations of the Eight Sleep Pod and Sleep.me (formerly known as Chillipad). So I wanted to share a side-by-side comparison of these three systems based on our experience.

The Eight Sleep Pod is by far the most advanced and best-performing bed cooling system I’ve ever used. Its cooling and heating performance are top-notch, and its built-in sleep tracking, paired with an “Autopilot” feature that makes automatic adjustments to the temperature settings based on factors like bedroom temperature, put it well ahead of the competition from a tech perspective.

Unfortunately, Eight Sleep relies on an active internet and WiFi connection, which not only increases your exposure to EMFs at night but also renders the entire system inoperable if your internet goes out. 

These are the main reasons why we’re considering letting go of our Pod 4 Ultra in favor of a less technologically-advanced bed cooling system.

Our daughter has been using the DockPro from Sleep.me for several years and swears by it. It’s a fairly simple system that does have a smartphone app to set predefined temperature schedules that automatically kick in each night at a certain time. However, the DockPro also offers airplane mode to disable the built-in WiFi radio, which means no additional EMF exposure.

The only thing I don’t like about the DockPro is the relatively small water reservoir, which requires refilling every couple of days.

So, I’d say that Eight Sleep is the best overall option, while Hydrosnooze is the most budget-friendly (see below). The latter delivers “good enough” cooling performance for most people. Sleep.me sits somewhere in between the two.

Hydrosnooze Cost and Discount Code

As of this writing, you can get the twin-sized Hydrosnooze bed cooling system for as little as $764.10, while the split king option retails for $1,303.20.

That’s significantly less than the $3k you have to pay (at a minimum) to get the Pod 5 from Eight Sleep. But it’s also less than what you’d have to shell out for the cheapest, one-person Sleep.me system, which retails for $1,124.

Shop HydroSnooze

If you want to give Hydrosnooze a try, make sure to use code MICHAEL for an additional 10% off!

Final Verdict

Hydrosnooze is a low-cost bed cooling system that has the potential to improve the quality of your sleep dramatically. I like Hydrosnooze’s simplicity, ease of use, lack of connectivity features (that would increase my EMF exposure) and attractive pricing.

As a result, I’d recommend it to anyone with a limited budget who isn’t as hot of a sleeper as I am. Unfortunately, Hydrosnooze’s lack of cooling power means it won’t replace Eight Sleep in our home — but we’ll keep it for guests.

Are you in the market for a bed cooling system? If so, let me know in the comments what you’re looking for and whether or not Hydrosnooze is on your short list. If you already have a bed cooling system, I’d love to hear how it’s been working for you.